Bargain hunters are heading back to the high street but snubbing major shopping centre destinations, according to new retail figures.
Footfall across Scotland’s retail destinations increased by 0.1% between June and July a 0.8% improvement on the year previous driven by a 2.3% upsurge in high street visits.
Out-of-town retail parks saw a 0.9% uplift in the month but traditional shopping centres fared less well, with a 2.3% decrease in visitors during the month consolidating a 2.4% reduction in footfall for the quarter as a whole.
The BRC/Springboard figures also showed renewed interest among retailers in unoccupied outlets, with the national town centre vacancy rate improving to 11.1% in July from 11.9%.
Diane Wehrle, retail insights director at Springboard, said: “For the first time it seems that a longer-term improvement in footfall trends might be emerging.
“Not only has footfall increased annually for the second month in a row, but the improvement in performance accelerated over the quarter, moving from a decline of 0.7% in May to an increase of 0.1% in June and 0.8% in July.
“Whilst the recent hot weather undoubtedly supported activity in high streets in July, with an increase of 2.3%, the 1% uplift in footfall over the quarter is likely to have contributed to a drop in the vacancy rate.
“It seems that occupiers are starting to return to the high street suggesting a greater degree of optimism over future trading prospects, and lending further support to the proposition the performance of retail locations is stabilising.
“Of slight concern is that the increase in footfall is not occurring across all location types, but is concentrated in external environments.
“Shopping centres recorded a significant decline in footfall of 2.4% over the quarter, with a rate of decline that has increased from month to month, suggesting that covered malls are becoming less attractive retail destinations to shoppers.”
British Retail Consortium director general Helen Dickinson said: “It’s encouraging to see that the number of empty shops in the UK has fallen marginally since the record high of the previous quarter.
“But it’s still a stark statistic which masks widespread variations six parts of the UK had above-average vacancy rates,” she added.
“Taken together, these figures paint a mixed picture which further fuels our call for long-term reform of business rates to help town centres across the UK.
“We’ve seen some cause for cautious optimism since the start of the year, but the path to recovery remains fragile,” she added.