Amid persistent inflation and rising costs, people are feeling the pinch with more than half of the companies that have noticed changes in spending reporting that their customers are spending less than they did in the first three months of the year.
These are the findings of the Virgin Media O2 Business Movers Index – a quarterly benchmark that combines anonymized UK-aggregated motion data from O2 Motion.
People over 65 are leading the trend with 1% spending more on clothing versus 41% spending less in the past three months. Looking at the monthly growth figures, it’s clear that retail growth was led by older groups at the start of the year, but that trend reversed in the spring with an increase in shopping trips for 18- to 24-year-olds.
The high growth in retail trips by 18-24-year-olds in May (11.8%), compared to no growth for people over 65, suggests that younger Britons responded to the May bank holidays with increased retail and leisure activity – from summer holiday shopping to festival preparation.
Many cash-strapped shoppers turn to secondhand in search of better prices, with more than two-fifths of the public having shopped secondhand once or more in the past month. The majority of people aged 18-34 actively shop for second hand as Generation Z takes over as the UK’s most sustainable shoppers.
Consumers are clearly more budget-conscious now than they were three months ago, as spending on non-essential items declined in the second quarter — including spending 45% less on electronics and 39% less on clothing. Food is the one item Brits buy more of, with just 13% of the public buying less food than they did in the last three months. Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of companies cut staff as shoppers prioritized online deals over in-store shopping, and half of companies report an increase in online shopping in the second quarter.