Fashion Brands And Shoppers Are Returning To The Stores

It is something of a rare occasion that we have the opportunity to talk about positive changes and developments in the world of fashion and retail. Today, we’re focusing on trends on the high street for both consumers and businesses.

Working in clothing photography presents us with the opportunity to collaborate with a wide range of clients, including fashion brands, retailers, department stores and online brands. No matter the industry or niche, it is important to understand the changing habits of consumers and businesses so that we can make the most informed decisions about our own business.

Some good news for high streets in our cities

The week between the 5th and 11th of February saw an impressive footfall increase for high streets in the UK. At 5%, this rise is a welcome story for many in retail. Driven by more employees returning to their company’s offices, both London and cities across the UK saw increases of up to 36.4% compared to the same week last year.

Some of the headline figures:

• The footfall for all UK retail saw an increase of 9.1% compared to last year
• The biggest increase was on high streets when compared to shopping centres and retail parks.
• Still a large gap when we compare these figures to 2019 (prep-pandemic levels), currently at around -14.5%.

For those working in clothing photography in London, as well as other locations around the UK this is mainly welcome news as it will hopefully drive more brands to focus on high-street marketing.

Have we seen a positive step forward in tenant sales?

The owners of the Westfield Shopping Centres have released their 2022 results and one of the most interesting areas to focus on is tenant sales. They claim to have seen tenant sales hit an impressive 103% when compared to 2019.  This is cited as evidence that the COVID effect is over for its shopping centre business.

Whilst this is perhaps a little premature, tenant sales in Europe and the US did very well suggesting a wider change in habits across major economies.

Other interesting findings from the report include:

• A 51% increase in revenues from commercial partnerships.
• The vacancy levels in shopping centres hit 6.5%, which is higher than in 2019 but down when compared to 2021.
• An increase of 6.2% in minimum guaranteed rent agreements being signed.

Consumer card spending sees welcome boost in January

Research has found that card spending by consumers grew by an impressive 9.7% in January of this year, when compared to January 2022. That is higher than the about in December and more significantly higher than the increase of 9.2% in consumer price inflation.

These figures can be attributed to a range of factors including sales and holiday bookings but as a clothing photography business, we are more interested in clothing, retail and fashion. Here, we see growth figures of 3.6% in clothing and 8.3% in department stores.