Easter delivers a weekly boost to footfall, as shoppers shell out an estimated £2.3billion on Easter spending finds Sensormatic Solutions

• Good Friday delivered a +40.8 percent week-on-week increase to store visits across all retail destinations
• Easter Monday saw total retail footfall rise by +17.4 percent versus the week before
• Shoppers were expected to have spent £2.3billion over Easter this year
• Despite a week-on-week boost, total shopper counts over the Easter weekend were down -7.5 percent compared to 2024

Easter delivered a weekly boost to footfall as shoppers splashed out on Easter eggs, seasonal treats and entertaining over the four-day bank holiday weekend, the latest data from Sensormatic Solutions, the global retail solutions portfolio of Johnson Controls, reveals.

Data from Sensormatic’s ShopperTrak Analytics insights platform, which captures 40 billion store visits globally each year, showed that footfall on Good Friday (18th April 2025) delivered a +40.8 percent week-on-week increase to store visits across all retail destinations.

As retail’s second biggest trading event after Christmas, food & drink was expected to have accounted for 70 percent of shoppers’ Easter budgets. There was also a surge in garden sales, with sales of seeds and bulbs rising in March with warmer weather prompting purchasing.

The Saturday of the Easter weekend (19th April 2025) also saw footfall rising compared to the week prior, up + 11.6 percent, according to Sensormatic’s data. Meanwhile, week-on-week shopper counts on Easter Monday (21st April) jumped +17.4 percent, with Retail Parks seeing the greatest increase, up +27 percent. However, while Easter delivered a welcome boost to weekly shopper traffic, it couldn’t match last year’s footfall performance, with total store visits declining -7.5 percent over the Easter weekend compared to 2024.

Andy Sumpter, Sensormatic Solutions’ EMEA Retail Consultant, commented: “After a slow start to Spring for shopper traffic, and the late dates of Easter this year hitting footfall performance in March, retailers will have been counting on a bank holiday boost to over the Easter weekend.

While they will have welcomed the uptick in shopper traffic compared to the week before, many retailers may have been left feeling disappointed that footfall performance didn’t match that of 2024; proof, perhaps, that when it comes to peak trading retail events, you can’t put all your eggs in one basket. In light of continuing consumer caution and shaky shopper confidence, retailers need to double down on delivering the compelling ‘reasons to visit’, which keep shoppers coming back – both to browse and to buy,” Andy added.

Image courtesy of Pexels. Photo credit: George Dolgikh.