In 2020, there were approximately *** thousand business enterprises in the retail and wholesale sector in the United Kingdom, with just *** of these being large enterprises that employed *** or more people.

This statistic portrays the number of retail chains by sector in United Kingdom (UK) in the year 2021. Fashion and clothing was the leading sector, with 117 chains, followed by consumer electronics, with 55 retail chains. Home ware was ranked third, standing at 43 chains, while the optical sector showed the smallest amount, with ten retail chains.

The UK’s London West End is a mecca for both local and global shoppers. Accordingly, it is also the leading shopping district in terms of the number of operating stores in the UK. As of 2019, there were 6,830 stores operating in the London West End retail center. Manchester City Center and Glasgow City Center came in second and third place, with 1,590 and 1,559 stores respectively. Apart from Greater London area, Yorkshire and The Humber had the highest number of retail centers where store numbers were greater compared to the rest of the country.

Growing e-commerce sector threatens retail centers
The future of physical retail centers are under threat due to the growing influence of the e-commerce sector and online sales. Over the past ten years, online retail sales have had an increasing influence in overall retail purchases. In 2019, online sales accounted for 19 percent of total retail sales. Since 2015, online sales have been growing on average between 1 and 1.6 percent per year. The rise in online retail sales is also correlated to the fall in visiting numbers to retail stores. With slight month-to-month variations, the overall trend from January 2017 to March 2019 demonstrates decreasing footfall to retail centers. The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated quarantining measures implemented by the UK government in mid-March 2020 has further affected footfall to UK retail centers. On Easter Sunday 2020, footfall to UK retail centers reached their lowest point ever, with a reported decline of 89.9 percent compared to the year prior.

Consumer opinions on the future of retail centers

Although e-commerce threatens the future survival of retail centers in the UK, consumer opinions demonstrate there is still a demand for physical stores. When surveyed about their opinions on high street in the UK, UK consumers tend to have supportive attitudes towards retail centers remaining open. 70 percent of UK consumers stated being worried about their shops closing and 74 percent were worried about the future of UK high street retail.

The total value of retail sales, including fuel, reached a peak value of approximately 509.77 billion British pounds in 2023. For the retail industry excluding fuel sales, this figure similarly indicated a record value that year.   UK retail business as usual   Generally, retail sales in the UK displayed steady growth with the exception of 2009, when annual sales experienced a noticeable drop. Forecasts project that both store-based and e-commerce sales will continue their steep increase by 2026, with online sales reaching over 200 billion British pounds by that period.    Holiday spending: industry’s best friend   When we look at the monthly breakdown of retail sales value, an unmistakably clear picture of rigorous holiday spending greets us. December is the month when retail has its best days. This was particularly true in December 2019, when the sales value of retail in Great Britain was recorded at over 50 billion British pounds.

This statistic shows the number of VAT and/or PAYE based store enterprises specializing in the retail sale of clothing in the United Kingdom in 2024, by employment size band. There were ** enterprises with more than *** employees.

As of November 2024, 27 retailers in the United Kingdom went into administration, 34 less than a year prior. Among the medium and large retailers included in the list, there were The Body Shop, Homebase, and Ted Baker.

In 2009, there were 187,890 retail trade enterprises in the UK. The statistic shows that the number of retail trade enterprises stayed relatively stable over the following six years and slightly increased after that. In 2022, the number of retail trade enterprises stood at roughly 221,000, a drop from the peak recorded in 2021.

According to data from the United Kingdom, the reported number of affected stores of failed retail companies during 2024 had reached a total of over *****. This is the highest number of stores affected in the past ten years and is even higher than the more than ***** stores that were likely affected as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020.

According to the results of a recent survey, about half of wholesale and retail businesses in the United Kingdom (UK) stated that they have experienced an increase in challenges arising from the changes in transportation costs while importing goods into the UK in the ********* period from August 1, 2022 to August 31, 2022. A further **** percent of the businesses had an increase in challenges related to additional paperwork. In contrast, **** percent of the surveyed businesses stated that they had no problems with their importing activities during the survey period.

This statistic shows the number of specialized stores for the retail sale of clothing in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2008 to 2022. In 2022, there were 11,799 clothing retail stores in the UK, an decrease of 416 stores from the previous year.

In 2024, there were approximately 5.5 million private businesses operating in the United Kingdom, a slight decrease when compared with the previous year, and down from a peak of 5.98 million businesses reported in 2020. There has been a net increase of around 2.03 million business enterprises since 2000, when there were 3.47 million. During the provided time period, the largest annual rise in the number of businesses occurred between 2013 and 2014, which saw a net increase of approximately 340,000 private enterprises. Employment in the UK Of the almost 34 million people employed in the UK in 2025 almost 28 million are employed in the private sector, highlighting their key role in the UK economy. Additionally, a significant share of the UK workforce are employed by around 4,000 large companies which employ over 500 people. In 2024, large companies employed over 9.65 million people, despite only composing a fraction of the total number of UK private enterprises. During the same time period, the UK public sector employed around 6.1million people, approximately 17.9 percent of the workforce. Retail and wholesale dominate Over 4.9 million people were employed in retail and wholesale in the UK in 2024, the most of any sector. After the retail sector, administrative, and support service businesses were the next biggest employer, at just over 3.09 million people. Retail and wholesale enterprises were also responsible for the highest combined turnover of UK businesses, at more than 1.8 trillion British pounds. The sector with the most enterprises, was the construction sector with over 870,000 enterprises belonging to this industry in 2024.

This statistic displays the share of social platforms retailers expect to drive the most value in the next five years in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2019. 39 percent of UK retailers expect Facebook to generate the most value for their business. Youtube and Instagram came in second, gauging positive response from 18 percent of respondents each. Social platforms like Pinterest and Snapchat were deemed key only by 2 percent of UK retailers to drive value for business in the next five years.

According to findings in the United Kingdom, the reported number of companies that failed in the year 2024 was registered at **. Over the whole of 2020, the number of company failures reached **, which was the same as 2008, when the financial downturn occurred. Still, the highest number of failed companies occured in 2023.

This statistic shows the total employment average in enterprises for retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles, in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2008 to 2019. During 2019, an average of 3.1 million people were employed in the retail industry in the UK.

This statistic states the total number of retail stores operated by the UK based retailer Next from 2012 to 2024. As of the financial year ended January 2024, there were *** stores in operation, a decrease of * stores from the previous year.

The United Kingdom’s leading retailers were supermarket chains, with Tesco ranking at the very top based on its annual sales of approximately **** billion British pounds for 2022/2023. Together with Sainsbury’s, Asda, and Morrisons, this quartet is often referred as “Big Four” in the UK grocery retail market. When combined, Big Four sales constitute over ** percent of the grocery market in the UK. Department stores still relevant Despite concerns around decreasing consumer interest, department stores such as Marks and Spencer continues to be the UK’s most successful retailers. The company, which generated over **** billion British pounds in the year 2020/2021 is a hybrid business of grocery and clothing/general retail. That said, Marks and Spencer's food segment currently delivers more revenue compared with the brand’s other retail operations. Amazon in the UK retail scene As displayed in the present statistic, in addition to UK’s homegrown retail companies, online players like Amazon are imprinting their influence on the landscape as well. Over the years, the global online retail company’s UK sales rose exponentially, reaching about ** billion U.S. dollars as of December 2022.

The number of retail businesses in Great Britain has been declining over the period of 2013 to 2021. In 2021 the number of retail businesses stood at 93 percent of the 2013 number, a further 0.7 percent decrease on the previous year.

The number of VAT and/or PAYE based store enterprises specializing in the retail sale of books in the United Kingdom with a workforce of more than 50 people amounted to just ten in 2024, with most such stores reporting a staff base of less than five.

This statistic displays the share of retail businesses making e-commerce purchases in the United Kingdom from 2009 to 2018. In 2018, 48.2 percent of retail businesses made purchases via e-commerce. This was an increase of roughly 15 percentage points from 2017.

An estimated 8,543 retail stores in the United Kingdom closed throughout 2024. This was a slowdown increase from 2024, during which 10,494 stores closed. Retail in the UK Despite almost consistent annual growth, the popularity of high-street shopping is in decline. While the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the growth of online shopping, high-street footfall was in decline before the virus became part of the social lexicon. Brick and mortar shops in the UK struggle to compete with both price-cutting establishments and the world of online retail. According to the source, physical shops lost 12.6 percent of their market between 2006 and 2019. Retailers are looking to maintain their profitability through job cutting, and the closure of many smaller outlets. COVID-19 and e-commerce Online retail has seen astronomical growth in recent years and was given a helping hand by consumers stuck at home during pandemic lockdowns. Online retail sales skyrocketed in 2020 and 2021, a trend expected to continue into 2022 given that internet sales now account for around a quarter of all retail sales in Great Britain. Additionally, the new home-working reality of everyday life now means that workers are spending less time in retail areas near their workplace where they would normally spend lunch times or pick up bits and pieces traveling to and from the office five days a week.