Love Island 2018 saw British consumers spend more on beauty products

A recent Worldpay report has found that British consumers have pumped £100 million into beautifying themselves over the summer.

Key summer highlights such as Love Island and the royal wedding have reportedly influenced consumers and contributed to the booming beauty industry in the UK.

While the day of the royal wedding was quiet, the week before and after saw beauty-related spending up almost 7% on last year. In particular, Yorkshire and The Humber caught the royal wedding fever, with beauty businesses seeing an 11.3% increase in transaction volumes across the wedding period. Similarly, in the first two weeks of this year’s Love Island series, the average number of beauty-related purchases in the UK rose 7.3% compared to last year. Spending volumes in salons also increased by 14.5% the day after the first episode aired and 9.3% the day after Megan Barton Hanson entered the villa. It was found that the north east was influenced the most by Love Island, with a 12.9% increase in spending over the first week of the show.

The report also ranked the highest beauty-spending areas in the country, with Uttlesford coming in at number one, spending 27% more on beauty over the summer period than in 2017. Carlisle (22%) and York (21%) came in second and third while, representing the capital, Southwark came fourth, up 16% compared to last year. Finally, Dundee flies the flag for Scotland as beauty spending was up by 15%.

Steve Newton, executive vice president of Wordpay, UK and Europe, says, “It’s great to see appetite for beauty remains strong, and that consumers are spending more on treatments in barber shops and beauty salons. The busy British summer seems to have enhanced this positive spending trend, with Love Island and the royal wedding both correlating to peaks in footfall.”