UK non-food retail sales up in June says BRC, Barclays talks of experience-focused spend

The news around UK retail sales hasn’t been great of late, but on Tuesday the regular monthly BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor showed a more encouraging development. Retail sales rose fairly strongly in June.

In fact, in the five weeks from the start of June to the first few days of July, total retail sales increased by 3.1% compared to a year ago. Back in June 2024 they’d actually fallen 0.2%.

Much of the increase was accounted for by food sales, which were up by 4.1% this time (driven by food inflation). But non-food sales managed to increase 2.2% in June against a decline of 1.9% a year earlier.

And categories including clothing, footwear, jewellery & watches, and health & beauty were all up, albeit clothing only rose modestly.

Given that a lot of the better news recently has been around online retail sales it was good to see that in-store non-food sales rose by 2.2% this time having dropped by more than that – 2.6% – in June 2024. 

It’s interesting that these figures seem to contradict recent reports about football into physical stores with some saying that consumers found it simply too hot to shop during June so footfall was weak. Could it have been inflation that was responsible for the rise? Or could we be seeing a situation where those who did decide to shop were spending more?

The online penetration rate – that is the proportion of non-food items bought online – remained at 36.6%, the same as it was a year ago, although very slightly down on the 12-month average of 36.8%.

Helen Dickinson, CEO of the British Retail Consortium, said: “Retail sales heated up in June, with both food and non-food performing well. The soaring temperatures increased sales of electric fans while sports and leisure equipment was boosted by both the weather and the start of Wimbledon. Food sales remained strong, though this was in-part driven by food inflation, which has risen steadily over the course of the year.”

And Linda Ellett, UK head of consumer, retail & leisure at KPMG, added: “Home appliances and homeware purchases helped retail sales to grow in June, as new homebuyers and those having a refresh in their current home took advantage of summer promotions both in-store and online. Warm weather and the start of the holiday season led to modest monthly growth for clothing sales. But retailers will be hoping that the buying is not yet complete and that the pace picks up further in July and August as suitcases get packed and the sun hopefully keeps shining.

Meanwhile, Separate figures from Barclays covering consumer spending rather than just retail, painted a different picture. Consumer card spending that also includes hospitality and leisure fell 0.1% year on year and essential spending (including food and fuel) was down 2.1%.

But consumers were happy to spend on experiences. Non-essential spending edged up 0.8% as summer festivals, weddings and sports events got under way. And hospitality and leisure spending grew 2.1%.