Barclays Research launches UK Spend Trends 2.0

UK Spend Trends 2.0 is a set of signals designed to provide an in-depth view into consumer spending in the United Kingdom using more than 12bn anonymised and aggregated UK consumer transactions.

Barclays Research is enhancing its franchise with the launch of UK Spend Trends 2.0 signals. The new offering builds on Barclays’ strong history of publishing insights about UK consumer spending and provides an in-depth view into consumer spending across more than 250 industries, customer age demographics as well as online and in-store purchases.

Commenting on the launch, Jeff Meli, Global Head of Research, said: “UK Spend Trends 2.0 is one of the most refined signals of its kind, aggregating the equivalent of 90 transactions per second. It will offer a more frequent indicator of consumer confidence in the UK and help clients assess the impact of market, economic and political events on consumer spending over time.

Today’s launch also offers valuable, real-time insight into how UK consumers have adapted their spending behavior during the coronavirus pandemic, and will help track the performance of the UK economy from lockdown, through to recovery, and beyond.”

The new offering builds on the existing Barclays Spend Trends monthly report and uses more than 12bn anonymized and aggregated transactions across Barclays debit and credit cards to produce a daily signal on UK consumer spending going back to February 2016. The signals will be updated weekly, reflecting data up to and including the previous week and can be purchased on a subscription basis from Barclays. For more information, click here.

Barclays Research will use the signals to publish differentiated and innovative research for clients, including macro reports on the performance of the UK economy, fundamental UK equity research and a white paper outlining the methodology behind the signals.

Commenting on the launch, Matt Hammerstein, CEO, Barclays UK, said: “We’re proud to launch our new UK Spend Trends 2.0 – an invaluable source of insight on the health of the UK economy that Barclays is uniquely positioned to provide.

Barclays has been sharing UK spending data for many years. We’re confident this new capability will produce an even richer insight into the ever-shifting landscape of consumer behaviour and its impact on the retail sector, while helping our clients to navigate the challenges ahead as the current crisis evolves.”

The Research Data & Investment Sciences team has issued a number of reports in collaboration with Barclays research analysts, providing unique investment insights and helping clients think of ways they can incorporate new sources of data into their investment process.

Notes to Editors:

• UK Spend Trends 2.0 is based on more than 12bn anonymized and aggregated Barclays credit and debit card transactions dating since 01 February 2016.
• It excludes all transactions generated from Barclays merchant acquiring business.
• The daily signals will be made available weekly with data up to, and including, the previous week and provide trends across more than 250 industries using Merchant Category Codes, customer age demographics as well as online and in-store purchases.
• The signals can be purchased on a subscription basis from Barclays. For more information, click here.