 Footfall's survey suggests fewer shoppers hit the High Street |
The number of shoppers heading into UK stores over the festive period was down from a year earlier, retail research group Footfall has said. It found that the number of shoppers visiting the High Street in the week before Christmas was down 8%, while the dip for the week after was 6.8%.
Footfall's figures are the latest to suggest a mixed Christmas for shops.
But, online stores are expected to have seen boom in trading prompting industry group IMRG to raise its sales forecast.
IMRG, which represents online retailers, has revised its estimate for the 10 weeks to Christmas from �7bn to �7.5bn.
Mixed fortunes
On the High Street there are expected to be a sharp division between winners and losers.
For example, while Woolworths and HMV issued gloomy trading updates last month, John Lewis said post-Christmas sales were up 8.2%.
Unveiling figures on Wednesday, John Lewis said its sales between 27 December and 2 January totalled �77m, and that the first day of its sale generated a record �18.3m of business.
 |  This is purely footfall to bricks and mortar stores, it doesn't include other channels, like the internet |
Most other major retailers release their festive figures in the coming weeks.
Some economists have warned that consumers were likely to cut their retail spending over Christmas due to higher household bills and mortgage payments.
Internet rescue?
However, Footfall cautioned that its figures did not include online sales.
"This is purely footfall to bricks and mortar stores, it doesn't include other channels, like the internet," said Footfall marketing manager Natasha Burton.
And despite the number of shoppers falling on a week by week basis around Christmas, Footfall found that they rose 6.9% on Boxing Day itself.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said it would not dispute Footfall's figures, but that it was "not overly concerned".
"The number of people going through the doors is a bit of a blunt instrument," said a BRC spokesman.
"The only way we'll properly know [how retailers performed over Christmas], is when the real sales figures come out later this month."
High Street DVD and CD retailer Music Zone is one company that has admitted it endured a poor Christmas trading period.
The firm made the admission as it announced that it had gone into administration after its banks withdrew their support.
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