Northern Irish retailers experienced a 'challenging festive period', due to the weakness of the euro leading to an increase in cross-border shopping.
The latest Springboard Footfall and Vacancies Monitor from the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, which covers the period from 29 November to 2 December, found that retail footfall was down 1.1% in December.
However, this was below the three-month average rate of -2.2% and significantly up on the 7.9% fall seen in November 2015.
Commenting on the results, Aodhán Connolly, Director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium said that “This has been a challenging festive period for retailers, with the strong pound against the euro as well as the growth of the online market.
"However the fact that footfall was only 1.1 per cent down year on year proves that retailers have met this challenge head on by not only providing great value to Northern Ireland's consumers, but also a great shopping experience."
Across the UK, footfall was down 2.2% on the same period last year.
© 2016 - Checkout Magazine by Stephen Wynne-Jones
