Drab December caps a year of struggle for high street shops

Scotland’s retailers appear to have had a “dreich” festive trading season with footfall down in December.

Sales figures for the month will be published in the coming weeks, with the sector hoping that online purchases will make up for fewer people on high streets and in shopping centres.

Across the industry’s golden quarter, from October to December, footfall was down by 2.5 per cent year on year.

For the period from November 24 to December 28, the drop was 1.5 per cent, which put Scotland in fifth place out of the 13 UK nations and regions monitored.

Growth was not recorded in any region, with a 1.1 per cent drop for southeast England the best performance and Northern Ireland, down 5.8 per cent, at