Retail sales, Great Britain: October 2025

The quantity of goods bought (volume) in retail sales is estimated to have risen by 1.1% in the three months to October 2025 compared with the three months to July 2025. Clothing store sales rounded off a strong performance in those three months, peaking in September, while computer and telecommunication retailers rose across September and October 2025.

Retail sales volumes are estimated to have fallen by 1.1% in October 2025, following an increase of 0.7% in September 2025 (revised up from a 0.5% rise in our previous publication) and of 0.5% in August 2025 (revised down from a 0.6% rise in our previous publication). This was the first monthly fall since May 2025. Supermarkets, clothing, and mail order retailers fell in October 2025, which some retailers attributed to consumers delaying their spending in the lead up to Black Friday.

Sales volumes rose by 1.1% in the three months to October 2025 compared with the three months to July 2025. Compared with the three months to October 2024, sales volumes were up by 0.4%.

Sales volumes fell by 1.1% over the month during October 2025, following a 0.7% rise in September, but rose by 0.2% compared with October 2024.

Volumes were down by 3.3% compared with their pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic level in February 2020.

These data are available in our Retail Sales Index dataset.

Sales volumes rose over the three months to October 2025 as a strong summer for clothing stores reached its peak in September 2025. Within other non-food stores, computer and telecommunication retailers performed well, which retailers attributed to new product releases. Non-store retailers continued to rise in the three-monthly series, with retailers commenting on strong demand for gold which boosted online jewellers in September 2025.

Total sales volumes fell over the month to October 2025, the first monthly fall since May 2025. Supermarket sales volumes fell for the second month in a row. Clothing store sales volumes also fell following a recent peak in September 2025, with retailers reporting that consumers held back in preparation for Black Friday discounts. Mail order (online) retailers within non-store retailing also dipped on the month, in part because of online clothing retailers. Some online retailers also mentioned delayed spending in the lead up to Black Friday.

The amount spent online, known as "online spending values", rose by 3.0% comparing the three months to October 2025 with the three months to July 2025, and by 5.1% compared with the three months to October 2024.

With the monthly series, online sales values fell by 0.8% over the month to October 2025, and by 4.8% comparing October 2025 with October 2024.

Total spend (the sum of in-store and online sales) fell by 0.9% over the month. As a result, the proportion of sales made online remained flat at 28.1% in October 2025 compared with September 2025.

For October 2025, the Retail Sales Index (RSI) survey response rates were 60.9% based on returned forms, 0.9 percentage points below the average of the past twelve months. This accounted for 80.4% of total turnover coverage of the sample population. Historical response information is available in our Retail sales quality tables dataset.

Information on how we calculated the data, including strengths and limitations, and a glossary of relevant terms, is available in our RSI quality and methodology information (QMI).

Seasonal adjustment

Seasonally adjusted estimates are derived by estimating and removing calendar effects (for example, Easter moving between March and April) and seasonal effects (for example, increased spending in December because of Christmas) from the non-seasonally adjusted estimates.

We use the X-13ARIMA-SEATS approach to seasonal adjustment. Seasonal adjustment parameters are monitored closely and regularly reviewed. Improvements following our annual seasonal adjustment review have been implemented in this release. More information is available on our Seasonal adjustment methodology page.

Seasonal adjustment is applied at the industry level, and the seasonally adjusted series are aggregated to create estimates by industry sector and total retail. As part of our quality assurance approach, residual seasonality checks are completed regularly by our time series analysis team on both the seasonally adjusted series and the indirectly derived aggregate time series. Based on current data, we find no residual seasonality in the main aggregate for monthly retail sales estimates.

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in March 2015. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled "accredited official statistics".