Glasgow and Edinburgh featured among the top cities in the UK for Christmas shopping footfall, though retail parks were the most popular destination.
While Glasgow has been criticised for its dug-up streets and empty shop units, it managed the second-highest year-on-year rise in city footfall in December (0.2%) behind Birmingham (4.8%). Edinburgh was third despite a 1.1% fall. London was 1.2% lower.
Scotland fell by 1.5%, England by 2.1%, Wales by 2.6%, while Northern Ireland experienced the biggest decline at 5.8%.
However, city centres (down 2.7%) and shopping malls (down 3.3%) were shunned in favour of retail parks which saw no change as shoppers headed to stores served by free car parking that also enabled them to load big parcels.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: “Shopping habits have been changing fast and customers are increasingly looking for more experiential shopping, as well as a variety of cafes, services and things to do.
“Unfortunately, investment in town centres and high streets is held back by our outdated business rates system, which penalises town and city centes.
“With retailers facing £7 billion in additional costs this year from increased tax and regulations, the changes to the business rates system must be made in way that supports retail investment and growth in the years ahead.”
David Lonsdale, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said it had been a “pretty drab” golden quarter and 2024 as a whole in terms of shopper footfall.
“Across the month as a whole footfall was feeble with only Glasgow city centre and retail parks faring well.
“There’s little denying these are dreich figures for retailers with bricks and mortar premises.
“That said, we await the publication of our sales monitor later this month to see what it meant for actual retail sales as there is rarely an exact correlation with shopper footfall.
“After all, a third of non-food retail sales are purchased online and retailers are adept at harnessing technology to get through to consumers who may not have the inclination or time to travel to shops.”