Maybe the economic outlook isn’t as gloomy as some predict, especially for fashion retail. Despite ongoing economic pressures, UK consumers “continue to prioritise fashion spending, with value-led and demand-responsive brands emerging strongest”, a cheerier report from MediaVision claims.

Analysing real-time consumer search behaviour, tracking how demand shifted during the final quarter of 2025 and identifying the brands best positioned for growth in 2026, step forward Primark, Vinted, Next, M&S and Selfridges, with the first two leading the battle in the ‘affordability’ category. 

Over the past quarter, Primark and Vinted emerged as the fastest-growing fashion brands in terms of share of search. Primark led the way with the value retailer increasing its share of search by +0.65 on a search score of 3.88% with Vinted (2.24% brand search) slightly behind at +0.47.

“Their growth highlights a growing consumer preference towards affordability and value, with shoppers increasingly opting either for lower-cost new fashion or turning to second-hand platforms like Vinted as a way to maximise value”, the report said. 

Meanwhile, Next “continued to dominate overall brand share of search in Q4 (5.67%/+0.43 increase), “maintaining its position at the top of the market while continuing to grow… maintaining strong consumer interest and engagement heading into 2026”, the report said. 

M&S and Selfridges were also given the briefest of mentions, given their share of brand search came into the top five, 2.85%/+0.39, for the former and 1.68%/+0.16 for the latter.

The report also revealed the three big high street names with declining brand searches were led by Sports Direct, whose share of brand search (4.21%) dipped 0.3 year-on-year, followed by TK Maxx (4.06%/-0.19) and John Lewis (3.71%/-0.26).

Louis Venter, CEO at MediaVision said: “Consumer search behaviour is shifting faster than most brands can track, and in fashion, the margin between capturing demand and losing it often comes down to weeks, not months. The quarter reveals a market in motion, with fashion still commanding the majority of share of wallet across retail sectors and high-street fashion dominating at category level.”

Adam Bly, MediaVision growth director added: “Fashion holds a commanding, growing share, even if you were to disregard the short-term spike of Black Friday. Farther down the pecking order ‘nice-to-have’ and ‘need-to-have’ categories battle it out, but it appears that consumers continue to make sure a decent amount of buying power is set aside for Fashion, even whilst tail and headwinds appear to hit other markets with considerable force.”