📉💡 UK High Street Transformation: Data & Visual Analytics 🧐 Overview This project explores the seismic transformation of the UK retail sector from 2015 to 2025. Through curated data analysis and clear visual storytelling, it reveals the “What, Why, Who, and Where” behind the dramatic changes facing the British high street.
🎯 Objectives Quantify the scale and acceleration of UK store closures
Analyze the rise of e-commerce and its impact on traditional retail
Uncover the human cost with employment trends
Expose regional differences and the emerging digital divide
Provide actionable insights for retailers, policymakers, and analysts
📊 Key Visuals & Steps 📉 The What: Store Closures Over Time Visualizes the relentless rise in UK retail store closures, putting the scale of challenge into perspective.
📈 The Why: E-commerce Share of Retail Sales Charts the explosive growth of online sales—from 5% to over 25%—providing crucial context for the physical decline.
👥 The Who: Employment Trends in Retail Shows falling employment across full-time and part-time roles, adding a powerful human dimension.
🌍 The Where: Regional Scatter Plot Reveals how e-commerce penetration and store closures interact locally, highlighting the UK’s evolving “digital divide.”
📁 Project Structure /data/ : Cleaned datasets (private/optional)
/notebooks/ : Analytic code and chart scripts
/figures/ : Final publication-ready visualizations
README.md : Key context, story, and usage
🔎 Main Insights Store closures have accelerated since 2015, with sharp upticks since 2020.
E-commerce’s share has surged, becoming the key driver of retail disruption.
Retail job losses are substantial, revealing the social and economic impact.
The digital divide is real: regional impacts are uneven, bringing both unique local risks and opportunities.
🚀 Usage Instantly use the /figures/ visuals in reports, presentations, or posts
Reproduce or adapt the analysis via the scripts/notebooks for broader research or new datasets
Spark discussion, inform policymaking, or inspire strategy—this repo is built to be shared
🤝 Contributing Questions, suggestions, and contributions are very welcome! Open an issue or pull request to help enhance or extend this analysis.