Online Spending Slips in Q3 as Fuel and Food Lift Retail
Online spending in Great Britain slipped 0.1% in the third quarter of 2026 while total retail volumes rose 0.7%, with the growth coming from fuel and food stores. Annual online growth slowed to 7.4%, and online clothing retailers told the ONS that an unseasonably warm September held back their autumn and winter ranges.
01Telemetry
Key findings at a glance
- 0.7%rise in retail sales volumes in July to September 2026 compared with April to June, the first estimate for the quarter
- 0.4%fall in retail sales volumes in September 2026, giving back part of August's rise
- 0.1%fall in online spending values in Q3 2026 compared with the previous quarter
- 7.4%annual rise in online spending values in Q3 2026, down from 10.1% in the three months to August
- 28.8%of retail sales were made online in September 2026, down from a revised 28.9% in August
- £2.8bnaverage weekly online retail spending excluding fuel in September 2026, seasonally adjusted
- 4.9%fall in online sales at clothing and footwear stores over the three months to September
- 7.9%rise in online sales at household goods stores over the same three months
- 29.5%of household goods stores' sales were made online in September, above the all-retail share
- 12.6%fall in department stores' online sales compared with September 2025
- 2.2%fall in sales volumes at non-store retailers, most of which sell online, in September
- 3.6%rise in automotive fuel sales volumes in Q3, the largest of any retail sector
02Scope
What the report covers
The Office for National Statistics published Retail sales, Great Britain: September 2026 on 23 October 2026, including its first estimate for the third quarter. The series is often reported as UK retail sales, but it covers Great Britain only. Sales volumes, the quantity of goods bought, rose 0.7% in July to September compared with April to June and were 1.5% higher than a year earlier. The growth came from two places. Fuel volumes rose 3.6% on the quarter, recovering from April, when retailers said motorists made fewer journeys, and food stores grew 0.6%, with drinks retailers crediting promotions, warm weather and the World Cup. September on its own was weaker: volumes fell 0.4% after a 0.7% rise in August, revised up from 0.5%, as supermarket and clothing sales dropped back.
Online was the soft spot. Online spending values fell 0.1% on the quarter and were 7.4% higher than in Q3 2025. Our report on the August figures recorded annual online growth of 10.1% in the three months to August, so the pace has eased sharply in a single release. Over the month, online spending fell 0.4% in September after a 3.0% rise in August, leaving it 6.8% above September 2025, and the share of sales made online slipped from 28.9% to 28.8%. Online clothing retailers told the ONS that their autumn and winter ranges did not perform because of the unseasonably warm weather.
The ONS internet sales reference tables published alongside the bulletin show how uneven the picture is by store type. Online sales at clothing and footwear stores fell 4.9% over the quarter and at department stores 1.8%, leaving department stores' online sales 12.6% lower than a year earlier. Household goods stores moved the other way: their online sales rose 7.9% on the quarter and 19.2% on the year, and 29.5% of their sales are now made online, against 10.2% at food stores. Excluding fuel, shoppers spent an average of £2.8bn a week online in September.
03Briefing
What this means for UK marketers
The August read that online was pulling away from the high street did not survive the quarter. Online spending values fell 0.1% between Q2 and Q3 while fuel and food stores carried the growth, and annual online growth dropped from 10.1% to 7.4% in one release. These are values, not volumes, and with goods inflation at a three-year high in our September inflation report, part of that 7.4% is price rather than more orders. A Q4 target that assumes double-digit online growth now needs a reason beyond the trend line.
The more useful lesson is about timing. The Met Office recorded the joint-fourth warmest September on record for the UK, with 28.1°C on 29 September, just as autumn and winter ranges landed. Online clothing retailers told the ONS those launches underperformed, and online sales at clothing and footwear stores fell 4.9% over the quarter. A launch with a fixed date and a fixed budget buys traffic at full price whether or not the customer is ready. Write a weather condition into the plan instead: hold most autumn and winter spend until the forecast turns, keep transitional lines at the front until then, and have the creative built so the switch takes a day, not a week. If someone else runs your paid search, agree the trigger in advance so your Google Ads management can move budget the morning the forecast changes.
Third, the headline share hides wide gaps between categories. Household goods stores now sell 29.5% online, above the all-retail 28.8%, while department stores' online sales are down 12.6% on the year. Benchmark against your own category, not the national figure. In a market growing this slowly, online gains are taken from competitors, and our report on online retail concentration shows how much of the sector the five largest firms already hold.
Finally, the October figures land on 20 November, a week before Black Friday on 27 November. Peak plans will be set before that data arrives, so set them on units and order counts from your own store, and make sure your ecommerce build can put a promotion live the day you decide to run one.
04Method
How they got the data
Check the method before you quote the number.
The Retail Sales Index is compiled from the ONS Monthly Business Survey, which collects turnover from a sample of about 5,000 retailers across Great Britain each month, including all large retailers and a representative sample of smaller ones. It does not cover Northern Ireland. Retailers report total retail turnover including VAT, with a separate question for sales made over the internet, and online figures are grouped by the type of store that made them. Non-store retailing is mostly online sellers but also includes stalls and markets. For September 2026, 59.1% of forms were returned, covering 92.4% of turnover in the sample.
Volume figures remove price changes to measure the quantity bought, while value figures, including every online series, are in current prices and so include inflation. All figures here are seasonally adjusted using X-13ARIMA-SEATS, and the ONS advises reading the three-month rate alongside the more volatile monthly one. The quarterly figure is a first estimate and earlier months can be revised, a trade-off the ONS makes between timeliness and accuracy. These are accredited official statistics; detail on sampling, imputation and revisions is in the ONS Retail Sales Index quality and methodology information report. The weather context comes from the Met Office's provisional September statistics.
