A new study by property consultants Savills has revealed the effect rainfall on ‘Black Friday’ had on one of Dublin city’s most prominent shopping centre’s – Jervis.

According to data sourced from Dublin Town, pedestrian movements on Grafton Street, Henry Street and Mary Street shot up to 318,910 on Black Friday (27th November) - an increase of nearly 25% over the previous week. However, although there was a dramatic week-on-week increase, footfall on Dublin’s main shopping streets was down by 3.5% compared with Black Friday 2014.

According to Savills, one explanation for this phenomenon might be the weather. 4.3mm of rain fell in Dublin on 27th November, whereas Black Friday was dry in 2014. This becomes more apparent when compared with footfall at The Jervis Centre – a 35,000 sq m city centre mall with around 70 stores. Footfall in the scheme throughout 2015 increased by over 10% - capping off a very strong year which saw an annual visitor rate of 14.1 million.

Footfall at the Centre on 27th November was 78,838, a 68% increase on the previous Friday. Consistent with the street footfall data, the Jervis figures also show that Black Friday kick-started a period of higher footfall that continued until Christmas.

Notably, however, whereas the outdoor footfall indicates an annual decline in footfall on Black Friday, the Jervis Centre data show exactly the opposite. Despite a slight fall in overall city centre pedestrian movements – probably because of the rain - the number of shoppers entering the centre actually rose by 51% compared with 2014.
Darragh Cronin, Divisional Director at Savills commented;

“Having the benefit of being situated on Ireland’s busiest shopping street has ensured Jervis has retained exceptional visitor numbers. Coupled with this, the unique tenant mix includes Ireland’s only Forever 21, the largest New Look in the world and a host of other flagship retailers – such as Next, Boots and Bershka.”