Despite heavy discounting Boxing Day sales ‘attracting fewer shoppers’

The number of people heading to the Boxing Day sales has fallen for the third year running despite some heavy discounting, retail analysts have said.

Springboard, which examines information from UK High Street and shopping centre cameras, said average footfall up to 16:00 GMT was 3.1% lower than in 2017.

It suggested 26 December was becoming less important as a trading day.

But there were still queues for some shops from as early as midnight and the data does not include online sales.

And retailers in London’s West End declared a “Boxing Day bounce” saying there had been a 15% increase in footfall from last year.