Welcome to the Liverpool BID Company’s Business Insights Update for June 2022. Following from last month’s look at trends in topline and sector spend by month, this month we’ve continued this analysis by providing monthly spending trends by time of day and by catchment of cardholder. In the former, there were two clear patterns: for day-time spend, reaching an apex during December and Christmas, falling off in January, and then gradually increasing as the year progressed; and then for night-time spend, falling off in the approach to Christmas, and increasing, like day-time spend, as the year progressed. In the latter, the most notable takeaway was that residents and commuters drove high December spend in the Liverpool centre, and that it has been visitors from farther afield that have driven higher spend prior to and following this period. This trend is also reflected in International Spend, which was the other focus of this update: we saw higher spend coming from those with residence outside of the UK in October and November, and then in February and March. The Republic of Ireland contributed most heavily to this spend, though the lower average transaction value per card and lower total average spend per card suggest that this total spend is driven by larger numbers of visitors. In contrast, there appear to be fewer high spending visitors from Qatar, UAE, Kuwait and Oman, meaning all four feature in the top 15 most heavily contributing countries to International Spend.

As usual, we’ve also included some topline footfall analysis, transport updates, key ACC event listings, updates on up-coming openings in the BID areas, and some general news from the BID. You can read the report on this page, or access a PDF version by clicking the black button below.

Liverpool city centre footfall analysis

Did people visited Liverpool city centre in May 2022?

Footfall was 12.5% higher in May 2022 than it was in April 2022. This, in part, was driven by the return of traffic to the city following the pandemic, but is also part of a usual pattern of traffic that sees monthly footfall increase during the first half of the year toward the summer. In May 2019, for example, traffic was 16.2% higher than traffic in April 2019, and similarly, in May 2018 traffic was 5.2% higher than in April 2018.

The return to pre-pandemic levels and trends of traffic is also evident in the YoY comparison. This is the third month running that the YoY % has been within 10% of the levels seen in 2019. Significantly, the YoY figure of -5.8% was also the month second closest to being at parity with pre-pandemic figures, with the closest being March 2022. Given the changing nature of the traffic patterns in the city, it may well be the case that traffic is already at pre-pandemic levels, as evidenced by the Whitechapel and Holy Corner cameras having YoY figures for May 2022 of +20.4% and +7.6% respectively, and Williamson Square having a -56.9% YoY for the same period.

Find out more

Liverpool city centre domestic spend analysis

Does the time of year dictate what time of day people spend?

The below graph shows in-store VISA spend in L1, L2 and L3 by time of day, broken down by month, from October 2021 to March 2022.

The trend in the spending from month-to-month in the daytime (‘Morning’, ‘Lunch’ and ‘Afternoon’ periods, so from 6am to 6pm) mostly shows a gradual increase in spend as we moved toward Christmas (November higher than October, December higher than November), followed by a drop-off in January, followed by a gradual increase in spend as we moved away from Christmas (February higher than January, March higher than February).

Conversely, spend decreased in the Evening and Night times as we moved toward Christmas, but then reverted to the day time trend in increasing month-on-month as we moved away from Christmas.

From how far away did people travel to spend in Liverpool and when?

The below graph shows in-store VISA spend in L1, L2 and L3 by catchment of where the cardholder resides, broken down by month, from October 2021 to March 2022.

The following can be observed by the data:

Spend in December 2021 (Christmas period) was driven predominantly by residents (those travelling from within 10km of th city) and commuters (those travelling into the city from between 11km and 30km away)
Tourist spend (those travelling from farther than 50km away ) is significantly higher in October than in other months, with November also being higher than the baseline seen in December, February and March
Spend from the broader region (31km to 40km away) is reasonably stable and flat regardless of the month or toerh fluctuations in the spend

Liverpool city centre international spend analysis

Our data partners at Movement Strategies have now been able to provide us with VISA spend that is coming from outside of the UK (International Spend). The next few pages will focus on International spend and its implications.

This first graph (below) simply shows the total in-store spend on VISA in L1, L2 and L3 from cardholders with residence outside of the UK.

There are two notable trends in this data:

The first is that spend coming from outside the UK is at its lowest during the Christmas period and its aftermath. By interference we can say that the high December spend is predominantly driven by UK residents
The second pattern we can see is that spend coming from outside of the UK is gradually increasing as we move toward summer, with March 2022 having significantly higher spend than other months.

Which countries have contributed most to International Spend?

The below graph shows the monthly spend, from October 2021 to March 2022, of the 10 highest contributing countries to in-store VISA spend in L1, L2 and L3, based on where the cardholders reside outside the UK.

By some distance, cardholders who live the Republic of Ireland have spent the most in L1, L2 and L3 over this period, contributing from between 26% (October) and 37% (February) of the total spend for that month. Given the overall high international spend in March 2022, this was the month with the highest spend coming specifically from the Republic of Ireland, at £880k.

The US was the next highest contributor to spend, consistently at around 10% of total international spend, followed by Norway (potentially from footfall fans), and Kuwait, Qatar and China Mainland (potentially from students). Spain and France also feature, and just outside the top-10 was Germany, Denmark, India and Canada.

Average transaction amount by country

The above graph shows, by month, the average amount per in-store transaction in L1, L2 and L3 on VISA cards from cardholders whose residence is outside of the UK.

The following trends are noticeable from the data:

Republic of Ireland’s high total contribution is due to a higher number of relatively smaller transactions
Qatar (in particular), Kuwait and UAE have fewer, but considerably higher, transaction values making up their total contributions to the spend
January and February were the months where average transaction value consistently dropped
March didn’t have particularly high average transaction values, meaning the total high spend in March was driven by number of transactions rather than size

Average card spend by country

The above graph shows, by month, the average amount spent per VISA card in-store in L1, L2 and L3 from cardholders whose residence it outside of the UK.

The following trends are noticeable from the data:

For Qatar (again in particular), Kuwait, UEA and Oman, the amount spent per card is even more pronounced than the average transaction value, suggesting that the total spend coming from these locations is by a few individuals spending a considerable amount
Total amounts on cards from European destinations (Republic of Ireland, Spain, France, Germany and Denmark) is relatively low, potentially suggesting that shorter and more frequent stays are contributing to the total amount being spent by cardholders from these places

What to be aware of in June 2022 and onward…

Events at the ACC

Watch out for the following events at the ACC in the coming weeks:

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons: Tuesday 28 June
UCAS Higher Education Convention: Tuesday 28 June
Fit XPO: Friday 1 to Sunday 3 July
Rob Brydon: Monday 11 July
Sarah Millican: Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 July
UB40: Friday 29 July
Mersey Beatles: Saturday 30 July
Paw Patrol Live: Sunday 31 July

If you would like to receive ACC’s monthly event listing directly into your inbox, contact rachel.kennedy@accliverpool.com

Opening watch

Please see below the predicted dates of the major new openings in the coming months:

Decathlon (Church Street): NOW OPEN! See here for more information.
Cheers Big Ears (Bold Street): NOW OPEN! See here for more information.
So Salsa (Castle Street): NOW OPEN! See here for more information.
Nova Scotia (Mann Island): opening in Summer 2022. Read details here.
Flannels (Parker Street): opening June 2022
Zenn Liverpool (Victoria Street): opening Summer 2022. Read details here.
Albert Schloss (Bold Street): opening Autumn 2022. See here for more information.
Radisson Red (Lime Street): opening soon. See here for more information.