Online shopping cools in July after early summer splurge
The latest retail sales figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that Britain’s online shopping spree came off the boil in July. The slump followed a bumper couple of months for non-store retailers – the vast majority of which are internet retailers – driven by heatwave buying and early summer promotions.
According to the ONS, while overall retail sales volumes rose by 1.1% in the three months to July 2026 compared with the three months to April, they fell back by -0.5% in July itself, following a 0.7% rise in June. Non-store retailers were the biggest drag on that monthly performance, slumping by -3.6%.
The home delivery expert Parcelhero says the figures tell a classic ‘borrowed sales’ story: retailers pulled forward their summer promotions into May and June, when soaring temperatures also had shoppers stocking up on fans, sports merchandise and outdoor products. That has left July looking comparatively flat, even though the underlying three-month trend for e-commerce remains positive.
David Jinks, head of consumer research at Parcelhero, says: ‘The ONS figures confirm what many online retailers have been telling us anecdotally: this was a tale of two halves. Non-store retailers’ sales volumes surged in May and June, as the hottest spells of the year sent shoppers rushing online for fans, garden furniture, sports kit and summer clothing, while early promotional activity dragged even more spending forward into that period.
‘By the time July arrived, much of that appetite had already been satisfied. The ONS is clear that non-store retailers’ sales volumes fell back over the month, and it puts this down to promotions happening earlier than usual in June. Crucially though, volumes remained above where they were in May, so this isn’t a concerning collapse in online shopping – it’s a hangover after a promotional and weather-driven binge.
‘The data on online retail values tells a similar story. Online spending values – the amount we all spent online – rose by 3% in the three months to July 2026 compared with the three months to April, and were up 11% on the same three months a year earlier – a robust annual performance. However, online sales values fell by -3.9% in July, reversing a 2.5% increase in June, even though they were still 6.5% higher than in July 2025.
‘As a result, the proportion of all retail spending made online slipped from 29.2% in June to 28.3% in July.
‘It’s the annual comparisons that really matter here, and they are considerably stronger: online values are up 11% on the three months to last July, and July’s monthly online spend was still 6.5% higher than the same month last year. E-commerce is not going backwards; it’s simply adjusting to earlier summer promotions.
‘For online retailers and the couriers and delivery firms that serve them, the message from these figures is to expect exactly this kind of lumpiness around hot weather and promotional calendars. Looking ahead, with online’s three-month growth trend still comfortably outpacing the high street, and annual online value growth in double digits, we expect e-commerce to bounce back as retailers roll out their fresh promotions again in the run-up to autumn and the key pre-Christmas shopping season.
‘For retailers, the message is clear: those who can scale their fulfilment and delivery operations up and down quickly, rather than being caught flat-footed by a heatwave or a big sporting event, stand to gain the most. Parcelhero has recently released “2030: The High Street Fights Back?”, a follow-up to its widely read 2016 report “2030: The Death of the High Street”. The new publication explores how e-commerce growth and disruptions like the pandemic have reshaped town centres over the past decade. Its central finding is that those retailers who successfully balance High Street and online sales are most likely to survive. The full report is available at https://www.parcelhero.com/en-gb/resources/ebooks/2030-the-high-street-fights-back