NI Shopping Numbers Fall

January saw footfall on Northern Ireland's high streets drop, as shopper numbers fell 2.4% on a year ago and were down on the 1.2% rise in December 2014.

The vacancy rate in Northern Ireland was 16.3%, which showed a marginal improvement on the previous quarter.

The figures were released by the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium (NIRC).

Shopping centres reported the largest decline, with numbers falling 2.8%. High streets experienced a 1.6% decline in footfall, up on the 1.8% fall in December.

Footfall in out-of-town locations fared the best, seeing a 1.5% increase year-on-year.

Wales reported the greatest fall in regional footfall, down 4.6% year-on-year.

The national town centre vacancy rate in the UK was 10.4% in January 2015, showing an increase from October's rate of 10.3%.

Director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, Aodhán Connolly, said: "Today's footfall figures are an unfortunate start to 2015, after what was a robust and positive year as a whole last year. The decline in shopper numbers in January serves to underline the need for greater partnership working between town-centres, local authorities and the Executive and a laser-like focus on delivering the support the High Street needs to keep drawing in Northern Ireland's consumers.

"Retailers will take some small comfort from the fact that the vacancy rate continues to decline. However it remains stubbornly high. It's a continuing reminder that the policy mix still isn't quite right for our High Streets to flourish once more. Correcting this should be top of the list of New Year's resolutions for the Executive."

Diane Wehrle, Retail Insights Director at Springboard, said: "Once again footfall in Northern Ireland's retail destinations is proving to be volatile, shifting downward by 3 percentage points to a drop of 2.4% compared with an increase of 1.4% in December.

"This drop was driven by high streets, where footfall declined by 3.4%. Without doubt this is due to both the challenge of the internet and the convenience of out-of-town locations for click-and-collect as they offer plentiful, accessible parking that is free of charge.

"Despite this, it is good news that the vacancy rate has decreased slightly over the last quarter, to 16.3%; although Northern Ireland is only one of three parts of the UK with a double digit vacancy rate. This, in combination with the fact a significant number of retail leases are due to expire over this year, suggests that this could become a real issue for retail destinations in Northern Ireland, particularly as consumers are now demanding discounts which squeeze margins and adversely impact profitability and long term business sustainability."

(IT/JP)