t’s likely to be a busy Easter trading period, especially for retail parks. UK-wide footfall across the seven days (25 March-1 April) is expected to rise by 6.6% week on week, according to tracking specialist MRI Software.

But given that a ‘special’ shopping week is always likely to see higher footfall compared to the previous seven days, it’s the year-on-year figures that are more relevant. And in this case the performance isn’t likely to be that impressive.

Compared with 2023 levels, footfall is expected to remain “steady”, rising only marginally in all UK retail destinations, primarily led by high streets.

On to the better news, Easter coinciding with payday and the school holidays should provide a week-on-week boost to footfall over the second peak trading period in the retail calendar, MRI’s latest report noted.

It’s anticipated that shoppers will flock to retail parks this week to stock up on Easter essentials ahead of the weekend with the latter part of the week expected to see “substantial” rises.

Good Friday is expected to be a major boost for retailers while that surge in footfall is likely to subside over the Easter weekend.

Retail parks are forecast to see a 14.2% rise in footfall while high streets can anticipate an 11.3% jump when compared with activity in the week before.

With it also being the first week of the Easter school holidays for many parts of the UK, coastal towns are expected to see a surge in footfall from the week before of almost a quarter. This upward trajectory is also likely to be replicated in historic and market towns as families choose to have days out and could strengthen as the Easter weekend nears, the reports said.

Last week, all UK retail destinations witnessed a week-on-week rise in footfall with consistent rises each day except for Saturday where activity declined marginally.

Footfall rose by 4.8% last week from the week before, driven by a rise in high streets (+5.9%) followed by retail parks (+4.4%) and shopping centres (+3.1%). 

This was derived from consistent rises recorded each day with peaks on Sunday (+18.6%) and Tuesday (+10.2%). Footfall rose in high streets and retail parks by +2.8% and +1.7%, respectively, from 2023 levels however shopping centres witnessed a decline of -1.7%.

All regions and town types saw a rebound in footfall with Central London leading the charge week on week (+7.8%) and year on year (+6.1%).