Consumer caution fails to out-spook UK shoppers as Halloween revives retail footfall, according to Sensormatic’s data

• Footfall on Halloween rose +4.6 percent year-on-year, while week-on-week the spooky season event delivered a +3 percent boost to shopper traffic on Fri 31sy Oct 2025
• Retail Parks saw the biggest increase in footfall performance, jumping +12.6 percent year-on-year
• The boost to Halloween footfall continued into the weekend, with shopper counts on Sat 01 Nov 2025 up +27.6 percent year-on-year across all retail destinations
• Almost half of UK consumers planned to celebrate Halloween in 2025, with spending expected to have reached £537m (GlobalData)

Halloween delivered a welcome boost to the UK High Street, with ‘spooky season’ improving shopper counts and helping retailers shake off a sluggish summer of monthly footfall performance, the latest data from Sensormatic Solutions, the global retail solutions portfolio of Johnson Controls, reveals.

Data from its ShopperTrak Analytics platform, which captures 40 billion store visits globally each year, showed that footfall on Halloween (31st Oct 2025) rose +4.6 percent year-on-year, while week-on-week it delivered a +3 percent boost in shopper traffic.

ShopperTrak Analytics’ data showed that Retail Parks saw the largest yearly increases in store visits on Halloween, up +12.6 percent year-on-year, while Shopping Centres also saw gains of +11.5 percent compared to 2024. High Streets saw a less marked year-on-year improvement in shopper traffic, rising +0.5 percent year-on-year on Fri 31st Oct 2025. The footfall boost continued into the weekend, with total shopper counts rising +27.6 percent year-on-year on Sat 1st Nov 2025.

“Often regarded as the gateway to the Golden Quarter, Halloween is a key moment marking the seasonal shift towards Christmas trading,” said Andy Sumpter, Sensormatic Solutions’ EMEA Retail Consultant. “Many retailers will be breathing a sigh of relief that, far from delivering a High Street horror show, Halloween resurrected footfall performance after a sluggish summer.”

The BRC-Sensormatic Footfall Monitor showed that shopper counts in September had dipped for a fifth consecutive month, dropping to -1.8 percent compared to 2024, with footfall failing to return a positive year-on-year performance since April 2025.

“Stubbornly shaky consumer confidence undoubtedly played a part in subdued shopper counts in recent months,” Sumpter added. “And whilst customer caution isn’t expected to disappear entirely anytime soon, retailers will be hoping this kickstarts momentum, becoming the catalyst for fuelling further footfall performance as they head into Peak Trading.”

“As all eyes now turn to the bellwether of the peak trading period, Black Friday, competitive pricing, delivering value for money and creating compelling offerings will continue to be the table stakes for winning over cautious consumers,” he concluded.