Fewer shoppers visited UK high streets and shopping centres on Boxing Day, with central London seeing a significant 7.7% drop in footfall compared with last year, according to data from MRI Software. Across all retail destinations, footfall slipped by 0.3%, with high streets down 2.4% and shopping centres down 2.6%.
Retail parks bucked the trend, recording a 6.9% increase in visitors on Boxing Day morning. Jenni Matthews, marketing and insights director at MRI, described this as an “encouraging start to Boxing Day”, suggesting shoppers may be coming out earlier for bargains.
Central London’s decline was larger than the 3.4% fall seen in other cities, while outer London saw a near 4% rise and coastal towns a 10% increase, as consumers combined shopping with a day out. Colder temperatures may have deterred some travellers.
The traditional start to the post-Christmas sales has increasingly shifted online, with retailers such as Marks & Spencer and Next offering up to 50% off online from Christmas Day, while in-store reductions begin on Saturday. Despite this, queues formed outside Selfridges and Lush at Manchester’s Trafford Centre.
Retailers faced a tough year in 2025, with high energy and grocery bills and uncertainty before the autumn budget hitting consumer confidence. However, Barclays expects the average shopper to spend £253, up £17 from 2024, but overall spending on Boxing Day is estimated at £3.6bn, £1bn lower than last year.
