Retail sales, Great Britain: September 2025

The quantity of goods bought (volume) in retail sales is estimated to have risen by 0.9% in Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2025 when compared with Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025. Good weather in July and August helped clothing sales in Quarter 3, while non-store retailers showed sustained monthly rises over both quarters.

Retail sales volumes are estimated to have risen by 0.5% in September 2025, following an increase of 0.6% in August 2025 (revised up from a 0.5% rise in our previous bulletin). Computer and telecommunications retailers’ sales volumes grew strongly alongside continued growth among non-store retailers, where online jewellers reported strong demand for gold.

Sales volumes rose by 0.9% in the three months to September 2025 (Quarter 3) compared with the three months to June 2025 (Quarter 2). When compared with Quarter 3 2024, sales volumes rose by 1.0%

Sales volumes rose by 0.5% over the month during September 2025, following a 0.6% rise in August, and rose by 1.5% over the year to September 2025.

Volumes were down by 1.6% 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 Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2025, with good weather in July and August 2025 helping sales of clothing. Non-store retail also had a good quarter, as mail order retailers experienced their eighth consecutive monthly rise. This was partly offset by poor sales volumes of automotive fuel across the quarter.

Total sales volumes rose over the month to September 2025, marking the fourth consecutive monthly rise and bringing volumes to their highest level since July 2022. Non-food stores (the total of department, clothing, household, and other non-food stores) rose by 0.9%. Among other non-food stores, computer and telecommunications retailers grew strongly.

Sales volumes for non-store retail also rose in September 2025, hitting their highest level since February 2022. A notable contributor to this rise was online jewellers reporting a strong demand for gold.

The amount spent online, known as “online spending values”, rose by 3.5% when comparing Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2025 with Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2025, and by 5.0% when comparing with Quarter 3 2024.

With the monthly series, sales values rose by 1.4% over the month to September 2025, and by 5.6% when comparing September 2025 with September 2024.

Total spend (the sum of in-store and online sales) rose by 0.7% over the month. As a result, the proportion of sales made online increased from 27.8% in August 2025 to 28.0% in September 2025.

For September 2025, the Retail Sales Index (RSI) survey response rates were 61.2% based on returned forms, 3.3 percentage points above August 2025. This accounted for 84.1% 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. 

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) uses 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 directly 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".