The following analysis contains data for the devices at Westdaw, S.C Fuller, Bernard Marcus, Dorking Light & Shade, Renee’s Health Food Store and The Optical Studio.
- Footfall in March was constant with the trend in February, as the nation remained in lockdown throughout the month.
- Non-essential shops, hospitality venues, gyms and hairdressers all remain closed in Dorking during March, but with cases falling across the country footfall started to rise at the end of the month.
- Footfall dropped significantly in Week 11 and Week 12, before rising in Week 13 as the weather got warmer in the lead up to the Easter weekend.
Weekly footfall profile
- Figure 1 shows how weekly footfall has changed from March 2020 to 2021.
- The spread of weekly footfall in March 2021 started to rebalance across the main retail trading days of Friday and Saturday, as cases reduced and the route to reopening started to take shape.
- However, Sunday still remained above average when compared to 2020 with 10% of previous footfall compared to 8%.
- This likely due to households spreading their shopping needs across the week; shopping on Sunday to avoid the crowds earlier in the week to limit exposure to the virus.
Overall footfall volume
- Figure 2 shows weekly footfall levels throughout march across for the active footfall devices.
- Footfall fell dramatically at the Westdaw device in Week 10, after rising by 23% in the previous week. Footfall returned to a much lower level of under 5,000 per week.
- Across the rest of the devices, footfall remained flat in March 2021 with lockdown measures still in place until the 29th March.
- Footfall started to increase in Week 14, with the easing of lockdown and the fall in COVID cases across the country.
- Footfall is likely to rise in April as non-essential retail reopened on the 12th April, as well as Easter and the Bank holiday weekend falling in the month.
Week-on-week change in footfall
- Figure 4 shows the percentage change in footfall week-on-week in March.
- Optical Studio saw footfall peak in Week 11, while Westdaw saw footfall drop in this week.
- Bernard Marcus, Renee’s Health Food Store, Dorking Light & Shade and S.C Fuller were more stable across March with little change in footfall volumes.
- Figure 5 shows footfall rose in Week 10 and Week 14, but saw footfall drop significantly in Week 11 and Week 12.
