Fewer shoppers took to the January sales in the first week of 2008 as compared with last year, new figures reveal.
National Footfall Index figures released by Experian show a fall in shoppers of 2.4 per cent compared with January 2007 despite a short-term increase in shopping numbers in the last week of the year.
Bargain hunters accounted for a 2.8 per cent increase in shopper numbers during the last few days of 2007 as compared with 2006, resulting in an overall slight increase in numbers of 0.2 per cent year on year.
Activity in the final weeks of the year saw week-on-week figures for week 50, starting December 10th increase by 10.6 per cent on week 49, while week 51 saw footfall numbers rise by 20.7 per cent.
However, these figures were still down on Christmas 2006 with 2.6 per cent less people shopping in week 50 of 2007 and 4.4 per cent less people shopping in week 51 of 2007.
The figures also revealed a 2.3 per cent drop in the number of people who visited shopping centres and city shops in December 2007 compared to 2006.