UK shoppers prioritise buying British

Over half of UK consumers prioritise buying British, according to new research from Rakuten Marketing, showing that ‘Brand Britain’ is powerful in driving consumer interest.

The Brand Confidence Report noted that consumers want to buy British and that brands need to make it clear that they are ‘made in the UK’ in order to gain loyalty from this association.

However, the research also revealed that 51 percent of consumers might want to buy British but only a tenth of the survey respondents correctly identified popular high street brands including SuperDry as British.

The report also found that consumers believe that heritage brands including John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Harrods and Next are predicted “most likely” to be in business in ten years’ time but consumers show less confidence in younger brands.

It was also revealed that fashion brand loyalty decreases with age, with 69 percent of under 30s saying they are loyal to a fashion brand, however, this drops to just 27 percent for those over the age of 60.

When it comes to which fashion brand to shop in 61 percent said that the products the brand offers are most important, compared to 49 percent who stated they choose a brand because the price point is correct for them. Other key factors include the brand’s trustworthiness (38 percent) and the reputation of the brand as an employer (11 percent).

In addition, over a quarter of shoppers (28 percent) said that they purchase from a fashion brand they are loyal to once a month and 26 percent purchase from a fashion brand every three months, suggesting that brands can still earn loyalty over longer time frames. In fact, 33 percent of over 60s shoppers buy from the brand they’re most loyal to once a year or less.

Nick Fletcher, head of multichannel at Rakuten Marketing said: “The brands that people expect to be in business in 2026 are the heritage players on our high street at the moment. Although there is a new era of companies driving their businesses through apps, for example, it’s still legacy brands that win out in the minds of consumers as having staying power. Brits cannot imagine the retail environment without these brands.”