{"id":199237,"date":"2022-03-04T15:00:12","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T15:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/?p=198852"},"modified":"2022-03-04T15:00:12","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T15:00:12","slug":"uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/","title":{"rendered":"UK footfall ahead of major European economies as workers head back to the office"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Storm Eunice failed to dampen consumer spirits in February as workers\u2019 steady return to the office set tills ringing across the UK.<strong>\u00a0UK footfall led the major European economies last month<\/strong> as the return to the office increased shopper numbers in many towns and city centres.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The<strong> promising start to the month was briefly dampened by Storm Eunice,<\/strong> before bouncing back in the final week of February to its highest level since the pandemic began.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, the major cities enjoyed the <strong>biggest improvements, particularly London, Manchester and Birmingham,<\/strong> following the easing of Covid restrictions in England.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Total UK footfall was down 14.9% in February on two years previously,<\/strong> a 2.2 percentage point improvement from January and better than the three-month average decline of 17.2%, according to British Retail Consortium (BRC)-Sensormatic IQ data.<\/p>\n<p>This was ahead of<strong> Spain (down 16.4% on February 2020), France (down 20.3%), Italy (down 29.1%) and Germany (down 42.6%).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Footfall on high streets was down 19.4% on two years ago but 4.8 percentage points better than last month\u2019s rate, and an improvement on the three-month average decline of 22.4%.<\/p>\n<p>Retail parks saw footfall decrease by 10.2% which was 2.8 percentage points better than last month\u2019s rate, while shopping centre footfall fell by 35.2% but was 2.3 percentage points better.<\/p>\n<p><strong>England saw the shallowest footfall decline of all regions, down<\/strong> 14.4%, followed by Northern Ireland (15.5%) and Wales (17.1%). Scotland saw the steepest decline (17.5%).<\/p>\n<p>British Retail Consortium CEO Helen Dickinson said: \u201cRetailers large and small will welcome the return of customers to their stores \u2013 a sign their innovation and investment in their physical and digital offerings is working.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, challenges remain. <strong>Consumer confidence has been greatly impacted by rising inflation,<\/strong> while the return of hospitality and tourism will create additional competition. Retailers will need to continue the momentum to keep consumers engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Separate figures show the retail sector continued its successful start to 2022 by recording its 12th consecutive month of positive like-for-like sales.<\/p>\n<p>Total combined in-store and online sales increased by 49.6% in February from a base drop of 3.1% for the same time last year, when the country was in full lockdown, according to BDO\u2019s High Street Sales Tracker (HSST).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fashion saw the biggest growth, with total sales increasing by 68.1%, while lifestyle sector sales were up 59.9%.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sophie Michael, head of retail and wholesale at BDO LLP, said: \u201cAs we expected, February has seen strong like-for-like sales for retailers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe cost-of-living crisis, although building momentum, is yet to fully impact consumers. <strong>Increases in energy prices and National Insurance won\u2019t take effect until April.<\/strong> This may be the point at which the strong discretionary spending we\u2019ve seen over recent months starts to subside.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/\">...<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":181758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10585,20825,20824,6,10494],"tags":[4060,10520,10519,9879,9982,11408,12137],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UK footfall ahead of major European economies as workers head back to the office - TheIndustry.beauty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UK footfall ahead of major European economies as workers head back to the office - TheIndustry.beauty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TheIndustry.beauty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-04T15:00:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/78.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"TheIndustry.fashion\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@theindustryfash\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@theindustryfash\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"TheIndustry.fashion\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/\",\"name\":\"UK footfall ahead of major European economies as workers head back to the office - TheIndustry.beauty\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-04T15:00:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-04T15:00:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/#\/schema\/person\/1e694ebd9d1ca2c1b0b08c13d8160c35\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UK footfall ahead of major European economies as workers head back to the office\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/\",\"name\":\"TheIndustry.beauty\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/#\/schema\/person\/1e694ebd9d1ca2c1b0b08c13d8160c35\",\"name\":\"TheIndustry.fashion\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4a921d975273dd89abbaa67292bf147?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4a921d975273dd89abbaa67292bf147?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"TheIndustry.fashion\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UK footfall ahead of major European economies as workers head back to the office - TheIndustry.beauty","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"UK footfall ahead of major European economies as workers head back to the office - TheIndustry.beauty","og_url":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/","og_site_name":"TheIndustry.beauty","article_published_time":"2022-03-04T15:00:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/78.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"TheIndustry.fashion","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@theindustryfash","twitter_site":"@theindustryfash","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"TheIndustry.fashion","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/","url":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/","name":"UK footfall ahead of major European economies as workers head back to the office - TheIndustry.beauty","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-03-04T15:00:12+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-04T15:00:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/#\/schema\/person\/1e694ebd9d1ca2c1b0b08c13d8160c35"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/uk-footfall-ahead-of-major-european-economies-as-workers-head-back-to-the-office\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UK footfall ahead of major European economies as workers head back to the office"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/#website","url":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/","name":"TheIndustry.beauty","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/#\/schema\/person\/1e694ebd9d1ca2c1b0b08c13d8160c35","name":"TheIndustry.fashion","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4a921d975273dd89abbaa67292bf147?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4a921d975273dd89abbaa67292bf147?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"TheIndustry.fashion"}}]}},"modified_by":"Lauretta Roberts","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theindustry.beauty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}