What is happening in the UK after the reopening?
The article by Giuseppe Liturri
The number of store visits increased by nearly 200% last week in England, following the reopening of non-essential retailers for the first time since the beginning of January.
Industry data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and separate data from research provider Springboard revealed a sharp increase in traffic not only in stores, but also on main streets and malls across the country.
According to data collected by door sensors from thousands of retail stores, the numbers show a 195.5% increase in traffic in England in the six days prior to Saturday 17 April, comparing to the previous week's data.
The biggest gains were recorded in cities such as Portsmouth, where traffic increased by over 100%, and Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham, all of which saw an increase of over 300%.
Retailers in England deemed non-essential were forced to close during the third national lockdown, announced on 4 January. They were allowed to reopen, observing security measures, on Monday 12 April.
In Wales, visits to retail stores increased 167.6% from a week ago, where even non-essential stores were able to reopen on 12 April. Scotland will reopen stores on 26 April and Northern Ireland by 30 April.
However, the number of visitors is still reduced compared to the same week of 2019. Faced with the continuing fallout of the Covid pandemic, the number of visitors decreased by 22.6% in England and by 25.3% in Wales.
However, the strength of the rebound took some analysts by surprise. Diane Wehrle, Springboard's director of insights, said: “The first week of reopening has produced an exceptional performance for UK stores, with visitor numbers practically double our forecasts. These results provide concrete proof of shoppers' desire to go back to buying in brick-and-mortar stores and retail stores ”. Data from Springboard showed that customer turnout in retail stores increased 88% in the week through Saturday compared to the previous one. Shopping centers have also benefited significantly, with attendance more than doubled, marking a number of visitors up 127%.
Analysts' attention is now focused on understanding how long this consumption boost will last. The next further phase of economic reopening will not begin before May 17 despite the insistent requests and legal actions threatened by some spokesmen of the most penalized categories. After June 21, the government plans to remove all traffic restrictions.
"The key question will be whether this momentum can be maintained over time," says Wehrle. "From the evidence gathered after the last two lockdowns, we expect the number of visitors to continue to increase in the coming weeks, albeit at a logically slower pace."
After the summer, economists are concerned about the end of the government layoff plan, which continued to support the wages of 4.7 million people at the end of February, according to the data. Some economists believe that ending the program in September could cause unemployment to rise.
However, in the short term, the surge in the household savings growth curve signals a demand that initially remained dormant, but which now seems ready to cascade into the economy, especially as regards the higher income brackets. which they managed to save by working from home. According to Martin Beck, an economist at consulting firm Oxford Economics, retail spending is expected to help accelerate UK GDP growth as early as April.
Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive Officer of the British Retail Consortium, a trade association for UK retail businesses, said: “With the number of cases steadily decreasing, retailers are confident of increasing traffic on the streets. in malls and retail stores and encourage UK consumers to release some of the £ 160bn saved during this pandemic. By helping to drive consumer savings, UK retail has a key role to play in the broader economic recovery ”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/cosa-sta-accadendo-nel-regno-unito-dopo-le-riaperture/ on Tue, 20 Apr 2021 15:02:43 +0000.