Clothing spend booms in latest quarter - Nationwide report

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 22, 2021

Britons have been spending more money on clothing in the past few months, as well as visiting charity shops more often.

That’s according to a consumer spending report for the April to June quarter from building society Nationwide, which also said spending on pets, UK holidays, eating and drinking, leisure and gardening surged in the period.

Many of those categories will have had a knock-on effect for the fashion sector with more leisure activities also requiring new wardrobes.

It looked at hundreds of millions of transactions on the part of its customers and added that contactless and mobile payments continued to grow.

But while some sectors soared, spending at general retailers and department stores continued to feel the chill of the pandemic with a huge 91% fall.

Charitable spending, by contrast, rose 16%. That included charitable donation and direct spending in various charity stores with some organisations reporting a spending frenzy when they reopened in April after the spring lockdown. 

Charity shop spending clearly benefited from Britons’ desire to do good, as well as an interest in thrift shopping and a trend towards more eco-focused spending.

The Charity Retail Association's chief executive Robin Osterley told the BBC that revenues at the British Heart Foundation’s stores topped £1 million on April 12 and despite early pent-up demand fading at retail generally, charity shop spending remains between 5% and 10% higher compared to the same quarter in 2019.