Photo: A P Monblat, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — a rainy UK high street.
UK shoppers moved online in October as autumn storms emptied the high street, helping fashion and lifestyle sales recover after a weak September. The shift was driven by weather and colder temperatures, not by a sudden return to in-store shopping.
According to FashionUnited, citing the BDO High Street Sales Tracker, fashion like-for-like sales rose 6.73% in the latest week, with non-store fashion up 11.64% while store fashion was broadly flat at 1.07%. Footfall fell 5.7%, led by the high street at 9.3%, after Storm Austen brought winds of up to 76mph and Storm Boelo reached 84mph, leaving 800,000 homes without power.
According to Retail Gazette, also citing BDO, discretionary sales across fashion, lifestyle and homewares rose 4.6% year on year in October, the strongest growth since January 2025. Online sales rose 10.1%, compared with 2.2% in physical stores, while fashion online rose 9% against 2.1% in stores.
The context is seasonal: a warm September delayed autumn and winter wardrobe buying, and colder October weather prompted shoppers to catch up, with promotions also stimulating spending.
What happens next will test whether the rebound lasts. BDO's Sophie Michael urged caution about reading too much into a single month, noting that consumer confidence remains fragile as retailers enter the crucial Christmas trading period.