UK SHOPPERS are spending around £4.7bn a year on ultra-low-cost international shopping platforms, accounting for around 5% of UK non-food online sales.

The findings suggest Chinese-owned platforms are no longer niche disruptors, but a material force in UK retail. Their rapid growth is changing consumer expectations around price, range and delivery, placing pressure on domestic retailers already managing elevated costs, margin pressure and shifting demand.

Cyber risk

The research also finds that cyber and data security is now the leading risk facing UK retailers. Almost two-thirds (64%) of retail leaders rank cyber and data security among their top three risks for the year ahead, up from 58% last year. Cyber is also now the most selected number one risk, with 29% of retail leaders placing it ahead of financial, operational and strategic risks.

Retailers are responding with greater urgency. More than a third (37%) now say they are highly prepared to detect, respond to and recover from a major cyber incident, up from 25% last year.

What’s clear is that cyber risk is no longer seen as a technology issue, but a core commercial risk. A major cyber incident now has the potential to halt trading, disrupt operations and undermine customer trust.

AI shop window

Another central risk facing retailers is the growth in consumer use of AI, which is reshaping how consumers discover, compare and choose products: 78% of retail leaders agree AI is already changing how consumers discover and search for items.

Nearly nine in ten retail leaders (89%) expect AI to reduce the importance of traditional discovery channels over the next 12 to 18 months, as AI tools increasingly act as intermediaries between retailers and customers.

This creates a new competitive challenge. Retailers may need to compete not only for website traffic, search rankings and store footfall, but for visibility within AI-led recommendations and platform-mediated customer journeys.

Social commerce moves from experimentation to execution

Social commerce is also becoming a more important sales channel, particularly among younger shoppers. The report finds that 30% of Gen Z consumers have purchased via platforms such as TikTok Shop.

However, retailer readiness remains mixed. Only 37% of retail leaders say they are fully prepared to scale social commerce, reflecting the operational complexity involved across content creation, creator partnerships, fulfilment, customer service and demand planning.

GLP-1 drugs emerge as an unexpected demand-shaping force

In one of the more unexpected emerging trends for 2026, GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are already influencing retailers’ decision-making.

Just under a third (30%) of retail businesses say they are already adapting ranges, prices or marketing in response to early signals around GLP-1 adoption, while 57% agree that these treatments could materially shift buying behaviour and change demand for some food products.

Around 4% of UK consumers, equivalent to around 2 million adults, say they are currently using these treatments, with a further 18% having either used them previously or considering adoption.