This year’s ‘Super Saturday’ before Christmas failed to deliver the expected rush of festive footfall, according to data from Sensormatic Solutions.
Store visits on December 20 fell 6.9% year on year as consumer caution suppressed spending, with shoppers potentially waiting for last-minute deals.
High street destinations saw a less pronounced decline, but still fell 3.7% from the same period in 2024. Sensormatic’s ShopperTrak Analytics data captures 40 billion store visits globally each year.
Saturday delivered a weekly boost to stores, with visits increasing 1.5%. Retail parks saw the most improvement of 10.95% week-on-week, while retail traffic in the week before Saturday December 20 climbed 11.2%.
Tuesday December 23 is expected to be the third-busiest shopping day of the Christmas period, while Boxing Day is expected to be the fourth-busiest for footfall despite many Sales shoppers moving online.
Sensormatic Solutions EMEA retail consultant Andy Sumpter said: “As one of the ‘make-or-break’ days of Christmas trading, soft footfall performance on Super Saturday will have dealt a blow to retailers who would have been hoping to capitalise on trade.
“Throughout this year’s festive trading season, we’ve seen consumer caution cause spending hesitancy and upend usual demand patterns.
“Shoppers are taking longer to validate purchases, with many still holding out and hoping that retailers may bring forward Boxing Day promotions pre-Christmas, as they did last year.
“We expect the usual last-minute rush to be particularly pronounced, with shoppers leaving purchasing right up to the wire.”
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