Department stores in the United Kingdom (UK) - statistics & facts
One of the main attractions of the high street in the United Kingdom (UK), the department store, has begun to encounter difficulties in recent years. In 2023, sales in UK department stores amounted to 32.2 billion British pounds, based on volume, compared to 35.5 billion British pounds in 2016. Compared to last year, the industry's sales volume was approximately the same, while the sales value (the amount spent) increased by 6.1 percent.
Despite the dooming outlook in recent years, department stores are still popular, as the footfall of high streets and shopping centers stabilized again after the inconsistent period between 2020 and 2023.
Notable mergers in the UK department store landscape
The strain on the UK department store market has been highlighted by the high-profile struggles of leading chains. In summer 2018, the retailer House of Fraser announced plans to close a large proportion of its stores, before being bought out by owner of Sports Direct, Mike Ashley. However, as a renewed entity, Fraser Group generated a revenue in total of 5.5 billion pounds and sold 3.8 million clothing items in 2023. In 2020 similarly, after years of decline in profit, Debenhams was purchased by Boohoo and the brand now operates exclusively online. The global revenue of Boohoo amounted to 1.8 billion pounds and their brand awareness reached 84 percent in 2023.Luxury department stores
In comparison to other kinds of department stores, high-end department stores are proving to be more resilient to the struggles that the high street and department store retail have been facing. Revenues of high-end stores such as Harrods and Selfridges did fall in 2020 due to the pandemic, but looking before this period, their revenues bounced back, while chains such as House of Fraser and Debenhams were struggling. The net worth of Harrods proved resilient in 2024, reaching over 2.3 billion pounds.Despite the dooming outlook in recent years, department stores are still popular, as the footfall of high streets and shopping centers stabilized again after the inconsistent period between 2020 and 2023.
