Brief fillip boosts shopper numbers
9 septembre 2008
UNITED KINGDOM — Figures released today from the Retail Traffic Index (RTI), the national metric measuring the number of shoppers visiting non-food retail stores, from analyst Synovate Retail Performance (part of global research company Synovate), show that the number of non-food shopping trips made in August was up by 0.1% on the corresponding month of 2007 and by 1.0% on July 2008.
Synovate Retail Performance's retail psychologist, Dr Tim Denison said; "Though the in-the-black monthly figures will be welcomed by retailers, we shouldn't jump to any false conclusions about the underlying state of affairs in retailing. This year, the summer footfall 'peak week' arrived later than usual, somewhat distorting the year-on-year comparisons. The last week of July is normally the busiest mid-year period, but this year it has fallen into the first week of August, flattering the month's overall performance.
"It's normally the final Sale bargains that drive the summer peak, but I think people simply ran out of enthusiasm for Sale shopping this year, such has been their longstanding and ubiquitous presence. The early August surge was, instead, symptomatic of the welcome arrival of new season lines and new back-to-school offers and of general relief at the phasing-out of no-longer-engaging summer Sales.
"August's figures have also been strengthened, no doubt, by sterling's weakness against the Euro, encouraging more Euro-zoners to shop in the UK and by the reported rise in the number of British holidaymakers deciding to holiday at home. The success of our Olympians and its resulting feel-good effect along with the start of the football season also bolstered interest in sportswear and related goods during the month.
"Despite this brief fillip, our underlying prognosis for retail footfall remains unchanged. We're expecting the trend to remain negative for the rest of 2008, but there is little to suggest it will worsen. The latest running 3 month figure shows the RTI to be down by 1.1% against 2007, well within the overall 3% drop that we forecast for 2008 as we entered the year. With attention now turning to Christmas, retailers assailed by gloom in every media will be able to take some real comfort from that."
All enquiries for follow up or interviews with Dr Tim Denison should be directed to Theo Chalmers at Verve PR on 01908 275271 (weekdays) or 07932 004632.
Contact(s) for this press release
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Tim Denison
Synovate Retail Performance |
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34 Walker Avenue |
Tel. +44 (0) 1908 682 700 |
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Theo Chalmers
Managing Director, Verve Public Relations |
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Park House, 8 Grove Ash |
Tel. +44 1908 275 271 |
Synovate Retail Performance provides footfall monitoring solutions, shopper tracking systems and in-store behavioural research to retailers worldwide. Its core products – Shopper Count, Shopper Interact and Shopper Engage – scientifically measure all aspects of a shopper experience from store entry to exit. Originally founded as Solution Products Systems Ltd (SPSL) in the UK in 1998, it was acquired by Synovate in December 2007 and now offers unrivalled global reach and scalability through Synovate's network of in-country teams and three specialist hubs based in Europe, North America and the Far East.
It supplies national and international retailers with essential business metrics to drive accountability and performance improvement. Synovate Retail Performance harnesses powerful retail and shopper intelligence and creates real deployable insight, to deliver its mantra of "Measure, Manage, Improve" to clients.
Synovate Retail Performance is home to the Retail Traffic Index series, which for over 10 years has been the industry's leading tracker of national, regional and sector retail footfall trends. It is also co-founder of the KPMG / Synovate Retail Think Tank, offering thought leadership on the state of retail health and the future of retailing. Synovate Retail Performance is part of Synovate Customer Experience, Synovate's global business practice specialising in the profitable management of the total sum of all customer interactions.
For more information on Synovate Retail Performance click here.
About Synovate
Synovate, the market research arm of Aegis Group plc, generates consumer insights that drive competitive marketing solutions. The network provides clients with cohesive global support and a comprehensive suite of research solutions. Synovate employs over 6,400 staff across 62 countries.
For more information on Synovate visit www.synovate.com.