2023 Ranking of the Europe's busiest out-of-town shopping destinations

The Mytraffic ranking quantifies the real attractiveness of these areas that are sometimes criticized. The figures are implacable: out-of-town shopping areas continue to receive tens of millions of visitors every day.

Data stories aims to decipher these areas in each European country, what makes them special and how retailers continue to remain attractive.

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Europe's busiest out-of-town shopping destination

43 millions The annual visit to West Thurrock. The first British retail area is a real showcase for the brands that set up shop. there.
6 millions The average annual shopping destination footfall in the United Kingdom.
1900 The number of European retail areas analyzed for this ranking.

The study shows that we have to take into account the urban peripheries, simply because it is there that we find the largest concentrations of visitors.

Hakim Saadaoui CEO, Mytraffic

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Focus on the British retail areas

Most of the UK’s largest shopping centres were born out of the country’s industrial past. Built on former chalk quarries, industrial brownfield sites or agricultural land, the majority of these sites completed towards the end of the 1990s were the subject of renovation and/or extension projects in the early noughties. With an average of 6 million people passing through their 275 peripheral shopping areas each year, the UK has attracted retailers with innovative locations. The winning out-of-town retail areas are distinctive for their individual architectural features - the futuristic style of the Trafford and Bristol centres - or landscaping: West Thurrock, Stone and Tamworth all have their own lake. The five busiest areas in the UK all have Boots, JD Sports, Marks & Spencer, New Look, River Island and WH Smith stores.

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About Mytraffic

Mytraffic is the digital grade intelligence platform for physical places. Our SaaS platform provides accurate and dynamic information about physical locations: shopping centres, streets and city centres. We transform raw data into actionable insights and empower clients’ decisions, so they create physical experiences that matter. Our insights are accessible on a platform that is easy to access on demand.

Created in 2015, Mytraffic is growing fast, has more than 400 customers and is already present in 7 countries: France, England, The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Spain.

Methodology

Mytraffic's traffic counts in retail areas aggregate vehicle and pedestrian flows and come from the adjustment of raw data from a representative sample. The raw data is collected via connected vehicles and mobile applications.

Mytraffic has counted the global traffic of more than 1,900 retail activity areas in Europe. The perimeters used include the entire shopping area, especially if it includes a shopping center and a retail park.

One visit corresponds to one person entering the shopping area. If a person returns several times a day to the same perimeter, he or she is counted once a day.