British high street footfall registered 3.4% annual drop from September to November 2013, which is the sharpest fall since August 2012, as per figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC)-Springboard.
Footfall in November was 2.9% lower than a year ago, unchanged from October’s rate and marginally below the three-month average of -2.7%.
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Retail traffic in out-of-town locations and shopping centres also fell 2.1% and 1.0% respectively, with all regions reporting a decline.
The East (-0.5%), North & Yorkshire (-1.8%) and Greater London (-2.7%) were the only regions to report footfall above the UK average.
British Retail Consortium director general Helen Dickinson said that the shopping season has started steadily this year with the customers postponing major shopping trips until December.
"Shopping centres performed the strongest of the three channels, suggesting that many people opted to condense their trips where possible so that they could cover off their Christmas lists under one roof. High streets fared less well, but were up against a comparatively strong rate in 2012," Dickinson added.
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By GlobalDataSpringboard retail insights director Diane Wehrle, said: "However, there were differences between types of location, with shopping centres recovering slightly in November from earlier in the year, to the detriment of high streets, with a drop in footfall of 1.0 per cent compared with 4.2 per cent in high streets and 2.1 per cent out-of-town"
