Overall retail footfall fell 2.5% in December year on year, after Black Friday brought traditional festive trading forward leading to a “noticeable decline over the two weeks leading up to Christmas”, according to data company Springboard.

Springboard said the 2.5% drop was at the “upper end of the scale of decline” for December and noted that footfall had declined in the month in all but one year since 2009.

Springboard also said the footfall result “reflects the caution and spending restraint of consumers”, which typifies the sort of low confidence among shoppers that has marked much of the last three years.