Monday 22 April 2019 2:30 pm | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 12:50 am

Easter bounce for the high street while shopping centres struggle

Embattled retailers received a much-needed Easter boon over the Bank holiday weekend, as sunshine and hot weather encouraged shoppers onto the high street.

In a clear contrast to Easter 2018, when stormy weather dashed hopes of a Spring bounce in footfall, this year high street retailers enjoyed a rise in the number of shoppers during the period from Good Friday to Easter Monday.

Year-on-year Easter footfall climbed 6.5 per cent on Friday, 1.2 per cent on Saturday and almost nine per cent this morning.

Springboard, the data firm that produced the figures, said: "This is really positive news for high streets, as footfall declined by -9.6 per cent and -6.9 per cent on Easter Friday and Saturday last year due to the weather".

Yet the results were dragged down by a lull in demand at shopping centres, where footfall fell by 11 per cent on Friday and Saturday.

"Consumers clearly wanted to be outside enjoying the sun rather than visiting covered malls," said Diane Wehrle, Springboard Insights Director.

She added: "Even in retail parks, where shoppers gravitate to buy garden furniture and plants, footfall declined by -2.4 per cent on Good Friday and -1.3 per cent on Easter Saturday from the same days last year."

With the good weather continuing today, by 12pm footfall in UK retail destinations was 8.4 per cent higher compared with 2018, with high streets seeing a16.3 rise versus a 1.9 per cent bump in retail parks and a marginal drop of -1.4 per cent in shopping centres.