The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) said June, which saw the worst performance since January 2015 and significantly below the three-month average of -1.1 per cent, was the third month in the past year without any growth in footfall.

All regions and nations of the UK recorded a decline in footfall in June.

However, there were more significant declines in footfall in Northern Ireland and Wales, where year-on-year decline reached 3.5 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.

David Lonsdale, SRC director, said: “Shopper footfall tumbled once again in Scotland last month, for a second successive period and at a quicker pace than experienced in May.

“Whilst these results are undoubtedly sluggish, it has to be borne in mind that this is only the third month in the past year where footfall growth wasn’t in positive territory. Until the June data for Scottish retail sales is published later this week we won’t know if this decrease in footfall has had any measurable impact on actual sales.”

He added: “Retailers will however be hoping that the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s twiddling of the fiscal dials in the Budget earlier this month will help lift consumer spirits and generate greater levels of confidence and propensity to spend going forward.”

Diane Wehrle, marketing and insights director at Springboard, said: “The 2.4 per cent drop in footfall is an acceleration of the decline of 1.8 per cent in May.

“The majority of this acceleration was derived from a worsening of shopping centre performance, with greater drops in footfall in every month since January, from just -1 per cent in January to -6.0 per cent in June.

“This, together with the drop in footfall in Scotland’s high streets is undoubtedly a function of the continuing dilution of shopper numbers through online trading.”