By Daniel Hunter
There were mixed results for retail footfall in February, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), with a 0.5% fall from last year but the biggest monthly rise for nine months.
Despite the 0.5% drop from February last year, footfall was up 1.2% from January, which is the strongest monthly rise since May 2014.
Shopping centres reported the largest decline, falling 1.5%, while high streets experienced a 0.6% decline in footfall, up on the 1.6% fall in January.
Footfall in out-of-town locations, like retail parks, fared the best with a 1.0% increase year-on-year.
Helen Dickinson, British Retail Consortium Director General, said: "February largely saw good news overall with high footfall compared to the three month average which was the best performance since May 2014. This was helped by a notable slowdown in a decline of high street footfall, as well as out of town strength.
"Although it's usually traditional to see us putting our feet up after the Christmas rush and January sales this doesn't seem to be the case for out of town shopping. We are still flocking for those big ticket items with an increase in footfall by one per cent.
"Shopping centres saw a predictable decline for this time of year and retailers will be preparing for increased footfall when consumers feel recovered from taking advantage of all the great Black Friday, Christmas and January offerings."
