Godalming Footfall Snapshot - May 2026

May at a glance

⏱️ 54 minutes
Average dwell time

📈 +4%
Increase in footfall compared with April

💷 39%
Visitors classified as having high spend potential

☀️ Warmer weather
Helped drive stronger retail spending nationally during May

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Visitors spending longer in Godalming

Visitors spent significantly longer in Godalming town centre during May, with average dwell time increasing to 54 minutes – up by 13 minutes compared with the same month last year. The increase suggests people are taking more time to browse, shop, dine and enjoy everything the town has to offer.

Bouceback from April

May also saw footfall increase by 4% compared with April, reflecting a positive return to the town centre as the warmer weather encouraged more people to get out and about.

This mirrors wider national retail trends, with the latest Barclays consumer spending data showing growth across almost every retail category during May. Shoppers were generally spending more per transaction, helped by the warmer weather and increased consumer confidence.

Sundays remained the quietest day of the week during May, although we expect visitor patterns to evolve over the coming months as Music in the Park returns for the summer. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays continue to be the town's busiest trading days, while May also saw a couple of unexpectedly busy Mondays and Wednesdays, highlighting how visitor behaviour continues to evolve.

Summer campaign to encourage visitors from wider radius

The latest visitor profiling also shows that 39% of Godalming's visitors are classified as having high spend potential. We're using postcode insights to help shape our summer direct mail campaign, targeting households in key surrounding areas to encourage more people to visit Godalming and discover everything our town has to offer.

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What these insights could mean for your business

• Longer visits create more opportunities. Customers spending longer in town are more likely to browse, discover new businesses and make additional purchases.

• Make the most of the summer season. With warmer weather encouraging more visits plus summer events kicking off, now is a great time to refresh window displays, showcase seasonal offers and create reasons for customers to linger.

• We're targeting high-spend-potential audiences. Our summer direct mail campaign will use visitor insight data to encourage more high-spend households from across the region to visit Godalming over the coming months.

Sources: Place Informatics analysis using data from Met Office, Office for National Statistics, Barclays & Zoopla.