Stratford Shopping Centre has seen a record number of shoppers thanks to the Olympic Games.

The shopping centre has seen 1.5m people visit over the period of the Games which encouraged an additional 20,000 customers a day to its shops.

A spokesman for the centre said although it is geared to meet the shopping needs of local people, it has clearly proved attractive to Olympic day trippers, officials and athletes alike, with, on average, an additional 20,000 people visiting each day.

Ahead of the Games, the Centre invested significant sums of money in improving the appearance of the front of the building and store fronts. In addition, staff numbers were increased to improve visitor experience and safety and signage was upgraded to help people unfamiliar with the local area find their way around.

Ilan Goldman of Catalyst Capital, representing the owner of the Stratford Centre, said: “We are delighted that nearly 1.5 million people visited the Stratford Centre over the Olympic period. Like everyone in the area, we worked hard to make sure that we were prepared to welcome the world and we are pleased that our efforts have resulted in a record number of visitors. We are now looking forward to the Paralympic Games commencing.”

The Stratford Centre is thriving; footfall figures have not been impacted by the opening of the Stratford City development (which includes Westfield Stratford) last year. In actual fact, footfalls have increased since Westfield opened, resulting in 23m visitors in 2011. These latest footfall figures represent an impressive 28.6 per cent increase on the same period last year. Strong performance throughout the Olympic period, with the excitement of the Paralympics yet to come, indicates that the Centre is well on course to achieve a personal best in 2012.