Footfall more than doubled for all retail destinations across the UK on the first morning after non-essential stores reopened in England today.
Scotland, where retail will not fully reopen until later this month, saw a small drop in footfall from last Monday to today of 13%, but England rose by 112% and Wales was up by 147%.
The whole of the United Kingdom was in a hard lock down this time last year, so footfall has risen dramatically by 346% over the past 12 months.
A more useful comparison is with pre-pandemic 2019 and footfall remains down by 36%.
Central London is experiencing the sharpest improvement in retail traffic, Springboard reports, with footfall up 153% since last week.
However, with overseas tourists still absent, it remains furthest from a return to 2019 crowds, with a drop in footfall of 71.5% from Monday April 15, 2019, to today.
Market towns have welcomed back the most shoppers, with footfall up 191% compared to a week ago and down just 25% from mid-April 2019.