TOP December 2024 City Centre Retail Spend Insights.

A “Cautious Christmas” has been borne out, with sales in UK town and city centres in December 2024 declining by -7.9% from December 2023.

According to Diane Wehrle, of Rendle Intelligence and Insights & Beauclair’s Brand Ambassador.??

My prediction made at the start of Q4 2024 of a “Cautious Christmas” has been borne out, with sales in UK town and city centres in December 2024 declining by -7.9% from December 2023. With the reporting period for December based on the calendar month, December’s sales did not include Black Friday when sales in town and city centres were +14.5% higher than on Black Friday 2023.

The outcome for December reflected significant drops in two of the three key sales metrics, with the number of customers declining by -7% and transactions by -7.3%. However, average transaction value – the third key metric in measuring sales – largely held up, with only a marginal drop of -0.7% from December 2023. This suggests that there is an increasing polarisation between those who are spending and those who are not, with those who are spending purchasing higher priced products. This is a very different picture from December 2023, when the average transaction value declined by -2.4% whilst customer numbers rose by +1.5%.

This polarisation was reflected in the five key sectors that account for 85% of town and city centre sales (Fashion, Food & Drink, General Retail, Grocery and Health & Beauty). Sales declined annually in all five sectors, however, the two sectors with the most modest drops in sales (-5.9% for Food & Drink and -4.6% for Health & Beauty) were also the only two key sectors out of the five where the ATV increased annually (by +3.1% in Food & Drink and by +4.9% in Health & Beauty).

Of the five key sectors, Grocery recorded the largest annual decline in sales in December of -8.3%, which contrasted sharply with an annual rise in December 2023 of +2.5%. With food sales increasing by +1.7% in December (BRC), this result suggests that consumers opted to shop for Grocery in larger stores out of town where economies in spending can be more easily achieved. Indeed, this is reinforced by data on footfall into stores on retail parks from Sensormatic. While footfall in retail parks stayed level between December 2023 and December 2024, it fell in both high streets (-2.7%) and shopping centres (-3.3%).

This article was first found on https://beauclairdata.co.uk/2025/01/top-december-2024-city-centre-retail-spend-insights/

Join us on our next webinar!

Join the Beauclair team and our brand ambassador, Diane Wehrle, for an exclusive analysis of our latest spending insights across 62 town and city centres nationwide during 2024. We'll dive into key sector trends, such as Food and Drink versus Fashion, and uncover who today's high street shoppers really are and what they are buying.?

This session is designed to equip everyone involved in optimising customer experience on the high street with the most up-to-date and actionable insights to help you prepare for success in 2025.

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