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Sandra Halliday Published
March 5, 2025
And the bad news just keeps on coming. Two fresh UK retail reports on Tuesday added further evidence of February’s retail decline with Barclays and the British Retail Consortium/KPMG both issuing downbeat updates.
First Barclays, which said consumer card spending as a whole grew just 1.9% year-on-year in February – significantly lower than the latest CPIH inflation rate of 4.2% and the smallest growth since September 2025.
Admittedly, concerns about inflation, rising food prices and increasing household bills eased to their lowest levels since Barclays started tracking, while confidence in non-essential spending reached a two-year high.
Yet actual spending on non-essential items increased just 1.7% – again, the lowest growth since September 2025 – as wetter weather caused Britons to spend more time indoors and cast a cloud over the high street. Face to face non-food retail was down 2.2%.
Clothing didn’t even manage a small increase either and dropped 1% by value, although as far as transaction numbers were concerned, it was up a whole 5.2% — presumably impacted by late clearance sale discounts.
Interestingly, while department stores saw a 1% value rise and 5.1% volume rise, discount stores were down 7.8% value-wise and 12% on the volume front. Cash-strapped consumers clearly weren’t rushing to the discounters for their retail therapy.
One frequently buoyant category continued to be so however, with pharmacy/health & beauty up 6.5% by value and 2.4% by volume. With value growth outstripping volumes, those figures show this is one area where retailers are managing to push up prices and still get consumers to buy.
Meanwhile, the BRC-KPMG retail sales report said total UK retail sales increased by 1.1% year on year in February, against growth of 5.2% in February 2025.
While different reports can vary based on the different criteria used, that wasn’t so far off the Barclays figure for total consumer card spending. And the BRC’s figure for the non-food sales decline was similar to that of Barclays too, this time at 2.5%. In-store non-food sales dropped 2.3% while online they fell 4.1%.
BRC chief Helen Dickinson said: “Consumer demand was dampened by the wettest February on record, translating into a poor month of retail sales growth. Not even Valentine’s Day lifted customers out of the gloom, and gifting products that typically sell well, like jewellery and watches, failed to deliver.”
And Linda Ellett, UK Head of Consumer Markets, Leisure & Retail, KPMG, added: “Cuts in national insurance rates designed to put more money in people’s pockets have so far failed to translate to a boost to consumer spend on the high street.
“Health & beauty categories continued to drive sales both on the high street and online, whilst sales of home and dining accessories received an unexpected boost last month, as consumers moved from buying clothes to buying cushions and cooking items.”