Clothing sales recover in March as weather improves

Clothing store sales volume in the UK increased in March, with retailers attributing the rise to improved weather, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) retail index data.

Textile, clothing and footwear stores reported an adjusted 0.2% increase in sales volumes in the three months to March 2026, and a 1.2% boost in March compared with February.

This contributed to a total rise in retail sales volume, which increased by 1.6% in Q1 of 2026, compared with Q4 (Oct to Dec) 2025.

Total sales volumes rose by 0.7% over the month in March 2026, an improvement compared with a revised fall of 0.6% in February 2026.

Non-food stores (including department, clothing, household and other non-food stores) reported an increase in retail volume of 0.7% in March, while all retail, excluding automotive fuel, rose by 0.2% over the month.

This is a positive development compared with ONS data released last month, when sales volumes for textile, clothing and footwear stores reportedly fell by 1% in February, compared with a wider 0.4% dip in sales volumes reported across all retail.

Cosmetics and toiletry stores also experienced a strong first quarter (from January to March 2026), driven by new product launches, compared with Q4 2025.

Non-store retailers (predominantly online) also showed signs of recovery, experiencing a boost in January from the sales of sports supplements.

Textile, clothing and footwear online sales values (which calculate the amount spent) also rose. In the three months between January and March, they rose by 1.5%, with an even more significant increase of 2.5% in the month between February and March.

ONS senior statistician Hannah Finselbach commented: "Retail sales rose in the three months to March, with commercial art galleries doing well earlier in the quarter and sales in beauty products stores rising as retailers reported launching new collections."

Elliott Jordan-Doak, senior UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "The first batch of hard data on consumers’ spending since the start of the Iran war was better than expected.

"Granted, stocking up on motor fuels drove headline sales higher, but even excluding petrol, retail sales volumes nudged up, showing that households largely brushed off the initial shock of higher energy prices."