Experian and Reward Reveal Health Spending Has Become a Year-Round Household Priority

Experian and Reward Reveal Health Spending Has Become a Year-Round Household Priority

(IN BRIEF) Experian and Reward have released new research showing that health and wellbeing spending in the UK has shifted from a seasonal January spike to a year-round budget priority, with growth driven by higher spend per person rather than more customers. The data highlights steadier gym engagement alongside strong growth in sportswear and specialist groceries, suggesting that wellness is increasingly embedded in everyday lifestyle choices, while granular transactional insights are helping brands better target high-intent audiences based on real consumer behaviour rather than seasonal assumptions.

(PRESS RELEASE) LONDON, 9-Feb-2026 — /EuropaWire/ — New analysis from Experian, the global data and technology company, in collaboration with Reward, a leading customer engagement and commerce media platform, reveals that spending on health and wellbeing has evolved from a short-lived New Year habit into a consistently protected area of household budgets throughout the year.

The findings, based on large-scale transactional data spanning 2024, 2025 and the opening weeks of January 2026, indicate that the growth in this category is being driven not by an expanding customer base but by higher spend per individual. Rather than health being treated as a temporary resolution or discretionary expense, it is increasingly embedded as a long-term priority in everyday financial decision-making.

In the first two weeks of January 2026, total health and wellbeing spending increased by 3.9% compared with the same period in 2025, even as the number of customers purchasing in this category declined by 2.8%. Average spend per customer rose by 6.8%, suggesting that consumers who remain engaged with health and wellness are committing a greater share of their budgets to it. This challenges traditional assumptions that January represents a peak “reset” moment, instead highlighting a broader shift toward year-round commitment.

Gyms, historically the centrepiece of January health spending, now appear to play a more stable role in consumers’ routines rather than experiencing sharp seasonal spikes. Customer churn among gym members fell from 11.1% in 2024 to 7.3% in 2025, indicating improved retention. In January 2026, gym spending grew by 2.8% year-on-year, reflecting continuation of existing trends rather than a sudden surge at the start of the year.

Beyond fitness memberships, the influence of health and wellbeing is increasingly visible across everyday retail categories. Spending on sportswear and outdoor clothing rose by 12.8% year-on-year in January 2026, while specialist grocery segments such as meal-prep and wholefood providers recorded 12.7% growth in December 2025. These patterns suggest that health-conscious behaviour is extending into diet, clothing and lifestyle choices, broadening the opportunity for brands beyond traditional fitness spaces.

For businesses, the findings point to a more diverse and distributed health-focused audience that cannot be reached solely through gym-based messaging. Instead, brands need to recognise how wellness is influencing purchasing decisions across multiple sectors, from apparel to nutrition.

Colin Grieves, Managing Director of Experian Marketing Services for UK and Ireland, said that health and wellbeing is no longer confined to the start of the year, with consumers maintaining these priorities even as they make difficult choices in other areas of their budgets. He emphasised that detailed, real-world spending data enables brands to understand genuine consumer behaviour rather than relying on seasonal assumptions, helping them plan more relevant and effective campaigns.

By combining Experian’s analytical capabilities with Reward’s transactional insights, the two companies enable brands to identify high-intent audiences and engage them more effectively. The approach is grounded in real purchasing behaviour, allowing marketers to align media and messaging with how consumers are actually spending rather than how they are assumed to behave.

The analysis draws on anonymised transactional data from Reward’s customer engagement programmes, covering more than 1.4 billion card transactions from approximately 10% of UK households across over 4,000 retail brands. The dataset includes both online and in-store purchases and spans January 2024 through December 2025, with additional visibility into the first two weeks of January 2026. All data is aggregated and anonymised in compliance with GDPR and privacy regulations.

For the purposes of this research, health and beauty spending includes gyms and fitness, beauty products and services, health and nutrition, pharmacies, and healthcare providers.

Experian continues to position itself as a leading global data and technology company, supporting industries ranging from financial services and healthcare to automotive and insurance, while Reward remains a key player at the intersection of banking and retail, helping brands drive loyalty and measurable sales growth through data-driven engagement.

Methodology

This analysis is based on anonymised transactional and merchant information from Reward’s Customer Engagement programmes, using insights from over 1.4 billion card transactions from 10% of UK households across 4,000+ retail brands. The dataset includes both online and in-store purchases.

The analysis covers the period January 2024 to December 2025, including a view of January 2026 based on the first two weeks of available data. All data is fully anonymised and aggregated in line with GDPR and privacy requirements.

Health and Beauty includes spending across gyms and fitness, beauty products, beauty salons and spas, health and nutrition, pharmacies, and healthcare providers.

About Experian

Experian is a global data and technology company, powering opportunities for people and businesses around the world. We help to redefine lending practices, uncover and prevent fraud, simplify healthcare, deliver digital marketing solutions, and gain deeper insights into the automotive market, all using our unique combination of data, analytics and software. We also assist millions of people to realise their financial goals and help them to save time and money.

We operate across a range of markets, from financial services to healthcare, automotive, agrifinance, insurance, and many more industry segments.

We invest in talented people and new advanced technologies to unlock the power of data and to innovate. A FTSE 100 Index company listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN), we have a team of 25,200 people across 33 countries. Our corporate headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland. Learn more at experianplc.com

About Reward

Reward is a global leader in Customer Engagement and Commerce Media, with operations in more than 15 markets across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Positioned at the intersection of banking and retail, our cutting-edge platform fuses technology, data insights and digital marketing to power richer customer experiences, unlock measurable sales growth and drive lasting loyalty.

We’re on a mission to make everyday spending more rewarding. To date, we’ve returned over $2 billion in cashback to customers, with a clear commitment to reach $4 billion by 2030. This success is built on our strong network of strategic partnerships with some of the world’s most recognisable brands.

For more information, please visit www.rewardinsight.com.

Media Contact:

Gerry Tschopp
Head of Global External Communications
+1 714 830 7756
+1 949 677 3377
gerry.tschopp@experian.com

SOURCE: Experian