High street retailers see 4.8% dip in footfall

Scotland's high street retailers saw a 4.8% dip in footfall last month, according to industry figures.

Footfall across all stores fell by 2.8% in July - a third successive month of decline - but retail parks bucked the trend with a recorded growth of 2.4%.

The town centre vacancy rate remained at 9.8%, with one in every 10 shops lying empty.

The figures were published in the monthly Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Springboard Monitor.

Diane Wehrle, marketing and insights director at Springboard, said: "Consumer demand is ever more polarised between convenience and experience, and the stronger performance of Scotland's out of town destinations reflects the fact that retail parks are successfully bridging the convenience-experience gap.

"They not only offer consumers accessible shopping environments with free parking and easy click and collect opportunities for online purchases, but many also combine this with an enhanced experience that includes coffee shops and casual dining restaurants, and some also have leisure facilities."

SRC director David Lonsdale said: "Ultimately the success of retailers in this fast-changing world will be down to their own ability to evolve and respond positively to the transition in shopping habits.

"Having to contend at the same time with a hodgepodge of government-mandated cost rises, coupled with continued uncertainty over what our future trading relations with the EU will look like, simply makes that all the harder."

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