Figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) have revealed that footfall in November was 2.9% lower than a year ago, unchanged from October's rate and marginally below the three-month average.

High streets reported the greatest fall, down 4.2% and on a three-month basis reported their worst drop in footfall since August 2012. Footfall in out-of-town locations and shopping centres fell 2.1% and 1.0% respectively.

Helen Dickinson, British Retail Consortium Director General, said: "This figure is in line with October, and tallies with recent signs in our sales data that festive spending has got off to a slow but steady start. While some areas saw an improvement in footfall compared against the previous month, numbers were negative across the board, strengthening the sense that many of us were holding off on major shopping trips until December ushered in the final countdown to Christmas.

"Shopping centres performed the strongest of the three channels, suggesting that many people opted to condense their trips where possible so that they could cover off their Christmas lists under one roof. High streets fared less well, but were up against a comparatively strong rate in 2012.

"These figures may seem subdued, but factors like enhanced multichannel offers and Christmas day falling on Wednesday this year are changing customer habits and giving people the confidence to leave much of their spending until later. Clearly there's still all to play for: footfall has been building since the end of November and I expect this to continue now that we're less than a fortnight away from the big day."