Dutch high street footfall on the up in 2017

By

Shomara Roosblad

Published
Jan 31, 2018

Dutch high street footfall increased by 5% in 2017 compared to 2016.

Throughout the country Saturday has remained the most popular day, followed by Friday, Thursday, Wednesday, Tuesday, Sunday and Monday, according to a report by Dutch market research company Locatus, who measured the footfall 24/7 via 1200 WiFi sensors.

The numbers on Sunday are relatively low due to Dutch municipalities that forbid store openings on Sunday, reports Locatus. Additionally, retailers who do open on Sundays have short opening hours (noon to 5pm on average).

In 2017, the busiest shopping streets in the Netherlands were Amsterdam’s Kalverstraat; Grote Marktstraat in The Hague; and Nieuwendijk in Amsterdam, which are all located in the city centers. The footfall in Amsterdam was affected by tourism more than The Hague, which is why the footfall increased in the summer months and decreased again in September, while the footfall in The Hague remained constant.

The busiest shopping days in the Netherlands were measured on 23 December, 26 May and 22 December. The least busy days were 16 April, 10 December and 30 July. On the busiest days the high footfall was attributed to holidays (Christmas and Ascension), while the least busy days were caused by bad weather.

Although the footfall increased in 2017, the month of December shows a decline of 9%. According to Locatus, the weather in the Netherlands was the reason for this. In December 2017 the footfall in Europe decreased by 5.3 percent overall.