Retailers suffered a quiet Easter weekend, with Ipsos Retail Performance reporting a drop in footfall of -2.9% across the UK, in comparison to 2015, when Easter fell a fortnight later.
Dr Tim Denison, director of retail intelligence at Ipsos Retail Performance, says: “Over the four-day holiday, the picture was similar across swathes of the country. The early Easter and poor weather conditions conspired against the high street to result in footfall falling against last year’s Easter weekend.
“Only the East Midlands (+0.8%) and Wales (+0.4%) saw improvement on 2015, with the North East (-8%) and West Midlands (-6.9%) suffering the biggest year-on-year drop over the weekend.
“The busiest day of the long weekend was Saturday, accounting for 33.9% of footfall to non-food stores over the four day period. Bank Holiday Monday was hard on its heels with 31.6% of the holiday footfall, with Good Friday just behind (30%).”