MRI OnLocation & Urban Big Data Centre: New data for measuring footfall
A blog post by Information Services Officer, Heather Sinclair from Urban Big Data Centre.
The Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC) is a national research centre and data service, offering expertise, training, data collections and data tools for the benefit of cities across the UK and worldwide.
UBDC’s current collection of MRI OnLocation data from January 2013 – December 2017 has now been expanded to include Glasgow data from 2018 to 2022. Data from other major UK cities, such as Manchester, Edinburgh, Sheffield, and Birmingham, is also available.
Data is now also available for parts of the day and includes week counts by weekday AM peak (7:00-10:00), weekday PM peak (16:00-19:00), weekday interpeak (10:00-14:00) and weekend interpeak (10:00-14:00).
The coronavirus pandemic has had a massive impact on the retail sector due to store closures, lockdowns and social distancing measures. Increases and decreases in footfall can be identified from the MRI data, and trends discovered. In 2020 these trends included an increase in shopping in the local area, in retail parks or outdoor environments – rather than in shopping centres – and through online spending when non-essential shops were closed.
The percentage change in footfall levels can be identified by comparing data from pre-pandemic years (2019) with pandemic years (2020, 2021) and beyond. The data can be used to track the retail recovery and regeneration of the high street. Many factors will influence the post-pandemic recovery, such as working patterns (home working, hybrid working, returning to offices/city centres), employment or unemployment, consumer confidence, inflation and tourism.
The data distinguishes between high streets, shopping centres and retail parks as well as town types, including regional cities, market towns and coastal towns. This enables the variations within the retail sector to be compared.
There are many uses for the data, and we invite potential applicants to apply to explore these in their research. This data is available to Masters or PhD students and academic researchers based in UK higher education institutions for non-commercial, academic research purposes. Find out more about Urban Big Data Centre here.
Boost performance with actionable insights based on AI-driven footfall analyticsFootfall Analytics
MRI OnLocation UK Monthly Commentary – March 2024
Retail footfall shows signs of stabilising as early Easter break provides a modest rise from February Each month MRI OnLocation delivers insights on retail performance for UK retail destinations. March saw a modest rise in retail footfall across the …
