A leading retailers' body has called for interim pricing remedies to reduce card fees after a recent report showed that leading credit cards have been consistently increasing their processing fees, squeezing businesses' ability to invest and grow.
British Retail Consortium (BRC) today (6) raised a demand to introduce interim pricing remedies to reduce fees which have been an unjust burden on merchants, and work towards the introduction of a price cap in the longer term.
According to a report by Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), Mastercard and Visa increased their core scheme and processing fees to acquirers by at least 25 per cent since 2017, costing businesses at least £170 million extra per year.
This increased cost of doing business in the UK impacts on UK businesses’ ability to invest and grow, and could lead to direct economic constraints, particularly for small merchant, states the report.
In addition, a lack of easy-to-understand fee information has led to costs for acquirers and merchants, including small retailers.
The report also notes that existing alternative payment methods to cards do not exert effective competitive constraints on the fees charged by Mastercard and Visa for scheme and processing services.
Cards are the most popular way for consumers to pay for goods and services in the UK. In 2023, 61 per cent of all payments in the UK were made using cards, making up almost 86 per cent of the total value of retail transactions.
Data from BRC shows that in 2023 consumer credit and debit cards accounted for 85.7 per cent of the total value of retail transactions in the UK.
In 2012, cash was the most popular method of payment. However, since then, the use of cash has declined substantially, while cards have grown and are expected to grow even more.
Mastercard and Visa are central to this; over 95 per cent of transactions using UK issued cards are made on their rails.
However, merchants have been raising concerns about the cost of accepting cards and their limited ability to understand or negotiate fees.
Chris Owen, Payments Policy Advisor at BRC, said, "This report confirms the harms arising from the lack of competition in the card schemes market, with fees being introduced without justification or sufficient explanation.
"There has been a 25% increase in scheme fees since 2017 costing businesses an extra £170 million per year. It’s now time for meaningful action. Following the PSR’s findings, it is clear it must go further than the proposed remedies in its interim report.
"This means introducing interim pricing remedies to reduce fees which have been an unjust burden on merchants, and working towards the introduction of a price cap in the longer term."
Convenience stores emerged as largest growing category in terms of store opening last year, a recent report has stated, showing overall decline in chain outlet closures with 2024 having the second fewest closures in a decade, reflecting an improving picture for retailers.
According to Store Opening and Closing Data 2024 by PwC, a total of 12,804 shops and outlets belonging to multiples and chains (those with five or more outlets) exited UK high streets, shopping centres and retail parks in 2024.
This is equivalent to 35 closures per day, a decrease from last year and the second fewest closures in a decade – closures were only lower in 2022.
Openings are following a similar trend, with numbers slowing slightly to 25 per day. This is an improvement from the number of store openings during the pandemic but lower than the 34 per day peak during the mid-2010s.
The fastest growing category this year was convenience stores, as large supermarket chains accelerated growth in the fastest growing store format in the UK grocery market.
In fact, the net growth of full-sized supermarkets slowed slightly from the previous year, as discounters in particular slowed down their roll out plans.
Coffee shops were the only other category with more than 1 net opening per week in 2024.
This category saw a continuation of openings out-of-town and in drive-thrus seen in previous years, as well as chains expanding into city centres as the pandemic working-from-home trend began to reverse.
When it comes to declining categories, half of all net closures are accounted for by four categories- chemists, pubs and bars, banks, and car-related outlets.
However, these net declines are generally smaller than those seen in previous years, reflecting the improving closure trend across the board, states the PwC report.
This year’s results show higher net closures in the South and East of the England, while Wales, Scotland and the North West have seen fewer net closures.
In line with last year’s results, retail parks have continued to grow in 2024, significantly outperforming other locations and maintaining the positive performance.
Encouragingly though, rates of decline have fallen across all other location types over the last year too. For instance, shopping centres have more than halved the number of closures in 2024, with their recovery being boosted by an increasing pivot to growing leisure categories.
Meanwhile even high streets have seen net closures decline by about a quarter compared with 2023.
This year’s data reinforces a continued move away from the high street, where slower openings that are unable to offset concentrated closures. In contrast, out-of-town locations are seeing fewer closures and a net increase in store openings.
The results for 2024 show improvement. Closures are stabilising with fewer one-off failures and restructurings leading to just 10 net closures per day, three less than in 2023.
However, long-run analysis does show the 2 per cent per annum decline in chain outlets is in-line with the wider trend of shopping and services continuing to move online, despite the stated preference of many younger consumers to shop in store.
The number of retail jobs in 2024 slumped to the lowest since the data began in 1996, despite total jobs in the economy continuing to rise, shows the latest report by the ONS,
there were 2.88m jobs in retail in December 2024.This is traditionally the high point of the year, with retailers employing more people during the key Christmas quarter. The four-quarter average was 2.84m jobs, 70,000 fewer than at the same point last year, and 249,000 fewer than five years ago.
On a four-quarter average there were 1.50m part-time and 1.34m full-time jobs. The number of full-time jobs is down 106,000 on five years ago. Meanwhile, the number of part-time jobs is down 142,000 on five years ago.
Commenting on these figures, Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive at the British Retail Consortium, said, “The number of retail jobs in 2024 was the lowest since the data began in 1996, despite total jobs in the economy continuing to rise. While this decline in retail jobs should be a concern to communities everywhere, worse could be yet to come.
"Last October’s Budget forced retailer wage bills up by over £5bn, and both the rise in employer NICs and increased National Living Wage have made hiring significantly more costly.
"A recent survey of retail Finance Directors showed that half were planning hiring freezes or cutting jobs, both in head offices and stores across the UK.
“Jobs cuts are likely to fall disproportionately on part-time roles. 200,000 part-time jobs have already been lost over the last seven years, and up to 160,000 more part-time roles are at risk in the next three years.
"This matters: flexible retail roles are an important stepping stone for many people, whether it’s a first job out of school or a part-time role for those returning to the workforce or with caring responsibilities.
"As the Government’s welfare reforms aim to increase the numbers in work, flexible retail roles offer a first rung back onto the career ladder.
“Retailers face uncertainty around the new Growth and Skills Levy and on implementation of the Employment Rights Bill which could make it more difficult to offer flexible part-time roles or retrain people.
"Reducing part-time and reskilling opportunities in retail would not only be a loss to the industry, the UK’s largest private sector employer, but would also punish the millions of people who benefit from flexible, local jobs.
"If Government can ensure these policies help, rather than hinder, recruitment and investment in training, the industry can help provide routes back into work for those who need it.
"Government must join the dots on these different policies to create a win-win for employees, employers, and the wider economy.”
Food and grocery spending expectations continued to outperform other categories this month, shows the recent industry data, reflecting the improved confidence in the shoppers.
According to BRC-Opinium data released today (20), consumer expectations over the next three months of the state of the economy improved slightly to -35 in March, up from -37 in February.
Expectation over their personal financial situation also improved slightly to -10 in March, up from -11 in February while for personal spending on retail rose to 0 in March, up from -5 in February.
Consumer expectation over their personal spending overall rose to +11 in March, up from +4 in February while that on their personal saving fell to -5 in March, down from -3 in February.
Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, said, "Consumer confidence stabilised this month after February’s record low.
"This was coupled with an increase in spending expectations for the three months ahead, both for retail spending and spending more generally.
"Within retail, spending expectations for DIY and home improvements moved into positive territory for the first time. Across all categories, Gen Z (18-27) expected to spend more than the previous 3 months in every category, while Gen X (44-59) planned the biggest cuts to spending for most items, excluding food.
"Food and grocery spending expectations continued to outperform other categories, hitting a new high, though this could also be due to the expectation of rising prices.
“The Spring statement is an opportunity for government to inject some confidence back into the economy. In a matter of weeks, retailers grapple with the reality of billions in extra costs from the increases to employer National Insurance and the National Living Wage.
"This £5bn in new costs will give many no option but to push prices up. Food inflation is likely to hit 5 per cent by the end of the year, and with further costs from the new packaging tax and implementation of the Employment Rights Bill, prices risk being pushed up further.
"Without a much needed confidence boost from government, the scale of new costs will see retail investment fall further, holding back future growth in the economy.”
Smoking rates in parts of England have increased for the first time in nearly two decades, according to new research published on Tuesday (18). Industry experts suspect misinformation around vapes and impending regulation on flavours are pushing vape users back to smoking cigarettes.
While smoking rates have decreased since 2006, the rate of decline has flatlined from 2020, and in some areas of the UK smoking rates are increasing again.
New research, by Haypp, looks into vape users' perception of harm across a range of nicotine products, highlighting a serious lack of awareness when it comes to which products are more harmful than others, potentially contributing to this rise in cigarette use.
The survey, to which all respondents were current vape users, showed that consumers did not see a significant difference in harm levels between cigarettes, vapes, and nicotine pouches.
In fact, respondents believed that the three products were similarly harmful, rating all three as being between 4.5 to 6 out of 10, on a scale from not harmful to very harmful.
This is a shocking statistic given that there is a substantial body of evidence, including NHS research, that proves that cigarettes are much more harmful than vapes and nicotine pouches.
This research coincides with the latest data from University College London, highlighting a rising issue with smoking cigarettes, and the understanding of their harm to public health.
Haypp’s latest vape report also highlights that significant number of vapes users could return to smoking cigarettes, depending on how UK laws on vaping may change:
20 per cent of current vape users would return to smoking cigarettes if vapes were no longer available to them while 37 per cent admitted they would return to smoking cigarettes if vape flavours were to be banned in the UK.
10 per cent of vape users say they may return to smoking cigarettes following the disposable vape ban in June.
Markus Lindblad, Nicotine Expert and Head of External Affairs at Haypp, said, “For many years, the UK government has had great success in reducing smoking rates.
"However, this new research, combined with Haypp’s statistics paint a very worrying picture, one that industry experts have been concerned about for some time now.
"There is a great deal of confusion amongst UK consumers as to how harmful cigarettes are compared with alternative nicotine products and most smokers wrongly believe that vaping is as harmful as cigarettes.
"UK consumers are exposed to a great deal of misinformation about vapes and nicotine pouches, and this needs to be addressed to enable people to make informed choices about less harmful nicotine products.
"Public information campaigns about the true harm levels of cigarettes compared with vapes should be facilitated by health authorities.
“As a responsible retailer, we hope to help inform nicotine users about the dangers of smoking cigarettes, and highlight the benefits of switching to alternative products, such as nicotine pouches.
"Thanks to snus and nicotine pouches, Sweden is set to become Europe’s first smoke-free country and we have further research to show that if the UK adopted similar laws, up to 28,410 lives could be saved every year.
"The importance of this type of education cannot be understated and we hope more is done to deter potentially millions of people from smoking cigarettes.”
European-style fruit-led or fruity beer is increasingly gaining popularity in the UK, emerging as the Britain’s fastest growing beer trend.
According to Tesco, demand for these lighter thirst-quenching beers, which have a typical strength of around 4% ABV, is rocketing so much that the supermarket has seen sales volume grow by 250 per cent in the last year.
These fruity beer styles have long been popular in western European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Italy, and are associated with ‘after sport’ refreshment, particularly skiing and cycling.
Over the last 15 years, various European beers with fruity profiles have gradually become more popular over here such as Belgian strawberry brews Fruli and Bacchus Kriek, and more recently Radler, a shandy style beer from Germany and Damm Lemon from Spain.
Seven years ago, dedicated UK fruit lager brand Jubel was launched and quickly established themselves as one of the hippest beers for drinkers in the 21-35 age group.
The company now has five different varieties – peach, mango, blood orange, lemon and grapefruit - of its 4 per cent strength lager and has seen volume grow in Tesco by more than 300 per cent.
Tesco beer buyer Ben Cole said, “The soaring demand for fruit-led brews, particularly lager, has taken the UK drinks market by storm and is the biggest trend to hit the beer scene since the craft boom started more than 15 years ago.
“The trend actually has its roots in the craft beer movement because it introduced beers with tropical fruit profiles to more drinkers than ever before.
“For many people the craft movement changed the perception of what a beer could taste like and opened many drinkers’ palates to a wider range of styles.”
The trend is also similar to the fruit-led cider boom which began 20 years ago with the introduction of pear varieties.
That movement came after Magners reinvented cider as a refreshing drink to be enjoyed ‘over ice’ and within a few years other cider manufacturers such as Kopparberg were marketing fruit-led variants.
Jubel were the first UK company to exclusively take note of the fruit-led side of the beer market and formed in April 2018.
Founder Jesse Wilson got the idea for the company during a skiing trip to France where his group of friends found that the Bière Pêche being served – which included a shot of peach syrup – was light and refreshing.
Wilson said, “We were a mixed group of men and women, some of whom liked beer and some who didn’t, but we all loved the Bière Pêche being served – a pint of lager with a peach top – and it gave me the idea to start the brand.
“I thought that style of lager could be the perfectly refreshing pint in pubs and that’s where our business grew, with word of mouth spreading rapidly, to the point where it seems our flagship peach lager is now the fifth biggest craft beer in the on-trade based on CGA reported volumes.
“We are incredibly excited that retailers like Tesco see this as the biggest trend to hit beer since the craft beer movement, and we’re pumped to be pioneering it.”