A NEW study has shown that year-on-year, average footfall in Irish shopping centres dropped by 1.4 per cent over the past four quarters. In Northern Ireland, Experian, the global information services company, found that the number of shoppers fell by 2.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2011. Taking the previous four quarters into account, the average year-on-year decline was almost 4 per cent.

Mark Anderson, head of sales at Experian Ireland, said retailers were continuing to experience very tough trading conditions but the average decrease in footfall of 1.4 per cent over the past year was manageable compared with the significant falls in the north. Despite the treacherous weather conditions experienced at the start of the year, the footfall figure during January last was actually up 1.3 per cent compared with 2010.

Anderson said the introduction of the unversal social charge was followed by a fall of 1.4 per cent in the footfall in February and 2.2 per cent in March. However it was still too early to gauge if the charge would have an impact on the number of people shopping.