Bad weather boosts UK online shopping over Easter

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Mar 29, 2016

Total footfall fell 1.9% in the UK over Easter as Storm Katie shook the country from Saturday through to Monday, making shoppers stay indoors, Springboard said.

However, this was good news for ecommerce. Online transactions rose 7% over the Easter weekend, according to figures taken from PCA Predict’s online tracker, Big Data Labs. In contrast, footfall declined 4.9% on the high street, and shopping centres and retail parks had an increase of just 2.5% and 0.4%, respectively, for Easter Weekend overall.

Before the weather turned bad, Good Friday saw good trading with an increase in footfall across all retail destinations. Online shopping on the Friday was down 6%.

But as Storm Katie rolled in, footfall figures declined on the high street by 9.9% on Easter Sunday and an overall decline was experienced across UK retail destinations on Easter Monday. High streets were down by 11.5% on Easter Monday, shopping centres down by 16.0% and retail parks down by 1.12%. Online shopping transactions rose on Saturday, Sunday and Monday by 9%, 12% and 10%, respectively.

Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard said, “Easter 2016 has been an interesting trading experience for both UK retailers and e-commerce – it revealed how the two trading platforms complement each other. Good Friday’s encouraging footfall figures compared with the following days is proof the high street experience is still important for shoppers, though weather dependent. That retail parks and shopping centres showed overall growth for Easter Weekend overall was also indicative of the importance of the in store experience for shoppers, looking for a day out, inside – sheltered from the weather. The fact that national payday only falls this week following the long weekend and that large retail stores are unable to trade on Easter Sunday were other factors to take into account when looking at the overall Easter Weekend footfall figures for retail destinations.”