Scottish footfall decreased by 12% in October versus pre-pandemic figures, but was up by 1.4% on September.
The latest Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Sensormatic IQ data showed that shopping centre footfall declined by 18.6% in October - an improvement on the decline of 19.7% in September.
In October, footfall in Glasgow decreased by 9.1% compared to the same period in 2019, which was 1.3 percentage points better than September.
On a year-on-year basis, total Scottish footfall increased by 5.8%, with Scottish shopping centres up by 7.1% and footfall in Glasgow rising by 10.1%.
David Lonsdale, director of the SRC, said: “This is a modest, but nonetheless slightly more chipper, set of results for shopper footfall in the early part of what is the critical ‘golden quarter’ of festive trading.
“Scottish footfall recorded its second-best monthly performance of the year so far during October, albeit still down an eighth on pre-pandemic levels.
“The trick as ever for retailers is converting this uptick into actual sales at the tills and sustaining the improvement against a backdrop in which concerns over the cost of living and disruption on the railways show little sign of abating.”
Andy Sumpter, retail consultant at Sensormatic Solutions, commented: “While Halloween sales may have given some respite to the high street, shoppers spooked by the rising cost-of-living meant that the reality of growing consumer caution played out in October’s UK footfall figures, though Scotland managed to buck this trend.
“As consumers and retailers both adapt to what’s being coined the 'new abnormal', in which economic and political uncertainty creates new - and increasingly frequent - curveballs, retailers will be hoping to minimise disruption to safeguard their Christmas performance.
“Furthermore, with planned postal strikes in November risking disruption to Black Friday deliveries, retailers will be encouraging shoppers to head in store, rather than risking delayed deliveries when shopping online for Black Friday deals.“
Don't miss the latest headlines with our twice-daily newsletter - sign up here for free.
