October 19th, 2021, Janice Fernandes
In a new analysis, YouGov’s Retail Rankings 2021 highlight the top-ten-performing UK brands over the past year across key categories in the retail sector.
The top ten rankings are based on YouGov BrandIndex’s Index score, which measures a brand’s overall health, calculated by taking the average of our Impression, Quality, Value, Satisfaction, Recommend and Reputation metrics. Rankings are calculated by taking an annual average.
The analysis includes an overall ranking of all retail brands and looks at the top performing companies in retail subsectors such as general retail, high street fashion, high street retail, and supermarket.
Get in touch to see YouGov’s full list of Retail Rankings 2021.
Overall retail
The best retail brand in the UK was Marks & Spencer with an average score of 42.7. The retailer’s partnership with online marketplace Ocado helped it meet the pandemic-induced shift to online purchasing. Its success extends across the high street fashion, high street retail and supermarket categories.
John Lewis comes in at a close second with a score of 41.4 and IKEA clinches the third spot with a score of 40. The furniture company opened its first store in 1987 in the UK, and more than 30 years later it finds itself as part of the retail furniture in the country.
Health and beauty products retailer Boots and bookseller Waterstones both find spots in the top five with scores of 38.4 and 36.3, respectively. German supermarket brand, Aldi, also makes it into the top ten overall rankings with a score of 34.5, edging out the next best-placed supermarket, Sainsbury’s.
General retail
In the general retail category, IKEA claims the top spot with a score of 40. After a big difference in score comes home improvement company B&Q at second place with 33.8 and Argos at a close third with 33.7. Other notable brands that make the top ten this year are Wilko, Screwfix, Dunelm, Currys PC World, Halfords, Wickes and Pets at Home.
High street fashion
Despite news of Marks & Spencer closing down stores in the UK, the much-loved fashion brand has secured the top spot in the 2021 high street fashion rankings with a score of 42.1.
Next takes second place followed by shoe retailer Clarks, with clothing company Levi’s at third and fourth spots. Also on the list are Tu Clothing, George, Debenhams, H&M, TK Maxx and Tesco’s F&F.
High street retail
Marks & Spencer seals its place as the top high street brand of this year on the YouGov retail rankings chart. Ranked second, John Lewis’ 2021 report reveals that the pandemic-induced work-life balance has increased the sales of comfortable products like Crocs. Also in the top ten are Boots, Waterstones, Superdrug and Holland & Barrett.
Skincare is another sub-category that soared during the pandemic, so it’s no surprise to find The Body Shop on this list.
Home Bargains and Specsavers are the other two brands on the ranking that make up the top ten.
Supermarkets
Marks & Spencer once again finds itself in top spot, making it first in all three categories. Second in line is Aldi, which has recently moved to significantly reduce the use of plastic in its stores.
Also on the top ten list of supermarkets is Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Lidl, Morrisons, Waitrose, The Co-operative, Asda and Iceland.
Get in touch to see YouGov's full list of Retail Rankings 2021
Methodology: The brands in YouGov Retail Rankings were ranked based on their Index score, which is a measure of overall brand health calculated by taking the average of Impression, Quality, Value, Satisfaction, Recommend and Reputation over a period of 12 months.
The rankings chart shows the brands with the highest average index score between September 1st 2020 until August 31st 2021. The scores are representative of the general population of adults 18+ (some are online representative).
All scores listed have been rounded to a single decimal place; however, we have used additional precision to assign ranks. All brands must have been tracked for at least six months in order to eligible for inclusion in the rankings.