Rising Footfall

At the beginning of May, shopping centers, under the decision to defrost the economy, had little time to prepare for reopening after several weeks of inactivity. The facilities had only two days to prepare for active sales again. On May 2, a regulation was issued which contained a number of detailed guidelines on opening rules aimed at ensuring the safety of customers and employees. Guidelines have been introduced regarding the principles of disinfection, maintaining the distance between clients and the limit on the number of people per sqm. Shopping centers adapted to these principles with full responsibility and awareness by introducing a number of risk mitigation solutions for customers and employees.

The next stage of defrosting took place on May 18. Gastronomy joints as well as cosmetics and hairdressing services could restore their activities. Research shows that this is what customers had been waiting for the most. According to a survey conducted in the first half of May by the Inquiry research agency, 68 percent missed the visit to the hairdresser or beautician the most and a further 38 percent missed gastronomy. We clearly noticed this trend in the footfall that we have been tracking from the beginning. The first week of reopening shopping facilities surprised everyone a bit. Footfall ranged from 53 percent to 68 percent depending on the day of the week compared to the same period last year. The footfall recorded in the following week was successively higher – the average level of visits in shopping centers on May 11-17 was already between 60 percent and 68 percent of the level a year before.

We were very impatiently waiting for the results after the opening of food zones and cosmetic services. The next two weeks showed that customers had really missed such facilities. In the week of May 18-24, the average footfall in the surveyed facilities depending on the day was already at a much higher level – from 73 percent to 79 percent. The last week of May, due to, among others, Mother’s Day, recorded significantly higher results compared to the first three weeks (on average depending on the day of the week from 68 percent to 93 percent of last year’s level). The record turnout was on Monday, May 25, when the shopping centers were visited by an average of 93 percent of customers compared to last year.

During the first two weeks after reopening, we observed significant differences in the number of visits between small or medium centers and those classified as large or very large. The number of visits to smaller centers was at a significantly higher level. The opening of the gastronomic and services part has, however, evened out these differences in favor of larger centers (usually new generation facilities), for which the gastronomy and service categories are an important factor determining the visit to the facility.

The activities of shopping centers in ensuring customer safety have proved effective. In a survey conducted by the Inquiry agency in cooperation with PRCH, it is clear that Poles feel safe in shopping centers: 81 percent of respondents who visited any shopping center in May felt safe in it. This is a very important signal for the industry and proof that it is worth actively working for the sense of security of customers and employees of the facilities.

The important question we have to ask ourselves today is how long until the shopping center industry will come out of this crisis? To what extent will these good footfall results, compared to other countries, translate into tenants’ turnover? There will be time for these answers, and certainly, PRCH will track these  phenomena on an ongoing basis and inform you about important data.