Poor weather and concerns over cash led to a slump in the numbers of people hitting Scotland’s high streets last month.
After a marginal rise in footfall in February, analysis by the British Retail Consortium and Springboard found the country’s shops were significantly quieter last month.
Across the UK, footfall was down 5.2% in March compared to the same month a year earlier.
The high street suffered a 7% drop-off in visitors, out-of-town destinations took a 4.2% hit and shopping centres saw a 2.4% reduction.
Scotland fared slightly better than the country as a whole but there were still fewer shoppers (-3.8%) out bargain hunting than at the same point last year.
Fiona Moriarty, the director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said a particularly cold month had stopped shoppers from venturing out.
“The coldest March for 50 years was to blame for putting off many Scottish shoppers, and measures up particularly badly against the much milder weather we had during the same month in 2012,” she said.
“Things did pick up a little around the Easter weekend, but it was a late consolation for a weak showing across the month.
“Scottish footfall was above the UK average,but that makes it the second best of a bad bunch in a month when no areas showed growth.
“Retailers in Scotland will be hoping that the late onset of more spring-like weather makes shopping trips and seasonal ranges more appealing to customers.”
Diane Wehrle, retail insights director at Springboard, said: “High street footfall dropped, with just one- in-five towns recording positive results.
“Moreover, the average increase amongst towns in which footfall did increase was just 6.9%, compared with an average decline of 11.4% amongst those high streets whose footfall fell from March last year.”
On a quarterly basis, only Greater London has reported a rise in shopper footfall with a rise of 1.2%.