Petrol prices hit out-of-town shopping

Britons are cutting back on trips to out-of-town retail parks due to rising petrol prices and doing more of their shopping on the Internet, according to the latest retail trends survey from Experian.

The data also show a steep rise in retail business failures in the three months ended May.

"The reduction in visits to out-of-town centres is having a significant impact on retail sales," said Jonathan de Mello, Experian's director of retail consultancy.

"People generally drive to out-of-town destinations with a specific large purchase in mind and there is far less browsing than is the case in town centres."

Experian said its monthly footfall index showed shopper numbers fell 2.6 percent in June from the same month last year, and were down 5.8 percent to out-of-town destinations.

UK Internet traffic to retail websites, in contrast, was up 6.5 percent on the year, with increasingly price-conscious shoppers searching for "sales" at the highest rate since Christmas.

Experian said there were 282 non-food retail bankruptcies in the three months ended May, up almost 25 percent on the year and suggesting a "dramatic acceleration" in business failures.