UK retailers saw a tale of two channels this Golden Quarter. Physical stores battled weak footfall and flat growth, while digital sales surged, boosted by higher prices and AI-driven shopping experiences.
Salesforce’s end-of-year Shopping Insights report paints a bullish picture for ecommerce. Globally, online sales hit a record $1.29 trillion, with the UK contributing $38 billion (£28 billion). UK online sales grew 5.5% year-on-year, helped by a 9% rise in average selling prices and a 10% increase in traffic.
AI played a starring role
20% of retail sales were influenced by AI and agents, generating $262 billion worldwide. Salesforce’s data shows that third-party AI shopping channels like Perplexity and ChatGPT deliver high-intent shoppers. Those referred via AI-powered search converted nine times more often than social media referrals. Retailers using their own AI agents saw growth nearly 60% higher than peers.
By contrast, physical retail floundered. December footfall fell across high streets and shopping centres, and in-store non-food sales rose just 0.4% YoY, as reported by the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Online non-food sales jumped 11.1%, according to BRC data, cementing ecommerce’s dominance in a season marked by cautious consumer spending.
It should be noted that Salesforce’s data is primarily focused on non-food ecommerce and does not reflect grocery, which remains largely in-store. That matters because grocery was one of the few bright spots for UK retail this Christmas, with growth for every major supermarket apart from Asda, driven by festive food spending and price inflation. Grocery still accounts for around 85–87% of sales in physical stores, with online penetration at about 13–14% during peak periods.
A “two-speed” Christmas
The result was a “two-speed” Christmas for retailers: resilient digital channels powered by AI innovation versus brick-and-mortar stores struggling to entice shoppers. “The 2025 holiday season marked a definitive shift to a new era of ‘agentic’ shopping,” said Caila Schwartz, director, consumer insights, Salesforce. “Agents didn’t just drive $262 billion in sales through high-intent discovery; they became the operational heroes of the season, handling a 142% surge in tasks like returns and shipping updates.
“This wasn’t just a bigger holiday season than last year; it was a more efficient, intelligent one.”
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