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UK Consumer Spending Report
View our latest insights on how spending patterns are changing across the UK.
Barclays UK Consumer Spend Report gives you a unique and up to date picture of the nation’s spending habits based on the actual transactions, bringing it to life so you can take action and shape your strategy.
Our latest report looks at UK consumer spending patterns for the 23rd September 2023 to 20th October 2023.
October key insights
Consumers reined in discretionary spending in October, as they saved for the festive period and winter energy bills. However, it is nice to see that consumers remain willing to spend on experiences, as Travel spend growth was boosted by increased holiday bookings.
Head of Client Insights, Barclays
Essential card spending grew by 3.9% in October 2023 when compared to this time last year. This is lower than the year-on-year growth of 4.6% in September 2023, as spend growth in Grocery, a key Essential category, saw less of an uplift compared to last month due to the falling food and drink inflation rate.
Non-Essential card spending grew by 2.0% in October 2023 when compared to this time last year. This is the lowest year-on-year growth since September 2022, as the warm early October weather meant that consumers held off updating their winter wardrobes, resulting in a decrease of spend growth in Clothing by -3.0%.
Fuel spend growth was -8.6% in October 2023, the eighth consecutive month of negative year-on-year spend growth, as we compare to periods of significantly increased fuel prices due to the invasion of Ukraine. However, the growth this month is the lowest decline since March 2023, as fuel prices rose in October.
Grocery spend growth slows as food and drink inflation falls
Grocery spend saw less of an uplift, at 5.3% in October 2023, when compared to the year-on year growth of 7.0% in September 2023. This comes as the food and drink inflation rate continued to fall, although the CPIH* inflation rate remained at 6.3% for the second consecutive month, and as consumers continue to look for ways to seek more value from or reduce the cost of their weekly shop.
Consumers are also continuing to rein in their discretionary spending with the expensive festive period approaching, and particularly so they can afford their energy bills throughout autumn and winter. This was reflected across a number of categories this month, with overall consumer card spending growing by 2.6% in October 2023, a fall compared to the year-on-year growth of 4.2% in September 2023.
Hospitality and Leisure
Spend growth in the Travel sector continues to perform well
Spend growth in the Travel sector remained strong at 10.5% in October 2023, and continues to be one of the best performing categories of 2023. Travel Agents in particular showed strong growth at 9.6%, the highest year-on-year growth since May 2023, as consumers booked their winter getaways. Hotels, Resorts & Accommodation also remained strong at 7.4%, although this is a slight decrease compared September 2023 (7.9%).
Spend at Restaurants remained in negative growth at -10.3% in October 2023, for the ninth consecutive month. This comes as 56% of consumers say that eating out at restaurants and ordering takeaways are some of the key areas they are cutting back on, to afford their energy bills throughout the autumn and winter. **
However, spend at Bars, Pubs & Clubs remained strong at 5.9% in October 2023, as sports fans gathered to watch the latter stages of the Rugby World Cup.
Despite consumers cutting back on discretionary spending, the Travel sector continued to perform well in October, with spend growth at Travel Agents at its highest in several months as consumers booked winter getaways.
Head of Hospitality and Leisure, Barclays Corporate Banking
Demand for “insperiences” reduce compared to previous months
Spend growth in the ‘Insperiences’ category increased by 4.5% in October 2023, although this is the lowest year-on-year growth since March 2023. This comes as consumers reined in discretionary spending, whilst the unusually warm October weather also reduced demand.
In particular, spend on Takeaways and Fast Food saw a smaller year-on-year uplift in October 2023, at 5.6%, than in September 2023 (6.5%), as did Digital Content & Subscriptions at 4.9% in October 2023 compared to 7.7% in September 2023, despite some online entertainment platforms raising prices in October.
Retail
Retail spend growth at its lowest since December 2022
Overall Retail spending grew 1.2% in October 2023 compared to this time last year, the lowest year-on-year growth since December 2022. This comes as the unseasonably warm October weather meant that consumers held back on making seasonal purchases such as winter coats and jumpers, resulting in spend at Clothing retailers falling for the fourth consecutive month, at -3.0% in October 2023.
47% of consumers are also planning to cut down on discretionary spending so they can afford their energy bills throughout the autumn and winter, with buying new clothes and accessories for day-to-day wear (50%) among the most common areas that consumers are cutting back on. **
In addition, 36% of consumers also expect that this Christmas will be more expensive than in 2022 and 21% have concerns about keeping up with outgoing costs during the festive period. As a result of the rising cost-of-living, 37% expect that they will spend less on Christmas gifts this year. **
The unseasonable warm weather in October had an impact on the overall Retail sector, with spend growth at Clothing retailers in particular falling as consumers held back on making seasonal purchases such as winter coats and jumpers.
Head of Retail and Wholesale, Barclays Corporate Banking
Spend growth at Supermarkets and Food & Drink Specialists slows down
Spend growth in Supermarkets and Food & Drink Specialists increased in October 2023, at 5.2% and 5.9% respectively, compared to this time last year. However, this is less of an uplift compared to the year-on-year growth in September 2023, at 6.9% and 8.0% respectively, as food and drink price inflation continued to fall.
69% of consumers also continue to look for ways to reduce the cost of their weekly shop to manage their budgets, with 45% now using vouchers or loyalty points to get money off shopping, while 38% are shopping at multiple supermarkets to source a range of deals. **
Barclays Market and Customer Insights
Barclays Market and Customer Insights unlocks a wealth of customer transaction data and brings it to life so you can take action and shape your strategy.
We can help you keep up-to-date with spending trends, monitor your market position and enhance your understanding of customer behaviour, based on actual customer spending.
Leveraging anonymised data from our 250 million monthly customer transactions in the UK can help you understand who your customers are and how, when, and where they spend.
Contact the Barclays Market and Customer Insights team
Appendix
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Spend growth Transaction growth Essential 3.9% 4.5% Non Essential 2.0% 3.5% Overall 2.6% 3.9% Retail 1.2% 3.8% Clothing -3.0% 2.8% Grocery 5.3% 5.0% Supermarkets 5.2% 4.2% Food & Drink Specialist 5.9% 9.7% Household -6.5% 1.4% Home Improvements & DIY -7.8% 0.6% Electronics -3.7% 4.7% Furniture Stores -7.1% -4.5% General Retailers 3.4% 4.5% General Retailers & Catalogues 6.3% 9.4% Department Stores 0.4% 5.5% Discount Stores -9.0% -12.2% Specialist Retailers -0.4% -1.6% Pharmacy, Health & Beauty 4.2% 0.8% Sports & Outdoor -5.4% -7.7% Other Specialist Retailers -1.7% -2.7% Hospitality & Leisure 7.1% 4.4% Digital Content & Subscription 4.9% 2.2% Eating & Drinking 6.1% 2.9% Restaurants -10.3% -15.0% Bars, Pubs & Clubs 5.9% 4.4% Takeaways and Fast Food 5.6% 2.8% Other Food & Drink 10.5% 4.2% Entertainment 2.3% 6.3% Hotels, Resorts & Accomodation 7.4% 3.5% Travel 10.5% 10.7% Travel Agents 9.6% 12.3% Airlines 12.9% 23.8% Public Transport 7.2% 8.6% Other Travel 13.0% 13.8% Other 0.7% 2.7% Fuel -8.6% -1.7% Motoring -0.2% 1.1% Other Services 6.8% 10.3% Insperience 4.5% 2.1% Online 3.3% 5.9% F2F 2.0% 3.1% -
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Data source
Barclays debit card and Barclaycard credit card transactions in the UK.Data range
The spending data in this report relates to the period 23rd September 2023 to 20th October 2023.
Inclusion criteria:
Customers aged at least 16 in the relevant period. Active customers using card payments in the relevant period (excluding spending on banking products, i.e. mortgages, loans, savings, utilities, tax and gambling).Spending growth calculation:
Percentage difference between total spend per customer in the period 23rd September 2023 to 20th October 2023 and total spend per customer in the period 24th September 2022 to 21st October 2022.
Spending categorisation:
- Essential: Childcare, healthcare, insurance, grocery, fuel and public transport spend.
- Other food and drink: cafes, bakeries and any other food and drink establishments that cannot be classified.
- Entertainment: gym memberships and leisure activities such as cinema, family days out, sports and theatre.
- General retailers: selling a wide range of different products, e.g. department stores, catalogue shops, online marketplaces.
- Specialist retailers: selling a particular category of goods, e.g. toy shops, jewellers, sports shops.
- Other services: education, legal, insurance, childcare, post office / delivery, charities and personal services, e.g. hairdressers.
- Insperience: Digital Content & Subscriptions, Takeaways & Fast Food, Hobbies, Crafts & Collections and Online Food & Drink Specialist retailers.**
*CPIH: Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs.
**Denotes a comment from the consumer confidence survey. The consumer confidence survey in this press release was carried out between 20th and 24th October 2023 by Opinium Research on behalf of Barclays. There were 2,000 respondents, providing a representative sample of UK consumers by age, gender, region, and income group.
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