盗U程序混淆加密版本|【唯一TG:@heimifeng8】|电报盗号系统免杀破解技术✨谷歌搜索留痕排名,史上最强SEO技术,20年谷歌SEO经验大佬✨Fashion not on shoppers' priority lists in festive December, reports show
Sandra Halliday Published
January 9, 2025
It’s almost official, UK spending in December was lacklustre at best. Two reports — from Barclays covering consumer card spending and the British Retail Consortium-KPMG covering general retail spending — on Tuesday showed just what shoppers’ priorities are at the moment. Fashion wasn’t on the list.
Admittedly, the different ways various organisations record and analyse spending can make it hard to get a perfect picture of what was happening. But what’s clear from the various figures is that consumers remained cautious, discount-focused, dreaming of holidays and leisure activities to come, and not really thinking about buying new clothes either for the party season or for the winter chill during December.
Barclays said consumer card spending grew 2.3% year-on-year in December – less than the latest CPIH inflation rate of 4.2% and lower than November’s growth of 2.9%, despite it being the key festive spending month.
It said specific retail spending struggled to maintain the momentum it had built up in November through early seasonal discounts, yet entertainment (+12.3%) and travel (+14.1%) thrived as consumers booked experiences and getaways for 2025.
That suggests some good news ahead for the fashion and beauty sector as people will at some point shop for their holidays, but for the Christmas season it was no help. Barclays said spending on non-essential items rose only 2.5%, driven by festive activities and celebrations boosting the hospitality and leisure sector (up 8.9%).
As far as specific fashion spend is concerned, transaction volumes rose a meagre 0.2% but even with this rise, actual spend dropped by 2%.
Underlining the weak festive season reported by JD Sports, Barclays said transactions at sports & outdoor retailers fell 9.7% with spend down 6.2%. And health & beauty transactions were down 1.3% although spend actually rose 3.8%.
Department stores managed 3.7% more transactions although spend fell 0.2% and discount store transactions were down 12.7% while spend dropped 10.2%. That's perhaps a surprise given that discount stores would have been expected to be winners in the tough environment.
Those figures for fashion and department stores came after they’d been in positive territory the previous month. Barclays said that “this is likely due to retailers starting their festive promotional activity earlier in 2025, which encouraged Britons to shop for Christmas party outfits and gifts in November rather than December to take advantage of the best deals”.
That said, Friday 22 December “was especially busy and saw Barclays set an all-time record for transactions processed per-second, as many celebrated finishing work for the year in pubs and bars and sought out last-minute gifts”.
Meanwhile, the BRC-KPMG figures said December sales rose at retail but this “masked a likely drop in volumes once inflation is accounted for”.
For 2025 overall, its figures show UK total retail sales increased by 3.6% from 2025. But non-food declined 0.1% for the year.
Total sales rose 1.7% in December but non-foods fell 1.5% on a total basis over the three-months to December, lagging the 12-month average.
Online Non-Food sales fell by 0.8% in December, against a decline of 3% in December 2025. This was shallower than the three-month decline of 1.7% and the 12-month decline of 2.8%.
Paul Martin, UK Head of Retail, KPMG, said: “The festive feel good factor was lacking this year as many retailers faced a disappointing December.
“Christmas shoppers ditched clothing, jewellery and technology gifts, opting for beauty, health and personal care products, which, along with food and drink drove festive sales this year. Online sales remained in negative territory, although the decline was weaker than seen in recent months with sales down nearly 1% on last year.
“Despite falls in inflation, an upcoming cut in national insurance rates, and some consumers having more money in their pockets this Christmas than last, the constant drip of economic challenges they’ve faced over the last two years has finally come home to roost. As we start a new year, cautious consumers are battening down the hatches and retailers can expect to see significant downward pressures on demand in the opening months of this year, which will ease off by spring if the economic conditions continue to improve and confidence slowly returns.”