The COVID-19 pandemic led to a concurrent drop in sales, but a movement towards online shopping. This growth led to an increasing revenue of 6.3–9.2% per annum predicted in 2018. Even post- the lockdowns and associated retail closures, shops continued to require, then later, advise mask-wearing until spring 2022.īefore the pandemic there was an emerging pattern of growth in the online sales of footwear, with increased accessibility driven by widespread internet access. 28% of British adults reported doing more online shopping for shoes and/or clothing in this time compared to pre-pandemic. Closing retail outlets increased online shopping, with online sales recording a high of 34% of all retail sales in May 2020. These had substantial impact on the economy and the total volume of retail sales fell 1.9% from the previous year. Alongside retail closures measures were implemented such as furloughing staff, job losses, school closures and a mandate to work at home. These restrictions led to a considerable drop in customers entering retail stores compared to the year prior, approximately 80% in the first week of the first national lockdown. Further large-scale closure of retail occurred with national ‘lockdowns’ 5th November to 2nd December 2020 and 5th January 2021 to 12 April 2021. for the rest of 2020, determined by local COVID-19 rates and hospital admissions. Non-essential retail reopened in June, but further regional closures followed throughout the U.K. The COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of non-essential retail stores on 23rd March 2020 in the U.K. Assessing footwear fit in children can include assessment of foot length and an adequate toe allowance, requirements which have traditionally been assessed in a retail store with a range of shoes to try on. Other challenges may be related to footwear preference in children and the importance of social fit of footwear, which again differs with age and becoming more important in children of a school age. Some of these challenges likely relate to the inconsistent and rapid growth rates across childhood. Achieving appropriate footwear fit in children is challenging, with reports highlighting that more than half of children wear footwear that doesn’t fit appropriately. During infancy we can anticipate foot length increasing by an average 2 mm per month, but by school age this declines to less than 1 mm. The feet are important for supporting gross motor development and simultaneously are changing in shape and dimensions at variable rates throughout childhood. Increased searches for online resources regarding footwear fit highlights the importance of ensuring high quality accessible online information on footwear fit is available to support those buying footwear for their children.įootwear fit is key to ensure that footwear supports foot health, particularly in children. ![]() This was also maintained post-pandemic despite shops reopening, suggesting that some of these changes in information reflect new consumer behaviours which may continue. We saw reductions in searching related to fit of school shoes as schools closed indefinitely and an increase in online searches with the pandemic. We identified increased searching for footwear fit information for children during the pandemic, which reduced following post pandemic in all except the searches which related to school shoes. The search terms reflected parents/carers searching for footwear fit information relating to children and were grouped by style of footwear: children, infants, babies and toddlers as well as school shoes. national lockdown (2) the first eight weeks of the calendaryear (3) the eight weeks leading up to children going back-to-school for the new academic year in the U.K. ![]() We collected data spanning the three years pre, during and post the main national lockdown for three eight-week windows: (1) first eight weeks of the U.K. We employed Google Trends to obtain search engine traffic related to footwear fitting information for children. A secondary aim was to identify how searches were influenced by footwear style. The primary aim of this work was to explore how searches for online fitting information for children changed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown periods. This likely would have included parents/carers seeking information online to support footwear purchases for their children. Simultaneously increased use of social media platforms for health information seeking throughout the pandemic have been documented. Access to appropriate footwear is important but recent challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in closure of retail stores for prolonged periods where parents/carers could not physically purchase footwear for their children and the footwear industry suffered disruption to their supply chain, and falls in retail sales. Selecting footwear with appropriate fit in children is challenging due the changes with foot size and dimensions which occur throughout childhood.
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