Fashion suffers in March as Britons rein in spending says Visa

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 16, 2018

UK consumer spending fell again in March, which probably won’t come as a shock to anyone given the snow, rain, economic bad news and general consumer apathy that characterised the month.

Visa UK released its Consumer Spending Index for the month on Monday and it’s a fairly strong reflection of just how Britons are (or perhaps more accurately, aren’t) spending. Compiled by economists at IHS Markit for Visa, it’s based (with a few adjustments to account for other spending methods) on real spend using Visa cards, which account for over a third of all transactions in the UK. 

So just how big was the decline? Spending dropped 2.1% after a 1% fall in February, with face-to-face spend down by 3% while e-commerce dropped by 1.2%. Spending continued to fall in Clothing & Footwear, and at the quickest pace for five months (2.7%). The category had fallen 1.5% in February and 2.3% in January.

That e-commerce dip was perhaps the biggest story as it was the first drop in this area for 10 months, and the fastest fall since 2012.

Visa’s chief commercial officer Mark Antipof said: “The negative impact that the ‘Beast from the East’ had on UK economic activity last month has been widely reported, but this doesn’t entirely explain March’s lacklustre consumer spending. We are in the midst of a dip in consumer confidence and this – coupled with other economic factors – is causing shoppers to continue to restrain themselves.”