February saw the second month of increased retail sales volumes, according to the Office for National Statistics, with volumes up by 1.0%.
It follows a 1.4% jump in January 2025, and there were volume lifts across all four sub-sectors: department, clothing, household goods and other non-food stores.
Driven by hardware store sales, household goods stores saw their largest sales increase since April 2021, up 6.8% in February.
Clothing sales also saw a slight increase due to falling prices from widespread discounting, but did not fully recover from their 2.7% fall in January 2025.
The amount spent online rose by 3.3% over the month to February 2025. Sales values also rose by 3.9% when compared with February 2024.
Nicholas Found, head of commercial content at Retail Economics, commented: “February brought mixed fortunes for retail, sensitive to seasonal events and discounting. While Valentine’s Day offered a lift to traditional gifting categories such as fragrances, the wider picture remains challenging. Consumer confidence is fragile, the cost-of-living continues to dominate household concerns, and retailers are bracing for a wave of rising operating costs from April.
“Shoppers are laser-focused on promotions and essentials, deferring bigger-ticket purchases as inflation’s bumpy path back to target has engrained a value-driven mindset. Promotional activity is no longer a tactical lever – it’s becoming a structural retail strategy to drive non-essential sales.
“From next week, retailers are staring down the barrel of a triple threat, including rising minimum wages, increased National Insurance contributions and higher business rates. This cocktail of costs will squeeze already thin margins and risks triggering job losses, hurting investment and accelerating store closures. For many retailers, the challenge now is how to absorb these costs without alienating price sensitive consumers.”
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