The UK heatwave has seen shoppers shun the High Street this week, figures from Sensormatic reveal, with footfall in London seeing a sharp dip as temperatures climbed.

Data from its ShopperTrak Analytics platform, which captures 40 billion store visits globally each year, showed store visits dipped as the heatwave took hold, with footfall dipping to its lowest point on 24 Jun, down -10.2% year-on-year.

The most pronounced fall came in London on Wednesday, down -13.3%, as many commuters opted to keep cool and work from home.  

“As the mercury has risen, UK consumers opted to stay away from stores in a bid to beat the heat, making only short or necessary trips to shops,” said Andy Sumpter, EMEA Retail Consultant at Sensormatic Solutions, speaking to City AM. 

While High Streets saw the biggest fall in shopper traffic (-9.8%), shopping centres saw less of a decline, perhaps in part to them being covered or benefitting from air conditioning. 

Retail parks were the outlier, with footfall holding up +0.2%. Sensormatic said this could have been prompted by shoppers heading to out-of-town DIY, tech or homeware stores to pick up last-minute fans, air conditioning units or other heat-beating purchases. 

Electronics retailer Currys said that searches for air conditioning products soared by 3,500% week-on-week, while homeware specialist Lakeland saw electric fan sales rise over 100%.

“We expect that as the heat dome pushes up temperatures further in the coming days that footfall will continue to be constrained as consumers try and stay cool,” Sumpter added.

UK footfall experienced a similar downturn during the last heatwave in May, with the biggest fall in store visits coming on 25 May, when the UK’s hottest ever May temperature was recorded in Kew, where shopper traffic dipped -18.7% across the UK.