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Affordable Summer clothing helped keep fashion retail moving in July, but footwear struggled as soaring temperatures drove shoppers away from the high street, according to the latest BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor.
UK retail sales increased by 1.3% year on year in July, slowing from 1.9% in June and falling below the 12-month average growth rate of 1.8%, as extreme Summer temperatures discouraged consumers from visiting physical shops.
But fashion emerged as one of the brighter areas of an otherwise subdued month for non-food retail, with shoppers continuing to spend on affordable Summer clothing and seasonal essentials.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said this performance came against a difficult backdrop for non-food retailers. Non-food sales fell 0.7% year on year, compared with growth of 1.4% in July 2025 and against a 12-month average growth rate of 0.4%. In-store non-food sales were particularly weak, falling 1.9%, while online non-food sales rose 1.3%.
The latest figures suggest that the Summer fashion season has proved more resilient than the wider retail market.
Linda Ellett, UK Head of Consumer, Retail & Leisure at KPMG, said the upturn in clothes, shoes and accessories had continued through to August, despite the Summer season getting underway as early as May.
The trend is also consistent with KPMG’s earlier consumer research. Its Q2 2026 Consumer Pulse found that 63% of consumers planned to take a Summer holiday, while three-quarters of those who had booked a holiday expected to buy new items to take with them. 42% planned to buy clothing and 25% footwear, underlining the potential boost from holiday-related spending.
Despite this, shoppers appear to have concentrated their spending on relatively affordable, immediately useful products, as the BRC’s Helen Dickinson explained: “Household budgets remain stretched, consumer confidence is fragile, and retailers continue to grapple with rising operating costs.”
The weather was arguably the biggest influence on July’s retail performance, and footwear was one of the weaker categories last month, with the BRC specifically noting that it “struggled to keep up”. Now, for fashion and footwear retailers, the immediate focus will shift from Summer essentials towards the Autumn/Winter transition, and it will require a careful judgement of how quickly consumers will transition following this unusually prolonged period of warm weather.
