B&M Insights | UK Shopping Statistics

---

Ever interested in the world of retail and shopping and how the industry is changing around us, we conducted a comprehensive study into the latest UK shopping statistics.

Our research extended to how much the average household spends, what the most popular retail products are in the UK, which regions spend the most and the least, what bizarre things people are buying and we also took a look at how shopping behaviours change depending on the season and even the weather.

These retail statistics uncover the shopping habits of the nation; so read on to find out exactly what weird and wonderful products Brits are spending their money on, and what they’re searching for online too.

Key UK Shopping Statistics

• The average household is estimated to spend around £572.60 every week.
• Of all European countries, the UK has the highest percentage (over 80%) of those who have bought products online.
• More people than ever are treating their dogs more like humans, with rising search trends including ‘dog car seats’, ‘dog friendly pubs’ and even ‘vegan dog food’.
• Our seasonal research indicated that Mother’s Day trumped Valentine’s Day in searching with shopping intent, while Christmas is still the most shopped for seasonal event.
• The North East has the lowest average weekly spend, and London and the South East has the highest. With spends in this region averaging out at around £650 per week.

UK Online Retail Statistics

The UK Has The Highest Percentage Of Online Shoppers

Research showed an increase in online sales on home turf. Of the listed European countries, the UK came out on top for the percentage of online transactions. During 2017, over 80% of all residents in the UK said that they had made at least one online purchase.

From data extracted by B&M, it has been found that:

In the non-shop store sector (which relates to retailers that don’t have a physical store, such as market stalls and catalogue-order businesses), the vast majority of sales were completed online - 78%.

Non-specialist stores (including department stores) sell around 18% of their products via the internet, which is the average for all types of stores.

Shops selling predominantly food (including supermarkets) sell only 6% of goods via the internet.

But all of these sectors have experienced huge growth in internet retailing. For example, over the year to August 2018, internet sales in department stores increased by 26% and food stores (including supermarkets) saw growth of 6%. Internet sales in total have increased by 14% on the year.

Food to go is growing much faster than grocery in the UK. According to data, “food-to-go” is expected to increase from £16.1 billion in 2016 to £21.7 billion in 2021.

How Much Does The Average Household Spend?

Average weekly household spending in the UK was £572.60 in the financial year ending (FYE) 2018. There has been an increasing trend in household spending in recent years following a low point in 2012. This is the highest level of household spending, after adjusting for inflation, since the previous peak in FYE 2005.

The chart below gives a breakdown of the categories where people are spending.

We see that within “Household goods and services: £40.70 per week (7.1%), it is mainly furniture (within furniture, garden furniture is only a very small % of this - garden furniture sits at £0.60 per week) and furnishings, carpets and floor coverings which make up most of the spend. Along with routine household maintenance (cleaning goods) and then appliances (dishwashers, microwaves, vacuum cleaners).

Looking at the trends in the high-spending categories, spending on transport remains the highest, over £10 a week higher in FYE 2018 than the lowest point in 2012. For housing, fuel and power, spending showed a general rise to a high in 2013, since then it has been fairly stable.

Considering the medium-sized spending categories, spending on food and non-alcoholic drinks has remained fairly constant across time, with the average spend in FYE 2018 (£60.60) being almost identical to the starting point of the series in FYE 2002 (£60.70).

Spending on restaurants and hotels showed a steady decrease until 2013 after which there were a few years of increase, but in the year FYE 2017 to FYE 2018 there has been a £2.00 decrease in average spend, with households spending an average of £49.60 a week on restaurants and hotels in FYE 2018.

Spending on alcoholic drinks and tobacco has shown a general downward trend over time, though remaining stable over the last three years.

Households with a head aged 50 to 74 years spent almost a quarter of their housing expenditure costs on alterations and improvements in FYE 2018.

Average weekly household expenditure on household goods and services (from the categories in the interactive chart above), is actually higher in the South East of England (£49.30 per week) than in London (£43.20).

Household Spend - Regional Statistics

The average household spend is detailed in the graph below. It can be seen that the North East has the lowest average weekly spend, and London and the South East has the highest. With spends in this region averaging out at around £650 per week.

Are People Spending More Online Or Offline?

With the recent rise of online shopping, it can be thought that a vast majority of products are now brought online. But actually, our research has indicated that this isn’t the case.

Which of course is solidified with the fact that many brands who do not have an e-commerce site are still performing well and are even outperforming competitors.

The below graph outlines online sales vs. offline sales, and illustrates how much is spent by British consumers in stores as opposed to online on e-commerce sites.

Interesting Shopping Statistics

• British households spend an average of £30,000 on their gardens over the course of a lifetime. £10,000 was spent on plants whereas £9,000 was spent on patios and decking. Assuming 50 years of gardening after purchasing a first house.
• The overall retail market value for gardening in the UK is about £5 billion.
• 50% of the sales which occur within the UK toy industry each year happen within the 8 weeks before the Christmas holiday. (Toy Retailers’ Association).
• On average, about £350 is spent on each child, between the ages of 0 to 9, for new toys over the course of a year. The average price of a new toy that is purchased is GBP 8.95.
• Based on Met Office analysis of weather data, a report from the Met Office and British Retail Consortium states that there is a "clear relationship" between temperature and retail sales.
• The impact is strongest during the summer to autumn transition, from mid-August to early October, when warmer weather delays the purchase of autumn-winter ranges, the report reveals.
• Over that period, for each degree warmer it is than the previous year, growth in sales is reduced by 1.1%, equivalent to around 40 million pounds per week, according to the British Retail Consortium.
• Temperature differences can explain more than 70% of year-to-year variations in the growth of men’s clothing in mid-September to early October and can reduce the rate of sales growth by 2.4 percentage points for each degree it is warmer than the previous year, equivalent to 6 million pounds a week, the Weather to Shop report states.

Seasonal Shopping Statistics

Mother’s And Father’s Day Statistics

Our research has found that search interest for Mother’s Day hit its peak in 2017, dipping down again in 2018.

Over the past five years, two queries illustrate children or younger people getting more involved with gifting to their mothers. Two queries where the search volume has increased by 5000% over the past five years are - “first mothers day gift” and “mothers day cards to make in school”.

Over the long term, Father’s Day has started to converge with the search interest for Mother’s Day in the UK (particularly over the past 5 years). This is seen on the chart below. With the anomaly of 2017, where Mother’s Day saw a much bigger spike.

Interestingly, in 2010 the search interest for Father’s Day was bigger than that for Mother’s Day for the first time in Google’s tracked web history.

So the data concludes that Father’s Day has become more popular in recent years and more children than ever are getting involved with gifting their Mums on Mother’s Day.

Valentine’s Day Statistics

Also interesting is to compare the “Shopping” interest containing purchase intent in specific holidays or days of the year to see where Mother’s Day stacks up.

Mother’s Day consistently outperforms Valentine’s Day for shopping queries in the UK (over the past five years).

In 2018, Mother’s Day had 2.2x the shopping search interest of Valentine’s Day.

What this online data shows us is that Mother’s Day gifting is more popular than Valentine’s Day gifting.

Christmas Shopping Statistics

Christmas has retained high interest through shopping queries over the past five years.

What data shows to us is that Christmas still comes out on top for being the most popular shopped-for seasonal event.

Bizzare Shopping Trends

Our research has also uncovered that when it comes to searching for products to shop for, some Brits have pretty bizarre queries.

Upon analysing online shopping trends, some of the rising queries were:

• “Dog-friendly pubs near me” (+3,050%)
• “Dog grooming near me” (+1,250%)
• “Dog-friendly restaurants near me” (+750%)
• “Can dogs eat strawberries” (+300%)
• “Can dogs eat tomatoes” (+250%)
• “Can dogs eat apples” (+200%)
• “Can dogs eat bananas” (+160%)

Which clearly indicates to us that pampered pooches are becoming much more of a thing.

People are revealing in their searching behaviour that they are increasingly treating dogs more like people and are factoring them into decisions about which pubs and restaurants they go to and how they feed them.

Some of the rising “dog treat” queries from the past five years in the UK are as below, it reflects the growing trend of people treating dogs like humans (anthropomorphism) as dietary trends or product patterns from the human world trickle down into the dog world:

• “Grain-free dog treats” (+5,000%)
• “Liver cake dog treats” (+5,000%)
• “CBD dog treats” (+5,000%)
• “Liver cake for dog treats” (+5,000%)
• “Raw dog treats” (+750%)
• “Low-fat dog treats” (+300%)
• “Homemade dog treats” (+250%)
• “Christmas dog treats” (+250%)
• “Peanut butter dog treats” (+250%)
• “Organic dog treats” (+140%)
• “Natural dog treats” (+110%)

At the beginning of 2019 (over the past 90 days), there have even been rising queries around vegan dog food, once again the human trend of Veganuary, filtering down into dog’s products. “Vegan dog food” has seen a 1,300% increase in search volume over the past 90 days (since late March) in the UK.

In terms of dog grooming, people are even looking to do it themselves, taking extra care with their pets. Two breakout queries over the past five years have been around dog grooming courses “near me”.

People are even searching for dog seats in cars...

The search interest in Google is still only less than ? that of baby seats in the UK, but the gap has closed in the past five years.

As dog seats went from less than 10% of the search interest of baby seats in 2014 and are now just under ? at the maximum point of annual interest.

Rising queries in the UK include:

• “Seat belts for dogs” (+5,000%)
• “Dog seat belt clip” (+600%)
• “Dog harness for car” (+300%)
• “Dog seat belt law” (+300%)
• “Dog booster seat UK” (+130%)

Conclusion & Sources

This data has been analysed from a variety of sources to provide a comprehensive list of the latest shopping statistics. Sources include: