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UK Consumer Spending Report
View our latest insights on how spending patterns are changing across the UK.
Barclays UK Consumer Spend Report gives you a unique and up to date picture of the nation’s spending habits based on the actual transactions, bringing it to life so you can take action and shape your strategy.
Our latest report looks at UK consumer spending patterns for the 25th January 2025 to 21st February 2025.
February key insights
Overall consumer spending increased marginally in February, as consumers exercised more control over their outgoings ahead of April’s scheduled rise in household bills, while continuing to spend on priority discretionary purchases.
Head of Client Insights, Barclays
Essential card spending declined -1.0% in February 2025 when compared to this time last year, a fall compared to January 2025 (0.1%). This comes as consumers looked for ways to cut back and make savings ahead of April’s scheduled rise in household bills such as water, energy and council tax.
Non-Essential card spending increased by 2.1% in February 2025 when compared to this time last year, in line with growth seen in previous months. This comes as consumers continued to prioritise spending on things they love, such as wellness and travel, whilst cutting costs elsewhere.
Fuel spend growth was -3.6% in February 2025, as we are still providing a comparison with a period when fuel prices were higher this time last year. However, the spend growth is higher than it was in January 2025 (-5.8%), as fuel prices increased over February.
Consumers looked to balance their budgets in February, cutting back on essential outgoings, but still prioritising discretionary purchases
Overall Retail spending increased by 0.6% in February 2025 when compared to this time last year, a decrease compared to January 2025 (1.2%). The growth was predominantly driven by Electronics sales, which increased by 6.7% in February 2025, the largest year-on-year increase since May 2021 (8.6%). This is potentially due to consumers upgrading home-entertainment and technology they purchased between 2020-2021, given the typical lifecycle of these products, as well as new launches in February, such as the iPhone 16E. Meanwhile, Pharmacy, Health & Beauty retailers continued their strong run, as consumers continued to follow popular wellness trends.
Spend in the overall Hospitality & Leisure sector increased by 2.9% in February 2025, although this is lower compared to the year-on-year growth in January 2025 (5.3%). This comes as spend in the overall Eating & Drinking category fell -0.4%, the first decline since October 2024 (-0.3%), as consumers cut back on dining and drinking out to prioritise other discretionary categories such as travel and wellness. Meanwhile, the Digital Content & Subscriptions category had another strong month, due to a combination of consumers tuning into popular new series such as ‘The White Lotus’ and ‘Severance’, as well as ‘streamflation’ - the rising cost of subscriptions.
Hospitality and Leisure
Consumers cut back on dining out to prioritise other categories
Spend at Bars, Pubs & Clubs declined -2.0% in February 2025, the lowest growth in the last 12 months, whilst spend at Restaurants, Cafes & Bakeries also fell -0.3%. This comes as dining out has been an area where consumers are choosing to slim down their non-essential spending, to prioritise other categories such as travel and wellness.
In addition, with spring on the horizon, consumers are also focusing on healthier habits, with 27% of UK adults saying that they are more likely to go to places that offer “healthy” options, increasing to 45% for those aged 18-24. Sought after options include zero-sugar (33%), organic or whole foods (29%) and low or no alcohol drinks (24%). **
Meanwhile, spend in the overall Travel sector remained strong, at 5.1% in February 2025. The growth this month was predominantly driven by spending at Airlines which grew 9.4%, up compared to January 2025 (5.5%), as consumers booked their summer getaways.
Consumers reined in spending on eating and drinking out in February, to focus on other priority, discretionary categories. One of these categories was Travel, with spend at airlines rising this month as consumers booked summer getaways.
Head of Hospitality and Leisure, Barclays Corporate Banking
Spending on subscriptions soars due to ‘streamflation’
The Digital Content & Subscriptions category had another positive month, with spend rising by 5.1% in February 2025, as consumers tuned into popular new series such as ‘The White Lotus’ and ‘Severance.
On average, consumers say they are now spending £175 a year on film and TV platform subscriptions. When looking at the most popular subscription types, 67% currently pay for a film/TV streaming platform, while 61% have a subscription for household essentials, followed by premium delivery services at 48%. However, consumers are concerned about the rising cost of subscriptions, otherwise known as ‘streamflation’, with 20% cancelling or planning to cancel a subscription.**
Retail
Electronics sales surge, whilst health and wellness remains a priority for consumers
Electronics sales had their highest uplift since May 2021 (8.6%), with spend in the category rising by 6.7% in February 2025. This was potentially due to consumers upgrading home-entertainment and technology purchased between 2020-2021, given the typical lifecycle of these products, as well as new launches in February, such as the iPhone 16E.
Spend at both Clothing retailers and Departments stores also increased in February 2025, albeit marginally, at 0.4% and 0.6% respectively. This comes as consumers continued to prioritise discretionary spend in other categories, as they perhaps wait for the warmer weather to arrive before refreshing their wardrobes.
Meanwhile, Pharmacy, Health & Beauty retailers continued their strong run, with spend rising by 8.9% in February 2025. This comes as consumers continue to follow popular wellness trends, with one in four consumers also (27%) planning to focus more on healthy nutrition as the warmer weather approaches. **
Electronic retailers had a strong month, thanks to the launch of new products such as the iPhone 16E. Pharmacy, Health & Beauty retailers also continued their strong run as wellness continues to be a priority for consumers, particularly as the warmer weather approaches.
Head of Retail and Wholesale, Barclays Corporate Banking
Consumers seek more value from their weekly shop
Spend growth at Supermarkets decreased by -1.1% in February 2025, whilst Food & Drink Specialist stores saw less year-on-year growth in the month (2.0%), compared to January 2025 (3.8%).
This comes as 67% of consumers, up from 64% in January 2025, say that they are increasingly looking for ways to get more value from their weekly shop. 57% of these cost-conscious shoppers are looking out for loyalty scheme discounts and deals, while 52% are buying more items that are discounted or on offer, and 49% are shopping at discount supermarkets.**
Barclays Market and Customer Insights
Barclays Market and Customer Insights unlocks a wealth of customer transaction data and brings it to life so you can take action and shape your strategy.
We can help you keep up-to-date with spending trends, monitor your market position and enhance your understanding of customer behaviour, based on actual customer spending.
Leveraging anonymised data from our 250 million monthly customer transactions in the UK can help you understand who your customers are and how, when, and where they spend.
Contact the Barclays Market and Customer Insights team
Appendix
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Spend growth Transaction growth Essential -1.0% -3.9% Non Essential 2.1% 1.3% Overall 1.0% -0.8% Retail 0.6% -2.1% Clothing 0.4% 2.2% Grocery -0.8% -3.9% Supermarkets -1.1% -3.7% Food & Drink Specialist 2.0% -5.0% Household 1.1% 3.7% Home Improvements & DIY -2.4% -6.3% Electronics 6.7% 15.9% Furniture Stores 2.4% 0.8% Garden Centres -4.9% -5.9% General Retailers 1.1% -0.1% General Retailers & Catalogues 1.6% -0.4% Department Stores 0.6% 2.8% Discount Stores -1.6% -1.8% Specialist Retailers 4.4% -1.0% Pharmacy, Health & Beauty 8.9% 0.2% Sports & Outdoor -1.9% -3.0% Other Specialist Retailers 2.9% -2.1% Hospitality & Leisure 2.9% 0.7% Digital Content & Subscription 5.1% 3.6% Eating & Drinking -0.4% -0.4% Restaurants, Cafes and Bakeries -0.3% -2.4% Bars, Pubs & Clubs -2.0% -4.0% Takeaways and Fast Food 0.2% 4.0% Entertainment 4.0% 6.5% Hotels, Resorts & Accomodation 4.7% -0.4% Travel 5.1% -0.6% Travel Agents 5.6% 10.1% Airlines 9.4% -1.4% Public Transport 0.6% -4.8% Other Travel 1.8% 7.4% Other -0.7% 0.2% Fuel -3.6% -3.5% Motoring -6.4% 4.1% Other Services 3.6% 2.5% Insperience 2.5% 3.6% Online 2.8% 2.5% F2F -0.5% -2.2% -
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Data source
Barclays debit card and Barclaycard credit card transactions in the UK.Data range
The spending data in this report relates to the period 25th January 2025 to 21st February 2025.
Inclusion criteria:
Customers aged at least 16 in the relevant period. Active customers using card payments in the relevant period (excluding spending on banking products, i.e. mortgages, loans, savings, utilities, tax and gambling).Spending growth calculation:
Percentage difference between total spend per customer in the period 27th January 2024 to 23rd February 2024 and total spend per customer in the period 25th January 2025 to 21st February 2025.Spending categorisation:
- Essential: Childcare, healthcare, insurance, grocery, fuel and public transport spend.
- Other food and drink: cafes, bakeries and any other food and drink establishments that cannot be classified.
- Entertainment: gym memberships and leisure activities such as cinema, family days out, sports and theatre.
- General retailers: selling a wide range of different products, e.g. department stores, catalogue shops, online marketplaces.
- Specialist retailers: selling a particular category of goods, e.g. toy shops, jewellers, sports shops.
- Other services: education, legal, insurance, childcare, post office / delivery, charities and personal services, e.g. hairdressers.
- Insperience: Digital Content & Subscriptions, Takeaways & Fast Food, Hobbies, Crafts & Collections and Online Food & Drink Specialist retailers.**
Note: Starting October 2024, Barclays will report the growth of consumer spending on ‘Restaurants, Cafes and Bakeries’, which is a combination of two former categories: ‘Restaurants’ and ‘Other Food and Drink’. Distinctions between established restaurant chains (previously reported as ‘Restaurants’) and other forms of eateries (e.g. independent restaurants, food stalls, caterers and cafes – previously reported as ‘Other Food and Drink’) have become increasingly blurred, and Barclays believes that the combined ‘Restaurants, Cafes and Bakeries’ category is a better representation of consumer spending on dining out more broadly.
*CPIH: Consumer Prices Index^ including owner occupiers' housing costs,
** Denotes a comment from the consumer confidence survey. The consumer confidence survey in this press release was carried out between 21st and 26th February 2025 by Opinium Research on behalf of Barclays. There were 2,000 respondents, providing a representative sample of UK consumers by age, gender, region, and income group.
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