Shopper numbers were down 2.2 percent in October compared with the same month last year, Hitwise said yesterday in an emailed statement. The number of UK consumers clicking on retail websites fell 0.5 percent, the Experian Group Ltd. unit said.

Supermarkets and discount retailers will probably be among the winners this Christmas shopping season as Britons attempt to spend less, according to the report.

Higher food and energy bills have left shoppers with reduced disposable income, and the UK economy is entering its first recession since 1991. Retailers expect a "very challenging" Christmas selling season, the Confederation of British Industry said this week.

"We know all the bad news out there, we know the credit crisis has hit consumers," said Matthew Sherwood, senior global economist at Experian, the world's biggest credit-checking company. "Customers are now in retrenching mode."

Tesco Plc, Britain's biggest retailer, said this week it is planning for a slowdown in the domestic economy. Carpetright Plc Chairman Philip Harris said industry conditions are as tough as at any time in the 50 years he's worked in UK carpet retailing.

Sales are weakening as retailers add nearly 3 million square feet of new floor space this year, Experian said. London's largest shopping mall, a 265-store, glass-roofed center owned by Westfield Group and Commerzbank AG, opened Thursday.

The number of retailers seeking administration orders rose 31 percent in October, compared with the previous month, Experian said, citing its own Insolvency Report and Distress Index. The number of failures among non-food retail businesses climbed 17 percent in October from a year earlier, it added.

UK retail sales fell by 0.4 percent in September, according to the Office of National Statistics. Sales figures for the three months to Sep. 30 were 2.3 percent higher than a year ago, which was the lowest growth recorded since April 2006.

The decline in visitors to online retailers "proves that the sector is not immune," Robin Goad, director of research at Hitwise, said in the statement.