Sensormatic Solutions, the leading global retail solutions portfolio of Johnson Controls, today released shopper traffic data for UK bricks-and-mortar retail stores and shopping centres from Super Saturday (17 December).  These insights are powered by retail traffic data analytics within Sensormatic Solutions’ intelligent operating platform, Sensormatic IQ.

Footfall data from the Sensormatic IQ platform, which captures 40billion shopper visits globally each year, showed that despite the early timing of Super Saturday this year, taking place eight days ahead of Christmas Day, retailers enjoyed a strong in-person turnout as shoppers looked to complete their Christmas gift shopping and avoid disruption to the mail and rail services caused by ongoing strike action.

Shopper traffic on Super Saturday was up +15% compared to 2021, while compared to the previous Saturday (10 December), Super Saturday shopper visits increased by 7% week-on-week.  High Streets led the way in shopper traffic performance, up 18.5% year-on-year.

Andy Sumpter, EMEA Retail Consultant at Sensormatic Solutions, commented:

“With industrial action across the mail and rail networks risking online delivery disruption to Christmas orders, we’ve seen shoppers take matters into their own hands and head out onto the High Street in a bid to wrap up their Christmas shopping.”

Major cities and shopping hubs saw footfall rally, with London shopper traffic up 19.5% year-on-year, while Manchester saw a 12.5% uplift and Cardiff and Edinburgh saw 19% and 21.9% improvement in shopper counts compared to 2021.  Nottingham fared the strongest of the UK cities, with footfall rising 25.8% on 2021 figures.

“The fact that Super Saturday traffic saw such an uptick in footfall will be a welcome boost for retailers, who will hope shopper visits and consumer spending continue into next week.  We expect traffic to continue to build with some very busy days ahead as we head towards the Big Day,” Sumpter continued.