Early-year momentum builds as customers and visits rise
January 2026 delivered a steady and encouraging start to the year for Sheffield, with several indicators pointing to a strengthening city centre. Total sales were slightly down year‑on‑year (-2.1%), but this headline figure masks some notably positive underlying trends.
Sheffield saw both customer numbers (+3.0%) and transactions (+3.7%) increase compared with January 2025 — a clear contrast to the national picture, where the GB benchmark continued to report declining customers (-2.2%) and transactions (-3.1%). This suggests that more people are choosing to visit, stay and engage with Sheffield’s city centre offer despite wider retail pressures.
The pattern of rising activity but slightly lower Average Transaction Value (-5.6%) and Average Revenue per Customer (-5.0%) provides valuable insight into how people are spending. Shoppers are clearly more active, making more frequent visits and smaller purchases — a sign of everyday engagement with the city centre.
This aligns with the strong performance of essential and habitual sectors: Food & Drink delivered a standout +13.1% increase, far surpassing national growth (+0.7%), and Grocery also held firm (+0.6%). Meanwhile, more discretionary categories such as Fashion and Tourism faced ongoing pressures, mirroring national trends. Encouragingly, local shopper loyalty continues to strengthen.
Spend from Sheffield City Council residents rose by +2.2 percentage points to 67.6% of all sales, indicating that residents are increasingly choosing the city centre for regular, everyday purchases. This growing local base, combined with continued spend from the rest of the UK, reinforces Sheffield’s position as both a community hub and a regional destination.
Taken together, these indicators point to a city centre that is resilient, attracting more people, and maintaining strong levels of engagement. While spend per visit remains cautious, the growth in customers and transactions provides a strong base to build on — and a clear opportunity to convert increased footfall into higher‑value spending as confidence improves through 2026.
Some of this increased activity is likely to have been supported by the Ice Skating Championships. While the main competition took place outside the city centre, the fan zone was hosted within the BID area and helped bring in additional visitors during January.
Diane Jarvis, Chief Executive Officer:
“January’s rise in activity shows that people are choosing to spend more time in the city centre, and we’re pleased the BID was able to support that in what is typically a quieter trading time. As a funding partner for the Ice Skating Championships fan zone - delivered by Sheffield City Council with support from UK Sport - we helped ensure that some of the associated activity took place right here in the BID area.
"While wider spending patterns remain cautious, creating opportunities for businesses to benefit from increased footfall is an important part of our role, and we’ll continue to back initiatives that bring people into the heart of Sheffield.”
