Opportunities for the High Street at Easter 2026

Diane Wehrle examines data from Beauclair to look at the opportunities for high streets over Easter 2026

Despite ongoing cost pressures and subdued consumer demand across retail and hospitality, Easter remains a critical trading period. As the second most important bank holiday in the annual calendar, Easter 2026 will be viewed as an opportunity to generate much‑needed momentum in high streets. Insights from high street sales performance over Easter 2025 – courtesy of Beauclair – highlight where value can be maximised over the bank holiday weekend. 

Easter trading is highly concentrated across Good Friday and Easter Saturday. In 2025, these two days accounted for 34% and 41% of total sales respectively of the four day holiday period. Easter Monday contributed a further 18%, while Easter Sunday represented just 7% of sales, reflecting widespread retail closures.

The five core sectors—Fashion, Food & Drink, General Retail, Grocery, and Health & Beauty—were particularly significant during Easter, accounting for 92% of total sales, compared with 86% across the year as a whole.

Fashion and Food & Drink were the dominant contributors, generating nearly two‑thirds of sales on both Good Friday (61%) and Easter Saturday (60%), and 59% on Easter Monday. Food & Drink was the single largest sector on Good Friday and Easter Saturday, representing over a third of sales on each day (37% and 36%), well above its annual average of 25%.

Fashion also outperformed its annual average, increasing from 20% of total sales across 2025 to 24% on Good Friday and Easter Saturday, and rising further to 29% on Easter Monday. In contrast, Grocery’s share declined from a 2025 average of 22% to 14% on both Good Friday and Easter Saturday, reflecting the concentration of grocery shopping ahead of the bank holiday weekend.

With most retail closed on Easter Sunday, hospitality played a critical role, accounting for 82% of total high street sales. Grocery represented 8%, transport—primarily car parking and public transport—4%, entertainment 3%, and tourism 1%.

While Fashion and Food & Drink increased their share of Easter trading, total sales across the four day period showed only a marginal uplift compared with the preceding week. Sales rose by 4.2% on Good Friday, but declined by 9.1% on Easter Saturday and by 25.7% on Easter Monday. This suggests that the primary opportunity for high streets lies not in overall sales growth, but in maximising spend within the strongest performing sectors.