Marks & Spencer has ranked because the UK’s most trusted retailer in 2025, despite the crippling cyber attack in April and the lengthy-lasting fallout, which pressured it to pause orders on its web site for nearly seven weeks.
That’s in keeping with a survey of 2,000 UK respondents in November 2025 by information and analytics firm, GlobalData, which requested them to state the UK retailers that they really feel are the most trustworthy. Each respondent may choose as much as three.
M&S got here high with 19%, adopted by John Lewis (18%), Tesco and Amazon (each on 16%) and Sainsbury’s (11%).
The problem consumers confronted to find comparable alternate options elsewhere through the cyber attack outage “reinforced perceptions that M&S offers products that are genuinely hard to replace”.
By restoring service and providing prospects reductions within the aftermath, M&S additional strengthened its reliability and worth proposition.
Aliyah Siddika, Associate Retail Analyst at GlobalData, mentioned: “Marks & Spencer’s slender lead in client belief over John Lewis & Partners shouldn’t be assured to stay in 2026.
“John Lewis & Partners has the infrastructure to communicate its quality and value for money message more clearly with its revived “Never Knowingly Undersold” promise, which may assist it overtake Marks & Spencer sooner or later.
“Notably, John Lewis ranks second despite a smaller store footprint, indicating the strength of its proposition and the potential for further momentum. Marks & Spencer must ensure that it remains committed to its focus on security and promoting its unique, quality focused own-brand to retain shoppers’ trust.”
The survey additionally confirmed that top high quality merchandise, of which 84% of respondents mentioned had been most vital, and worth for cash (81%), underpinned client belief, in addition to customer support and worth guarantees on merchandise (each 74%), swiftly adopted by consistency throughout shops and on-line (73%).
Siddika added: “The most trusted UK retailers are those who translate high quality and worth into clear, buyer dealing with indicators. Retailers should supply distinctive, top quality personal-model ranges that really feel genuinely laborious to exchange.
“Shoppers also respond to credible value cues such as Tesco’s Finest range, which, paired with Clubcard prices, makes the quality and value trade-off easy to see at the shelf edge.”