Study Finds Busiest Retail Weeks Over Christmas

• A new study has looked at ONS retail footfall data for the past two years to determine the busiest shopping weeks over the Christmas period.

• The study also identified the regions where shoppers are most likely to leave their Christmas shopping to the last minute.

With the Christmas adverts landing and stores putting away the Halloween decorations, it’s fair to say we’re fully in the festive period. Data from the ONS found that 41% are planning on shopping for their Christmas gifts earlier, but which weeks are retailers likely to see the biggest increases in footfall?

New analysis from point-of-sale provider Epos Now, used ONS weekly retail footfall data to uncover which weeks of the Christmas shopping period are busiest on the UK’s high streets, and how it changes by region.

The study looked at every week from the first week ending in November through to Christmas week, across 2024 and 2025. On average, the two busiest weeks across the UK were Black Friday week and the last full week before Christmas.

In 2025, footfall in Black Friday week was 11% above the 2023 average ONS index against and in the last full week before Christmas it was 12.6% above. Black Friday week was stronger in 2024, but the increase in footfall in the week before Christmas was the most consistent of the two across both years.

Mid-November was the quietest stretch of the run-up. Footfall in the weeks ending 10 November 2024 and 9 November 2025 was around 2.5% below the average for the Christmas period.

The UK’s biggest last-minute shoppers

Footfall in the final full week before Christmas rose far more in some parts of the country than others, which could suggest that shoppers in those areas are more likely to leave their Christmas shopping until the last minute.

Compared with the average for the Christmas shopping period, Northern Ireland’s footfall jumped 15.1% in the final full week before Christmas, the biggest rise in the UK. The East of England followed with a rise of 9.6%, then the North East with 7.9%. 

At the other end, London saw the smallest increase, at 0.9%, however, this could be down to the fact that footfall in the UK’s capital stays high throughout the festive season.

Outside of London, Scotland, the South West, and Wales had the smallest increases in footfall in the week before Christmas.

Richard Nolan, Chief Operating Officer at Epos Now comments, “With the Christmas shopping period quickly approaching, we were interested in finding when retailers are actually most likely to see the largest volumes in footfall. Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, both the week of Black Friday and the week before Christmas see the largest increases in footfall across the Christmas shopping period, however, it’s interesting to see how these numbers fluctuate across the UK particularly in the week before Christmas.” 

“Knowing when to expect larger volumes of footfall helps retailers be best prepared with the likes of stock and staffing to managing busier periods. Now being in the Golden quarter of the year it’s important that retailers are utilising previous sales data to help in understanding when they are likely to see these peaks in footfall.”

Weeks:

Week 1 = week ending 3 Nov 2024 & 2 Nov 2025 

Week 2 = week ending 10 Nov 2024 & 9 Nov 2025

Week 3 = week ending 17 Nov 2024 & 16 Nov 2025

Week 4 = week ending 24 Nov 2024 & 23 Nov 2025

Week 5 = week ending 1 Dec 2024 & 30 Nov 2025

Week 6 = week ending 8 Dec 2024 & 7 Dec 2025

Week 7 = week ending 15 Dec 2024 & 14 Dec 2025

Week 8 = week ending 22 Dec 2024 & 21 Dec 2025

Week 9 = week ending 29 Dec 2024 & 28 Dec 2025

Methodology: 

This analysis uses the Office for National Statistics (ONS) weekly retail footfall index for the UK, covering the nine weeks ending 3 November to 29 December 2024 and the nine weeks ending 2 November to 28 December 2025. Each week in 2024 was matched with the equivalent week in 2025 for comparison in finding which weeks are often the busiest with footfall.

To make the two years comparable, each week’s index value was divided by the average for all nine weeks in that year and expressed as a percentage above or below that average. The two years’ figures for each week were then averaged, and the weeks were ranked from busiest to quietest. A week was treated as consistently busy only if it ranked in the top three in both years.

The average includes Christmas week, which was the quietest week in both years. This slightly raises the percentage for every other week but does not change the ranking.

The analysis covers two Christmas periods only, so it shows the typical pattern in recent years rather than a long-term trend. Black Friday week was stronger in 2024 than in 2025, which is why we also look at consistency between years.