What you need to know

Consumer spending on clothing has slowed, growing by only 0.8% in 2019 to reach £59.3 billion, as clothing sales during the year have been hit by a combination of unpredictable weather, lacklustre retail footfall and an overreliance on discounting. Menswear has driven growth in the UK clothing market for some time, but that trend has reversed with spending on women’s clothing seeing a more significant uplift than on men’s clothing driven by the emergence of new trends such as new jeans styles.

Clothing specialists have outperformed the wider market; with retail sales through clothing specialists set to increase by 4% in 2019 as several of the leading clothing retailers have improved their performance over the last year. Next has maintained its position as market leader in sales, increasing revenues supported by its online business, which is driving sales through the introduction of new third-party brands on its website. Growth has also been driven by other clothing retailers including Primark, TK Maxx, H&M and Matalan.

Mintel estimates that online consumer spending on fashion will rise by 13.4% to £22.9 billion in 2019. The shift by consumers towards shopping more online has highlighted the growing issue of returns, as retailers are being faced with higher volumes of returned clothes and are having to adapt their businesses to this. Mintel’s consumer research found that almost two fifths (39%) of clothes shoppers have returned clothes in the last year, spiking to 68% of young women aged 16-24, highlighting how young fashion retailers are struggling most with the logistics and the cost implications of returns. We discuss what retailers such as ASOS and Zalando are doing to address this issue.

Products covered in this Report

This Report examines the UK clothing and accessories market. It includes two streams of data relating to the clothing market: consumer spending and retail sales.

  • Consumer spending forms our market size. This comprises of men’s, women’s and children’s clothing through all retail outlets. It includes outerwear, underwear and fashion accessories, but excludes footwear and jewellery.

  • Retail sales form our sector size. This comprises of all retail sales through clothing specialists. It includes spending on non-clothing categories, such as footwear and beauty. It excludes retail sales through online-only clothing specialists.

To give further context to the market, we also provide data for clothing and accessory sales through specialist retailers, excluding footwear and other categories that are increasingly becoming an important part of the clothing specialists’ assortment.

The Report also includes an online fashion market size. This comprises of all online consumer spending on clothing, accessories and footwear. It includes sales through both specialist and non-specialist retailers.

Again, to give further context to the online fashion market, we also provide data for online consumer spending on clothing and accessories, excluding footwear.

Back to top