UK online spending is up 10% on last year

The ONS published its August retail figures on Friday, and buried in section 4 is the number every business with a website should have seen.

Online spending in Great Britain was up 10.1% over the three months to August, compared with the same period last year.

Ten percent. In a year that most people have spent describing as difficult. 🙌

And it’s not a blip. Over the single month of August, online spending rose 8.9% against August 2025, so the annual and the quarterly picture agree with each other.

Nearly 29p in every pound

The share numbers tell the same story from a different angle.

The proportion of British retail happening online rose from 28.4% in July to 28.8% in August. Nearly 29p in every retail pound, and moving up.

Over that month, online spending grew 2.5% while total retail spending, shops and online combined, grew 1.3%. So online grew at roughly double the rate of the market it sits inside. That’s what a rising share looks like in practice.

The wider picture is good too

Online isn’t growing because everything else is collapsing, which is the obvious thing to check before getting excited.

Total retail sales volumes rose 0.5% in August and were up 2.4% on August last year. More striking, volumes in August were at their second highest level since April 2022. Only June this year was higher.

Four years. That’s how far back you have to go to find British shoppers spending like this.

The growth was broad-based, too. Retailers selling alcohol and drinks did well across the summer, helped by promotions, hot weather and the World Cup. Department stores and clothing both bounced back after a soft July. Supermarkets had a good three months.

So the online growth is happening on top of a recovering market, not instead of one. That’s a much better setup than online simply taking a bigger slice of a shrinking pie.

The mood turned first

None of this happens without confidence, and the confidence data has been improving all year.

55% of British adults think the economy is getting worse, according to KPMG’s latest Consumer Pulse of 3,000 UK adults. It was 62% in January and 60% in the spring. Seven points of pessimism gone in nine months, falling every quarter. 56% now say they feel financially secure.

It’s showing up in behaviour as well as opinion. Among those still pessimistic, the share cutting back on everyday spending has fallen from 55% to 51%, and the share putting off big-ticket purchases has dropped from 38% to 33%.

Fewer people holding back, on fewer things, for the third quarter running.

Your website is doing more than the 28.8% suggests

Here’s a number that looks like it complicates things and actually strengthens the case.

In KPMG’s survey, more people had bought something in a physical shop (63%) than online (57%).

Both are true at once. Most people still buy in shops, and a rising share of the money goes online. That’s the difference between how many people do a thing and how much they spend doing it.

But the more useful reading is this: almost nobody walks into a shop cold any more. They check stock, prices, opening hours and reviews on a phone first. That’s your website earning a sale your till takes the credit for.

So 28.8% understates how much of British retail your website is genuinely influencing. The real figure is considerably higher. It’s just harder to see in a report. 👊🏻

What I’d do with this

Three things, all pointing the same way.

Put the next marketing pound online. Online spending growing at over 10% a year is the clearest signal in the data. Nothing else in British retail is growing at that rate. If you’ve been splitting budget on last year’s assumptions, this is the number that should move it.

Back your peak plans harder than last year. If your Q4 budget was built assuming shoppers are still in crisis mode, the data has moved and your plan probably should too. This is the strongest run-up to Christmas Britain has produced since 2022.

Then make sure the site can take it. A growing share of demand arriving through your website means it carries more load this Christmas than last. Plan capacity, stock and delivery around the new split, not the old one.

Four things worth fixing before November

The opportunity is real. It converts if the basics hold up under pressure.

• Speed. Every extra second on mobile costs conversions, and it costs most during peak when your traffic and everyone’s ad spend are at maximum. Highest return on this list, and almost nobody does it in September.
• Stock accuracy. The fastest way to lose a customer permanently in December is to take the order and then email to say you can’t fulfil it. If your stock feed and your site disagree, fix that before spending another penny on ads.
• Delivery promises you can keep. Publish real last-order dates, put them somewhere obvious, build in the buffer. A confident, honest date converts better than an optimistic one.
• Returns, written in English. On the product page, not buried behind a terms link. A clear returns policy removes the last hesitation at exactly the moment someone is deciding.

The summary

UK online spending is up 10.1% year on year and now takes nearly 29p in every retail pound. Total retail volumes are at a four-year high. Consumer confidence has improved three quarters running.

That’s the most encouraging set of trading numbers we’ve had in a long time, and it’s landing right before the quarter that matters most.

The businesses that make the most of it will be the ones whose websites are ready when the traffic turns up. Six weeks to go. 😉

Come and have a chat if you want a second pair of eyes on your site before peak »

We’re a UK digital marketing agency helping established British businesses get found, whether that’s on Google, in an AI answer, or by somebody standing in your car park checking your opening hours.

Sources

• Online sales values, the online share of retail and total retail sales volumes: ONS, Retail sales, Great Britain: August 2026, published 18 September 2026. Online figures are spending values; total retail figures are volumes.
• Consumer confidence, financial security and spending behaviour: KPMG UK Consumer Pulse, a survey of 3,000 UK adults, as reported by Retail Gazette, September 2026.