{"id":690450,"date":"2026-07-14T03:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T03:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/690450\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T03:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T03:40:11","slug":"world-cup-and-sunshine-prompt-uk-consumers-to-splash-out-on-beer-and-online-shopping-consumer-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/690450\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup and sunshine prompt UK consumers to splash out on beer and online shopping | Consumer spending"},"content":{"rendered":"

Relentless sunshine and the World Cup coaxed consumers to spend more on beer and online shopping last month, with purse strings expected to remain loose as England<\/a> fans gear up for Wednesday\u2019s semi-final.<\/p>\n

Most people remain pessimistic about the UK economy, according to data from Barclays<\/a> Bank based on debit and credit card transactions.<\/p>\n

However, the start of the summer\u2019s football helped consumers put their worries to one side and indulge in pints of beer, paddling pools and handheld electric fans, with almost half of the latter expected to end up in landfill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Spending increased by 1.9% year on year in June, still below the 3% rate of consumer inflation but a marked pickup from the more lacklustre 0.8% recorded in May.<\/p>\n

Pubs have experienced the biggest boost, thanks in part to football fans taking advantage of extended opening hours, Barclays\u2019 consumer spending report found. England\u2019s group stage victory over Panama emerged as the busiest day of 2026 so far, with takings five times higher than the daily average for the year.<\/p>\n

On a year-on-year basis, England\u2019s draw with Ghana resulted in the biggest uplift, as card users in pubs spent 244% more than they did on the same day in 2025, possibly because of a relative lack of action that gave fans time to go to the bar.<\/p>\n

The round of 16 victory over Mexico registered a 201.5% increase, measured over Sunday and Monday to reflect the game kicking off in the small hours.<\/p>\n

The data does not capture England\u2019s quarter-final win over Norway but figures released by Dojo, a card payments company, showed a 23% increase in takings compared with the previous Saturday. The on-pitch action inspired the greatest thirst in Southampton, where full-day sales almost doubled compared with the week before. In Newcastle upon Tyne, pub sales were only 11% higher than a normal Saturday.<\/p>\n

Before the game, estimates suggested England\u2019s progress to the quarter-final could be worth \u00a3385m to the economy<\/a> and \u00a3500m when factoring in all four games in that round.<\/p>\n

On Monday, with about 48 hours until the semi-final against Argentina kicks off, the British Beer<\/a> and Pub Association predicted the game would lead to an extra 6m pints poured, a bigger increase than on New Year\u2019s Eve. The Night Time Industries Association, which also includes other types of venue such as bars and nightclubs, has forecast an increase of up to \u00a380m for the sector.<\/p>\n

The sweltering weather, as Britain feels the effects of the climate crisis<\/a>, has had a similar impact to the football, the data shows.<\/p>\n

The record-breaking heatwave prompted consumers to overhaul their wardrobes, resulting in a 2.4% increase in clothing sales, Barclays said, while department stores \u2013 many of which are air-conditioned \u2013 fared particularly well, up 9.7%.<\/p>\n

However, a separate report indicated that the heat drove most consumers to buy online rather than braving the elements on the high street.<\/p>\n

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Non-food sales in shops declined by 1.1% compared with last June, according to figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, online non-food sales jumped by 5.1% over the same period, well above the 12-month average growth rate of 1.5%.<\/p>\n

The online penetration rate \u2013 the proportion of non-food items bought online \u2013 climbed to 39% from 37.7% in June last year.<\/p>\n

While online retailers benefited, the BRC issued a warning about the pressure on high street shops.<\/p>\n

\u201cElectric fans and paddling pools performed well, as people looked to cool off, while the lure of the sunshine meant that gaming and big-ticket sales struggled,\u201d said Helen Dickinson, the BRC chief executive.<\/p>\n

\u201cA heatwave doesn\u2019t just change how customers shop \u2013 it makes retail operations more challenging, from keeping shelves stocked to keeping products and people cool. These pressures come on top of rising business rates, higher employment taxes and ongoing global uncertainty, all of which are squeezing retailers\u2019 ability to invest, create jobs and keep prices down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Relentless sunshine and the World Cup coaxed consumers to spend more on beer and online shopping last month,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-690450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}