UK consumers are still spending, but how they shop, pay and discover products is diverging sharply across regions and generations, according to new data from ESW, the international growth engine for ambitious brands.
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The UK findings form part of the global launch of ESW Signals, ESW’s new insights platform exploring evolving consumer behaviour, international commerce and digital shopping trends worldwide.
UK consumers are most comfortable with AI when it improves convenience or helps find value. While 48% are open to AI-led price comparison and 42% to AI-powered deal finding, enthusiasm drops sharply when automation moves closer to payment. Only 26% of consumers are comfortable with AI-powered payments, while 53% are uncomfortable.
43% of UK consumers now discover products through social media platforms, rising to 72% among Gen Z shoppers. However, only 29% trust social commerce checkout experiences, while 35% still prefer shopping directly through brand or retailer websites.
Consumers in the South are more comfortable with AI-powered payments (29%) than those in the Midlands (23%) or North (22%). Younger consumers are also significantly more open to AI-enabled commerce, with 41% of both Gen Z and Millennials comfortable with AI-powered payments, compared with 15% of Gen X and just 8% of Boomers.
Payment trust remains firmly rooted in traditional methods, with cards the dominant and most trusted payment method and PayPal consistently ranking second.
Nearly a third of UK consumers have used BNPL services in the past year, rising to 44% among Millennials and 40% among Gen Z shoppers, despite BNPL remaining among the least trusted payment methods.
The findings point to an increasingly uneven consumer landscape, with 35% of UK consumers reporting increased discretionary spending over the past year, while 36% say they are spending less. Among financially confident consumers, 45% report increased spending, compared with 20% of those who feel unconfident. Regional differences are also clear, with 39% of consumers in the South reporting increased spending, compared with 34% in the North and 32% in the Midlands.
International shopping remains widespread across the UK market, however, expectations around cost transparency and delivery remain high. More than half of UK consumers (53%) say long delivery times are the biggest barrier to international purchases, while 48% cite shipping costs and 27% say duties and taxes deter purchases.
The UK also remains resistant to paid returns models, with 28% of consumers saying they would not purchase from retailers introducing small return fees.
Value-conscious shopping is also accelerating recommerce behaviour as more than one in five UK consumers now buy second-hand items frequently, rising to 36% among Gen Z shoppers.
The UK findings reflect broader shifts identified across the global ESW Signals report, where consumer behaviour is becoming increasingly uneven across regions, generations and digital channels.
Across the 18 markets surveyed, 62% of consumers say social platforms influence purchasing decisions, while 71% of Gen Z shoppers use social media for product discovery. However, only 6% of consumers globally prefer to complete purchases through social platforms, reinforcing the growing gap between where products are discovered and where purchases actually happen.
The global findings also show significantly stronger spending momentum in markets across the Middle East and Asia, where 67% and 61% of consumers respectively report increased discretionary spending, compared with 44% in Europe and 30% in North America. Consumers in the Middle East also show higher openness to AI-powered shopping and social commerce checkout experiences.
Jonathan Sheard, regional VP of sales, UK and Nordics, ESW said: “The findings show a UK market that is moving in different directions at once. Consumers in London and the South are generally more open to international shopping and newer digital behaviours, while shoppers in the Midlands and North are thinking much harder about value, delivery costs and reliability.
Similarly, the broader ESW Signals findings show that global ecommerce growth is becoming increasingly uneven across regions and channels. Consumers are discovering products in more places and shopping internationally more frequently, but they still expect the purchase experience itself to feel trusted, transparent and reliable. For brands, that means growth increasingly depends on delivering localised customer experiences that reflect different consumer expectations market by market.”
