Fashion brands across the UK may have been given tentative reason for encouragement by the latest monthly review of the BDO High Street Sales Tracker. 

The accountancy and business advisory firm’s tracker sets out the weekly sales changes of over 85 retailers with some 10,000 individual stores; these are principally located on high streets throughout the UK. 

The review covering the four weeks to 26^th January 2025 revealed growth of +7.1% for total retail sales in discretionary sales categories, compared to the situation in January 2024. It is important to note, however, that the opening month of last year had seen an especially weak result of -0.8%. 

Looking specifically at the situation for fashion, sales at the industry’s brick-and-mortar retail stores was up by +3.3% during January 2025. Again, though, that figure is against the poor performance that had been recorded in January last year, of -6.7%. 

What else did we learn from the January 2025 statistics? 

With regard to the picture for all discretionary sectors, total like-for-like (LFL) sales in physical stores went up by +3.2% during the first month of this year, from a negative base of -4.2% for 2024’s corresponding month. 

Overall non-store (online) sales, meanwhile, heightened by +15.5% in January 2025, against the positive base of +3.2% seen for the same month in 2024. 

The fashion sector, too, shows a marked distinction between online and offline sales that should be noted. As aforementioned, the industry’s high-street outlets mustered +3.3% sales growth for the month, from the base of -6.7% seen in January 2024. 

Online fashion sales, however, saw +17.9% growth from a +6.9% base. This meant that total LFLs for the fashion category grew by 11.1% in January 2025, against a base of +0.3% recorded for the same month a year earlier. 

BDO’s monthly review observed that non-store (online) fashion LFL sales were positive throughout January. This reading may hearten many an apparel brand using a digital creative and marketing agency to support its ecommerce growth ambitions. 

Indeed, the firm stated that each of the opening three weeks of the month delivered double-digit growth for online fashion sales. As for store (offline) sales in fashion, these were positive in weeks one and three, but negative through the remainder of the month. 

BDO warns about the impact of cost increases as Budget changes loom 

Sophie Michael, head of retail and wholesale at BDO, said that while the latest monthly review data “may seem positive on the surface… January trading for discretionary spend requires heavy encouragement through discounting”. 

She observed that the “significant cost increases” already challenging the sector were set to heighten still further with the implementation in April of the changes outlined in the Budget. 

Ms Michael added: “Retailers need to find a way to balance the increased cost of doing business while investing in product development, customer service and underlying technology, like AI, that will maintain their competitiveness.” 

For an in-depth conversation about the role our own digital creative and marketing agency could play in the realisation of your fashion brand’s growth ambitions during 2025 and beyond, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Skywire London team. 

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash