New reports have revealed high street spending to fall at its fastest annual rate in six years, putting thousands of retail jobs at risk.
According to the Visa consumer spending index, spending in bricks and mortar stores fell 5.4 percent in April compared to this time last year.
Helen Dickinson OBE, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium said: “A wet start to April had a dampening effect on visits across the UK’s shopping locations, adding to the long-term downturn in footfall resulting from changing consumer behaviour.”
“While these figures highlight the difficulties faced by retailers, they also point to the evolution of the industry. Retailers are embracing changing customer behaviour and adapting to a challenging environment by rebalancing investment in physical and digital infrastructure.”
Footfall in April declined by 3.3 percent in April, however, this was an improvement from the six percent decline in March. Taken together this is a 4.8 percent drop over the two months. This is a bigger decline than March and April in 2009 during the recession.
Springboard analyst Diane Wehrle said: “Not since the depths of recession in 2009 has footfall over March and April declined to such a degree, and even then the drop was less severe at -3.8 percent.”
“Much could be made of the adverse impact on April’s footfall of Easter shifting to March but even looking at March and April together still demonstrates that footfall has plummeted.”
Retailers have been rocked by the tough high street climate in 2018. Toys R Us and Maplins were among the stores who filed for administration.
New Look, Carpetright (LON: CPR) and House of Fraser have filed for company voluntary arrangements (CVA), which is a form of insolvency to close unprofitable stores. Carpetright has already had its CVA, and will close 92 stores, approved by landlords.