Achi news desk-
SRC-Sensormatic IQ data revealed that visitor numbers from Scotland fell by 0.9% in March (YoY), up from -3.2% in February – better than the UK average fall of 1.3% (YoY) . The improvement was felt across all retail destinations with Glasgow performing best since July 2023, and Edinburgh recording “a solid month of growth in visitor numbers”.
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The number of visitors in Edinburgh increased by 2.9%, and a decrease of 1.8% in Glasgow. In shopping centres, there was a 1.2% drop in March (YoY) in Scotland, 0.1 percentage point better than February.
David Lonsdale, director of SRC, said: “Visits to Scottish retail destinations fell for the sixth consecutive month in March. However, the drop was small and overall this was the worst monthly figure seen since November.
“An early Easter and school holidays boosted foot traffic, giving Scottish shops a glimmer of hope as spring approaches.”
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Mr Lonsdale noted that “the number of shoppers and the health of our wider economy is very dependent on what happens to consumer spending”, adding: “The continued growth in real wages and the easing of shop price inflation should help support the demand, so it should freeze council tax. and cuts in workers’ national insurance contributions.
“However, it remains to be seen whether this translates into a greater propensity to spend in stores. At the same time, retailers themselves have to balance this against their own spending which continues to increase especially with the above inflation increase in property taxes.”
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At Sensormatic Solutions, retail consultant Andy Sumpter also referred to an “early, high performance Easter” helping to put a spring in shoppers’ steps. He said: “This, together with a boost from Mother’s Day and visits to surrounding stores from school holidays, increased the number of shoppers in March to improve on what was a very quiet performance in February.
“While retailers will have welcomed the seasonal increase in store visits last month, the alarming nature of the footfall recovery we have seen over the past few months shows that consumer confidence has not turned the corner again, which means we could see an uneven recovery in shopper traffic in the coming months.”
