Prime Day key with UK retailers facing summer squeeze as May and June online spending growth stutters

New data from Adobe, powered by Adobe Analytics, reveals that UK online spending reached £49 billion in the first half of 2025, representing a YoY increase of just 1.6%.   

The combination of low consumer confidence, increasing offline inflation and household costs, and wider concerns about the economy saw consumers buy fewer full-priced items, and substitute their regular items for cheaper alternatives in the first half of the year. 

Of particular concern for retailers are the lower than expected online spending figures from May (-1.2% YoY) and June (+1.4%), bringing the prospect of a summer slowdown into sharp focus despite prices across the online retail landscape remaining low. 

Retailers will be hoping that – as in previous year’s – July’s four-day Amazon Prime Day event will ignite demand across the board and give their figures a much needed boost. 

AI

Compared with August 2024, traffic to retail websites from AI tools in June 2025 is up 1,200%, as consumers increasingly use the services to compare prices, compile shopping lists and research products. 

When landing on retail pages from AI sources, shoppers spend 23% longer on-site than those that arrive directly, from social media sources or from traditional search.   

Conversion rates from AI sourced traffic have grown by 100% between April 2025 and June 2025 showing higher levels of consumer trust in the results from AI search and highlighting the importance for online retailers to feature in the responses and links that AI search engines like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, Perplexity and others return to users. 

In October 2024, the conversion rate from non-AI sourced traffic was 89% higher than the conversion rate from AI sourced traffic. In June 2025 the conversion rate from non-AI sourced traffic was only 38% higher than AI sourced traffic, showing the increasing trust and use of AI and GenAI search as personal shoppers.

RTIH AI in Retail Awards

RTIH, organiser of the industry leading RTIH Innovation Awards, proudly brings you the first edition of the RTIH AI in Retail Awards, which is now open for entries. 

As we witness a digital transformation revolution across all channels, AI tools are reshaping the omnichannel game, from personalising customer experiences to optimising inventory, uncovering insights into consumer behaviour, and enhancing the human element of retailers' businesses.

With 2025 set to be the year when AI and especially gen AI shake off the ‘heavily hyped’ tag and become embedded in retail business processes, our newly launched awards celebrate global technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world and the resulting benefits for retailers, shoppers and employees.

Our 2025 winners will be those companies who not only recognise the potential of AI, but also make it usable in everyday work - resulting in more efficiency and innovation in all areas.

Winners will be announced at an evening event at The Barbican in Central London on Wednesday, 3rd September.