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UK online fashion sales fared strongly in June, amid emerging “GenAI revolution”

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WRITTEN BY
SkYWIRE
Posted
August 20, 2025
Jul 31, 2025

Multiple sources over recent weeks have suggested that last month was a “hot” one in the UK for reasons beyond the heatwave that gave England its warmest June on record. 

We are, of course, referring to the situation for fashion e-tail sales. Data has emerged lately that will hearten many a brand working alongside a trusted luxury ecommerce agency like Skywire London. 

A subdued performance on the high street, but e-tail was a different story 

Looking first to the accountancy and business advisory firm BDO’s most recent High Street Sales Tracker, total like-for-like retail sales across the discretionary categories of fashion, homewares, and lifestyle were still below inflation in June. This compares to the increase of 3.2% seen in June 2024. 

However, while a mere 0.6% rise was recorded for in-store sales last month, online sales delivered much stronger growth of 4.3% in the same time bracket. 

Even better than that for many luxury ecommerce agency clients, when the online sales measure was narrowed down to fashion alone, the sales increase was 10%. By contrast, a 0.2% fall was seen for fashion sales in brick-and-mortar stores, in a stark illustration of the growing divide between online and offline retail. 

BDO’s Head of Retail and Wholesale, Sophie Michael, said such a pronounced gap could be due to ecommerce stores having “greater agility to adjust their inventory and promotional material to quickly align to consumer preferences, such as promoting summer outfits in extreme high temperatures and pivoting to waterproofs when the rain arrives.” 

Adobe puts a spotlight on generative AI’s ever-more fundamental role 

Another key source of June statistics of relevance to the UK’s fashion and high-end brands was the online spending report issued by Adobe Digital Insights. 

The document showed that UK e-spending in the first half of 2025 reached a total of £49.7 billion. For June alone, online shopping expenditure in the UK was £7.5 billion. 

According to the Adobe data, some subcategories recorded particularly healthy spending growth in June, and clothing was one of those, with an 8% year-on-year rise. Jewellery managed even better, with a 20% annual increase. 

Many key decision-makers for UK fashion and lifestyle brands, though, will also be interested in Adobe’s declaration that retail is “on the cusp” of a revolution in the use of generative artificial intelligence, or “GenAI”. 

The computer software giant based its stance on the evidence of shoppers becoming ever-more inclined to use and trust AI assistants. It stated that between August last year and June 2025, there had been a 1,200% increase in traffic to retail sites from AI tools, “as consumers increasingly use the services to compare prices, compile shopping lists and research products”.

One of the reasons for this shift being important, is what Adobe has called the “high value” of traffic sourced from AI. The company said that when shoppers land on retail pages from AI sources, they “spend 23% longer on-site” than consumers who arrive directly from traditional research or social media platforms. 

The swift pace of e-tail change continues – but is your brand prepared for it? 

You will need to be mindful of trends like those cited above, when you are coordinating activities meant to support the growth of your fashion or lifestyle brand. 

To speak to our expert team about what moves you could make as you work closely alongside a strategic and creative luxury ecommerce agency like ours, please feel free to reach out to Skywire London today. 

Photo by Shoper on Unsplash

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