High streets and shopping centers throughout the UK experienced a rebound in visitors following the holiday season. This upward trend was recently underscored by data published by MRI Software. Retail analyst Jenni Matthews shared that there had been a very large increase in people visiting all stores and retail types throughout the UK. Saturday’s numbers were up 4.4% over the same day last year. Convenience store visits on Boxing Day rose instead, with visits to high-street stores closing down by 1.5% in comparison to 2024. By comparison, malls saw an even lesser drop of just 0.6%. That’s a promising indicator of a larger trend that shoppers are persistently choosing to shift to later shopping trips.
MRI Software tracks daily foot traffic in more than 660 retail locations throughout the UK. They expect this positive momentum in shopping activity to persist in the days ahead. Matthews has noticed that the holiday family reunions are coming to an end. Now that the new year is almost here, consumers are looking forward to holiday promotions and seasonal celebrations.
“Consumers will be likely shopping the sales, making the most of the festive events and attractions within towns and cities, and stocking up on New Year’s Eve essentials, keeping the festive retail period firmly in motion,” Matthews stated.
That’s the best growth we’ve had since December 27th of last year on a Saturday foot traffic wise at +1.6%. This increase reflects a major effort to promote after-Christmas shopping. Shoppers headed out after the sun went down. In fact, evening shopper activity skyrocketed. Times of day visits topped out between 5 PM and 11 PM, displaying a hefty average increase of 9.6%. This sharp increase stands out clearly. To put that in perspective, the average increase across all daytime hours from 6 AM to 5 PM is a slight 3.1%.
Matthews remarked, “The boost in activity was driven by a peak in visits across all UK retail destinations from 5 PM – 11 PM.” She noted that this trend might be an indicator of a very good end to the retailing year. This is particularly encouraging in the context of the 2025 economy, when inflationary pressures will likely continue to strain household budgets.
Even with the increased foot traffic overall, a majority of stores remained closed until December 28. This prohibited immediate shopping wins to consumers. Even so, hospitality and leisure venues would have probably welcomed the extra footfall at this busier-than-usual shopping period.