Rising household costs, broader economic concerns, and public and school holidays combined in May to curtail UK consumers’ online spending power. Despite online prices being an average of 9.6% cheaper on an annual basis and 2.3% cheaper than in April, online spending declined by 1.2% on an annual basis.
New data from Adobe, powered by Adobe Analytics, reveals that online spending hit £7.8bn in May 2025, a 1.2% decrease on the £7.9 billion spent in May 2024, and £500m less than the £8.3bn spent in April. This is the first time that spending has decreased on an annual basis since October 2023 and the lowest online spending month since May 2023, raising fresh concerns for UK retailers ahead of the summer months.
May’s figures bring total online spend for the year-to-date (January – May) to £42.3bn, up just 1.9% on the same period in 2024.
Early June figures show a significant uptick in UK sales of video games, consoles and gaming accessories following the worldwide release of the new Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5th. In the first weekend since the Nintendo Switch 2’s release (June 5th to 9th), Adobe Analytics recorded a 252% boost in overall video game category spending (including consoles, games, and accessories across all gaming systems) compared to daily averages in May, showing the impact of major product releases creating an online shopping event that drives spend across the broader category and ecommerce landscape.
Nintendo reported worldwide sales of 3.5 million in the first week since launch, and Adobe’s data shows the extent of the halo effect for other consoles and gaming-related items.
“While our data shows that online spending has declined on an annual basis for the first time in eighteen months, signs of underlying softness in consumer spending power have been evident since the start of the year,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights. “May is always the lowest online spending month of the year due to bank holidays, school holidays and being outside of seasonal sale periods, but retailers will need to take immediate action to save their summer by quickly launching promotions and taking advantage of major sales events like Prime Day in July.”
From a product perspective, categories related to warm weather continued to perform strongly, as the UK experienced the sunniest and warmest Spring on record. 2025 has seen the sunniest March, April and May since records began and May’s data revealed a surge in sporting goods (+37% month-over-month), swimwear (+29% MoM), sun cream (+23% MoM), and activewear (+21% MoM). This follows data from April which saw UK shoppers rush to get their gardens summer-ready by stocking up on outdoor furniture and barbecues.
Consumers were also preparing for their holidays with online sales of travel-related products up 26% MoM, including electronics cables and accessories (+29% MoM) and luggage (+17% MoM).
Adobe Analytics data reveals:
Online spending declines for the first time in 18 months
- A total of £7.8bn was spent online in May 2025, representing a 1.3% YoY decrease.
- May’s decline comes after a sustained period of YoY growth in online spending since the start of the 2024 in a worrying sign for retailers.
- Total online spend for the year-to-date comes in at £42.3bn (up 1.9% on the same period last year).
Online prices down 2.3% on April 2025, and 9.6% cheaper than a year ago
- Across all ecommerce categories Adobe Analytics data showed online prices were an average of 2.3% cheaper compared with the previous month, and 9.6% cheaper on an annual basis.
- In essential categories (groceries and personal care products), prices were 2.5% cheaper than in April and 3.5% cheaper on an annual basis
- Groceries: -1.9% MoM; -1.4% YoY
- Personal care products: -3.1% MoM; -5.6% YoY
- The biggest price drops compared with May 2024 came in Apparel (-14.5%), electronics (-13.4%), Flowers and gifts (-11.2%) and Toys (-10.8%)
- Compared with the previous month, the biggest price drops came in Flowers and gifts (-6.8%), Electronics (-3%), Apparel (-2.9%), Appliances (2.7%)
- The only category to see prices increase on a monthly basis was Toys (+0.8%)
Warm weather drives surge in sun cream, sporting goods and swimwear
May 2025 was the second sunniest month in the UK on record, prompting shoppers to stock up on summer essentials. From a product perspective, Adobe recorded the biggest monthly increases in:
- Sporting goods (+37% month-over-month), swimwear (+29% MoM), electronics cables and accessories (+29% MoM), sun cream (+23% MoM), activewear (+21% MoM), and luggage (+17% MoM).
Nintendo Switch 2 Launch Powers Up Early June Spending Figures
- In the first weekend since the Nintendo Switch 2’s release (June 5th to 9th), Adobe Analytics recorded a 252% boost in overall video game category spending (including consoles, games, and accessories across all gaming systems) compared to daily averages in May.
Buy Now Pay Later sees lowest monthly spend since tracking began
- UK shoppers spent £1.18bn through Buy Now Pay Later services in May – the lowest BNPL spend since Adobe started tracking its usage in January 2023, and down 3.2% on an annual basis.
- BNPL accounted for 15.1% of total monthly spend.
Visits to retail sites from AI sources up 66% compared with April
May saw a raft of AI updates from the likes of Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic, announcing shopping-specific features, including improved results, recommendations, one-click purchasing, and setting price triggers for products and automating the purchase process altogether.
The Adobe Digital Insights team have been measuring the growth in referrals to retail sites from AI sources since August 2024.
- In May, visits to retail sites from AI sources grew by 66% compared with April.
- Since the start of the year visits to retail sites from AI sources has grown 137%.
- Since August 2024 when Adobe started monitoring this metric, AI referrals to retail sites from UK shoppers has grown 1100%.
- A survey of 2,000 UK consumers commissioned by Adobe in February found that more than a third (35%) have used AI assistants when shopping online, for research (46%), sourcing product recommendations (44%), creating shopping lists (38%), gift inspiration (37%) and finding the best prices for products (29%)
Adobe Analytics data is based on actual online transactions from tracking hundreds of millions of visits to retail sites from UK consumers every month. It also monitors the online prices of 100 million SKUs across 18 product categories to provide the most comprehensive analysis of the UK ecommerce landscape and online shopping trends.
