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 leading 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 (31 Oct 2025) rose +4.6% year-on-year, while week-on-week it delivered a +3% boost in shopper traffic.
With GlobalData research suggesting almost half of UK consumers planned to celebrate Halloween this year, it forecast that Halloween spending would reach £537 million, up +3.2% compared to 2024. Meanwhile, the High Street was expected to be among the biggest beneficiaries of the Halloween spending boost, with Vypr’s data suggesting almost half of consumers were influenced to make spooky season purchases in-store compared to just 31% who planned to shop across social channels.
ShopperTrak Analytics’ data showed that Retail Parks saw the largest yearly increases in store visits on Halloween, up +12.6% year-on-year, while Shopping Centres also saw gains of +11.5% compared to 2024. High Streets saw a less marked year-on-year improvement in shopper traffic, rising +0.5% year-on-year on Fri 31 Oct 2025. The footfall boost continued into the weekend, with total shopper counts rising +27.6% year-on-year on Sat 01 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% 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.
