The disorder followed anti-immigration protests in England which spread to Northern Ireland following the fatal stabbings of three young girls in Southport.
According to NI Retail Consortium (NIRC), shoppers stayed away in response to the disorder, which saw the destruction of three businesses.
Neil Johnston, director of the NIRC, said there was growth of 1.4% in footfall here across the whole of August, despite the disorder at the beginning of the month.
The rate of increase was a contrast to a fall of 2.2% in July, and was also the best performance of all UK regions.
In fact, the UK as a whole faced a year-on-year decrease of 0.4% in August.
NIRC and Sensormatic IQ, which provides the figures, said shopping centre footfall dropped in Northern Ireland in August by 2.4% — an improvement on July’s decline of 3.8%.
But Mr Johnston said the impact of the disorder was clear, despite things picking up later in the month.
“Belfast saw a decline of 0.2% compared to last year,” he said, “and when we look at the detailed weekly figures, we see that the last two weeks in August have been quite good.
“It is clear, however, that the first two weeks of the month were poor.
“The street disorder and protests in small areas of Belfast, and in particular around the city centre, unsurprisingly deterred shoppers.”
He added: “Retailers are very grateful for the work of the police in dealing with the disorder and, thankfully, damage was relatively slight compared to other cities.
“We very much hope that retailers and their staff can concentrate on continuing to work to provide vibrant shopping experiences for their customers and that there is no further disruption.
“In Northern Ireland, retailers and consumers are experienced in getting back to normal as quickly as possible and focusing on the positives going forward.”
Mr Johnston warned, however, that the number of shoppers in general was continuing to decline slightly year on year.
“August wasn’t too bad, with only modest declines across England and Wales, and Northern Ireland leading the way with a welcome 1.4% increase compared to the year before,” he explained.
Andy Sumpter, retail consultant for Sensormatic Solutions, said: “Despite the unrest at the beginning of the month, a strong footfall performance in the second half of August, helped by an easing of price inflation, fair weather and a boost from school and bank holiday trade, saw year-on-year shopper traffic rise to its highest level since March.
“With all destination types improving on July’s visitor numbers, retailers will be hoping that the resilience seen in August, with footfall returning a positive year-on-year performance for the second time in the past six months, will lead to longer-term growth for store traffic.”
Earlier this year, Sainsbury’s chief executive Simon Roberts said he believed the business was benefiting from people returning to the office and shopping online less.