Beauty stores report 'strong' first quarter
Cosmetics and toiletry stores experienced a "strong" first quarter (from January to March 2026), driven by new product launches, compared with Q4 2025, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) retail index data.
Total retail sales volume also rose by 1.6% in Q1 of 2026, compared with Q4 (October to December) 2025, boosted by an uptick in clothing sales, with retailers attributing the rise to improved weather.
Total sales volumes rose by 0.7% over the month in March 2026, an improvement compared with a revised fall of 0.6% in February 2026.
Non-food stores (including department, clothing, household and other non-food stores) reported an increase in retail volume of 0.7% in March, while all retail excluding automotive fuel rose by 0.2% over the month.
This is a positive development compared with ONS data released last month, when sales volumes for textile, clothing and footwear stores reportedly fell by 1% in February, compared with a wider 0.4% dip in sales volumes across all retail.
Non-store retailers (predominantly online) also showed signs of recovery, experiencing a boost in January from the sale of sports supplements.
Textile, clothing and footwear online sales values (which calculate the amount spent) also rose. In the three months between January and March, they rose by 1.5%, with an even more significant increase of 2.5% in the month between February and March.
ONS senior statistician Hannah Finselbach commented: "Retail sales rose in the three months to March, with commercial art galleries doing well earlier in the quarter and sales in beauty product stores rising as retailers reported launching new collections."
Elliott Jordan-Doak, senior UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "The first batch of hard data on consumers’ spending since the start of the Iran war was better than expected.
"Granted, stocking up on motor fuels drove headline sales higher, but even excluding petrol, retail sales volumes nudged up, showing that households largely brushed off the initial shock of higher energy prices."
