UK Super Saturday footfall drops as shoppers hold off
UK retail footfall fell 6.9% year on year on Super Saturday, a key in-store shopping day in the run-up to Christmas, according to data from Sensormatic Solutions.
The company said figures from its ShopperTrak Analytics platform showed lower store visits compared with the same day last year. Sensormatic said the platform captures 40 billion store visits globally each year.
Sensormatic linked the decline to continued caution among shoppers. It said some consumers delayed purchases while waiting for discounts closer to Christmas. It also pointed to last year's trend of some retailers bringing forward Boxing Day promotions into the pre-Christmas period.
High Street
High Street locations recorded the smallest decline among the destination types tracked by Sensormatic. Footfall in High Street destinations fell 3.7% compared with 2024.
Retailers and analysts often regard Super Saturday as one of the busiest in-store days of the festive trading period. It can influence performance in the final weeks of the year, particularly for non-food retailers that rely on seasonal sales volumes. Sensormatic's figures suggest that the day did not reach that usual profile in 2025.
"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," said Andy Sumpter, EMEA Retail Consultant, Sensormatic Solutions.
Weekly uplift
Despite the year-on-year fall, Sensormatic said Super Saturday still delivered a modest uplift compared with the previous week. Store visits rose 1.5% week on week.
The company said retail parks showed the strongest week-on-week increase. It reported a 10.9% rise in visits compared with the week prior.
Footfall also rose in the week leading up to Super Saturday. Sensormatic compared the periods 07-13 December and 14-20 December. It reported an 11.2% increase in retail traffic between those two weeks.
The pattern points to uneven demand across the season, with traffic improving in the run-up to the final shopping days. Sensormatic said shoppers have taken longer over purchase decisions this year.
"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," said Sumpter.
Late surge
Sensormatic said it expects the peak in store visits to arrive later than usual. It said footfall should increase in the final days before Christmas, driven by last-minute buying.
"We expect the usual last-minute rush to be particularly pronounced, with shoppers leaving purchasing right up to the wire," said Sumpter.
The company also issued an outlook for the final pre-Christmas shopping days and the post-Christmas trading period. It predicted that Tuesday 23 December would rank as the third busiest in-store shopping day of peak trading. It said this is the last full shopping day before Christmas.
Sensormatic said it expects Boxing Day to remain a significant driver of store visits, despite some shift to online shopping in recent years. It forecast that 26 December would be the fourth busiest day for footfall during peak trading.
The predictions set up a concentrated period of trading for retailers, with footfall expected to rise as shoppers complete purchases close to Christmas and as discounting resumes after Christmas Day.