{"id":709012,"date":"2026-07-24T15:28:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/709012\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T15:28:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:28:18","slug":"record-heat-sends-online-retail-sales-to-five-year-high-in-great-britain-retail-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/709012\/","title":{"rendered":"Record heat sends online retail sales to five-year high in Great Britain | Retail industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Online sales reached their highest share of retail spending in five years last month as record heat<\/a> fuelled demand for air conditioners, outdoor products and clothing.<\/p>\n

The Office for National Statistics<\/a> (ONS) said the volume of retail sales in Great Britain rose 1% month on month in June, beating analysts\u2019 expectations of a 0.3% decline, helped by hot weather and World Cup spending.<\/p>\n

Heatwave conditions pushed year-on-year sales up 4.2% in June, almost double analysts\u2019 expectations of 2.3%.<\/p>\n

Hannah Finselbach, a senior statistician at the ONS, said: \u201cWith internet retailers faring well, the proportion of online sales has risen to its highest since spring 2021, when coronavirus restrictions were ending.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a revised 0.7% monthly fall in sales in April, two months of hot weather<\/a> helped drive overall retail sales growth of 0.6% in the three months to the end of June, compared with the previous quarter.<\/p>\n

Non-store retailers, primarily online businesses, enjoyed another bumper month, with sales soaring 4.4% in June, although down on the 6.1% growth recorded the previous month and 3.8% quarter on quarter.<\/p>\n

Clothing and footwear retailers also had a strong month, with sales rising 1.9% from May. Clothing store sales increased 1.9% month on month, the biggest rise since September.<\/p>\n

A shopper in Princes Street, Edinburgh. Clothing and footwear retailers reported strong sales in June. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Sales at other non-food stores \u2013 retailers that are not clothing, household goods or department stores \u2013 rose 1.8% month on month, driven by computer and telecoms retailers.<\/p>\n

Department stores, however, reported a 1.7% monthly decline in sales afer a 2.5% rise in May, when shoppers bought fans and paddling pools during the hot weather. Household goods retailers also reported weaker sales, down 0.6% month on month.<\/p>\n

Samuel Edwards, the head of client portfolio management at the financial services firm Ebury, said: \u201cRetailers scored an early summer goal in June, with retail sales outperforming expectations as warm weather, promotions and World Cup fever helped unlock consumer spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While the so-called Burnham bounce<\/a> and World Cup merriment had helped consumer confidence levels jump by the biggest margin for almost three years this month<\/a>, Edwards warned that retailers still faced potential headwinds.<\/p>\n

He said the higher energy price cap<\/a>, persistently elevated interest rates and the inflationary pressures stemming from renewed tension in the Middle East could dent consumer confidence.<\/p>\n

Melissa Minkow, the global director of retail strategy at CI&T, said: \u201cWarm weather did a lot of the work for retailers in June. July\u2019s figures will be an interesting watch, because we\u2019ll see a response to Burnham\u2019s cost of living policies come into play.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsumers tend to either pull back if they expect new policies to limit their funds or spend more if they think they\u2019ll be good for their wallets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Online sales reached their highest share of retail spending in five years last month as record heat fuelled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-709012","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\/709012","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=709012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}