Easter egg demand supports more shopping trips - BRC
Demand for Easter eggs helped push up visits to UK shops in March ahead of a planned reopening of non-essential stores, industry figures showed.
With the UK in lockdown footfall was down 68.7% compared with two years earlier, 4.9 points better than February and better than the three-month average, the British Retail Consortium said.
Footfall on high streets fell 64.6% and in shopping centres visits were down 73.2%. Both figures were better than the three-month average. Retail parks had the lowest decline at 36.8% - a slight drop compared with February but better than the three-month average decline of 38.8%.
BRC said footfall was helped by warmer weather and the end of the government's stay at home guidance. Easter falling earlier led to more food shopping and strong demand for chocolate and Easter eggs tempted more people out to the shops.
Stores reported Easter egg shortages as families got together for the first time in months under relaxed rules that allowed outdoor mixing. Travel bans also meant more people were in the UK to buy Easter eggs.
Helen Dickinson, BRC's chief executive, said: "Consumers appear to be more confident about visiting shops, showing that the safety measures put in place are clearly helping to make shoppers feel more comfortable visiting and returning to stores."
Non-essential stores will be allowed to reopen for the first time since early January on 12 April under government plans. Retailers have faced financial pressure and see-sawing government measures as the UK has gone in and out of three lockdowns in the past year.
Andy Sumpter, a retail consultant at Sensormatic Solutions, which helped compile the survey, said: "While non-essential stores remained closed, we saw an incremental improvement in March footfall against February’s shopper counts, fuelled by growing consumer confidence, the promise of greater freedom to come and the relaxation of the stay at home guidance. The real test comes as retail reopens later this month - and whether indeed that reopening is, as hoped, irreversible."