As the August bank holiday approaches, the UK’s retail and hospitality sectors are anticipating a significant surge in sales, according to consumer spend insights from global data and technology company Experian and Reward, an industry participant focused on customer engagement.
The forecast, which is based “on previous bank holiday spend uplifts compared to average weekends in the lead up to the bank holiday, predicts a 15% increase in sales for retail and hospitality.”
This uplift is expected to contribute “an additional £600 million to the UK economy – a welcome boost for businesses during the summer season.”
What’s more, the insights find weather conditions “will play a crucial role in shaping consumer behaviour over the long weekend.”
If there is a spell of warm, sunny weather, it could “drive even higher sales, with every degree above the seasonal average potentially adding £16M million to the respective sectors.”
This underscores the positive correlation “between good weather and consumer spending during key trading periods.”
Colin Grieves, Managing Director, Marketing Services, Experian UK&I, comments:
“As we head into the August bank holiday, our data and insights show the opportunity open to businesses across the country. It’s important though they are ready to be flexible and change strategies depending on the weather. It could be they can truly capitalize on sunny skies, or they may have to manage the impact of rain on their sales.”
The methodology
Bank Holiday spend analysis is based “on insight created by Reward from transactional and merchant information derived from its Customer Engagement programs.”
The analysis compares historic (2022-2024) sales and transaction uplifts “for Bank Holidays to create predicted uplifts for the August Bank holiday.”
Weather Impact Insight was created “utilizing linear regression to see how the weather variables affected spend during July 2024 (this is assumed to be in line with August’s weather impact).”
This is then scaled to give “an estimation of national impact.”
Founded in 2001, Reward is an industry participant that specializes in “transforming the world of customer engagement and commerce media.”
Operating in 15 countries across Europe, Middle East and Asia, Reward’s cloud-based API platform “integrates content, advertising, and commerce to deliver exceptional experiences for consumers resulting in increased customer engagement, retention, and overall satisfaction.”
Beyond bridging the gap between content and commerce, Reward is a “purpose driven business.”
Their mission is to make “everyday spending more rewarding.”
During the last 5 years, Reward has “given back more than $1billion in cashback rewards to consumers world-wide.”
Experian is a global data and technology company, “powering opportunities for people and businesses around the world.”
They help to redefine lending practices, “uncover and prevent fraud, simplify healthcare, deliver digital marketing solutions, and gain deeper insights into the automotive market, all using our unique combination of data, analytics and software.”
They also assist millions of people “to realize their financial goals and help them to save time and money.”
They operate across a range of markets, “from financial services to healthcare, automotive, agrifinance, insurance, and many more industry segments.”
They invest in talented people and new advanced technologies “to unlock the power of data and innovate.”