Younger fashion shoppers leading revival of brick-and-mortar in UK | Retail News UK

As the most frequent visitors to UK businesses, Gen Z and Millennial consumers are spearheading the brick and mortar renaissance, per recent study from RetailNext, a provider of retail analytics solutions.

Gen Z consumers are more than twice as likely as the typical UK consumer to visit fashion retailers weekly (28 per cent versus 13 per cent), despite the widespread stereotypes that they are digital-first and social media-dependent.

While 40 per cent of UK consumers currently only visit non-food stores once a week, 46 per cent of Millennials visit stores weekly, which is a 6 percentage point increase above the average UK shopper, according to RetailNext’s survey of over 1,000 shoppers.

Younger consumers are increasingly purchasing in physical stores, which is driving pureplays like Gymshark, Trinny London, and Lookfantastic—all of which have physical shopfronts—to make investments in their physical retail presence.

Beyond younger generations, UK consumers are also showing support for the high street: 75 per cent of consumers want the government to take more specific action to help retailers, and 70 per cent think that rate cuts for physical retailers are necessary to level the playing field with online competitors.