SCHOOL holidays and an early Easter brought some cheer to Scotland’s retail sector, the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) has said.

According to the industry group’s latest data, covering the four weeks from February 25 to March 30, the decline in consumer visits to shops across the country during the period was the “least worst” since last November – but it warned that “consumer confidence is yet to fully turn a corner”.

SRC-Sensormatic IQ data revealed that Scottish footfall decreased by 0.9% in March (YoY), up from -3.2% in February – better than the UK average decrease of 1.3% (YoY). The improvement was felt across all retail destinations with Glasgow putting in its best performance since July 2023, and Edinburgh recording a “solid month of footfall growth”.

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Footfall in Edinburgh increased by 2.9%, while Glasgow decreased by 1.8%. In shopping centres, it was down by 1.2% in March (YoY) in Scotland, 0.1 percentage points better than February.

David Lonsdale, SRC director, said: “Visits to Scotland’s retail destinations fell for a sixth successive month in March. However, the decline was small and overall was the least-worst monthly footfall figure witnessed since November.

“The early Easter and school holidays buoyed foot traffic, providing a flicker of hope for Scottish stores as spring approaches.”

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Mr Lonsdale noted that “shopper footfall and the health of our broader economy is highly dependent on what happens to consumer spending”, adding: “The continued growth in real wages and easing shop price inflation should help support demand, as should the council tax freeze and cuts in employee national insurance contributions.

“However, whether this translates into a greater propensity to spend in stores remains to be seen. At the same time, retailers themselves have to balance this against their own outgoings which continue to spiral notably with the above-inflation hike in property taxes.”

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At Sensormatic Solutions, retail consultant Andy Sumpter also pointed to an “early, high-performing Easter” helping to put a spring in shoppers’ steps. He said: “This, combined with a boost from Mother’s Day and ambient store visits from school holidays, drove up shopper traffic numbers in March to improve on what was a rather muted footfall performance in February.

“While retailers will have welcomed the seasonal uplift in store visits last month, the choppy nature of footfall recovery we’ve seen over the past few months indicates that consumer confidence is yet to fully turn a corner, meaning we may see a bumpy recovery in shopper traffic in the months ahead.”