The Q4 2025 benchmarking report for UK outdoor clothing brands has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK outdoor clothing brands perform across the digital space.
The latest Q4 2025 benchmarking report for UK outdoor clothing brands has just been published. It covers the largest 12 national outdoor clothing brands, including Mountain Warehouse, Snow + Rock, Cotswold Outdoor, Tog 24, Trespass, Ellis Brigham, Blacks, Mammut, Go Outdoors, Patagonia, Millets, and Alpkit.
The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online, and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for other outdoor clothing brands to win brand exposure, generate online orders, and even improve in-store footfall. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q4 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics, we evaluated these top 12 outdoor clothing brands on, check out our quick-look table below;
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing UK outdoor clothing brands or request a copy of the report for the full review.
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each site based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.
Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing & Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will under-perform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from 30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing. Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.
Pay-Per-Click marketing is constantly evolving, with more and more advertisers being forced to hand over a lot of control to Google's algorithms as the push for automation grows ever stronger. There are still key elements of control that we have though, the main one of these being budget which is ultimately something the algorithms can't take from you. That's why being smart with your budget and ad coverage is essential to achieving strong results and bettering what your competitors have to offer.
For Q4 2025, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK outdoor clothing brands was £15,380, with some of the top players in the market spending a considerable amount on areas and audiences unlikely to deliver a return. We can see this in more detail when looking at the average monthly cost per cost-per-click (CPC) amongst advertisers, with the average of this metric being £554 . This highlights how competitive the market is and how important it is to control your budgets effectively.
There are varying monthly ad budgets across the competitors in the report. While this gap highlights the competitive advantage that larger budgets can provide, it's not just about spending more; it’s about spending smarter. By focusing on driving efficiency in campaign management, targeting, and budget allocation, businesses with smaller budgets can still effectively compete with larger players. Investing in data-driven strategies and refining ad performance can help close the gap and maximise the return on every pound spent, enabling growth even in a competitive landscape. Relative to their spend, Millets reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £4, and Tog 24 has the highest at £6,100.
The report highlights the importance of budget efficiency by comparing monthly ad spend with estimated CPC in relation to your competitors, see who has the highest and lowest CPC. To maximise the effectiveness of your budget, it’s essential to focus on driving CPC down while maintaining or improving campaign performance. In this report, Snow + Rock has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £1,100, and Mountain Warehouse has the highest at £414,000.
By optimising targeting, refining ad copy, and leveraging data to identify high-converting opportunities, you can ensure every click delivers maximum value. This approach not only stretches your budget further but also boosts your return on ad spend (ROAS), enabling you to achieve stronger results without simply increasing expenditure.
Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. Large e-commerce sites, such as our outdoor clothing brands, can often fall victim to high levels of 4xx errors, due to ever-changing lines of stock.
In our previous audit, Cotswold Outdoor reported the most 404 errors (1,158). This quarter, Cotswold Outdoor has decreased their 404 errors to 782, suggesting they’re following a strategy to regularly monitor these errors. However, the brand with the most 404 errors this quarter is Snow + Rock, with a total of 921. Identifying and fixing these errors quickly helps keep visitors engaged and builds trust in the website’s reliability.
When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. Customers will want to have a positive brand experience from the moment they set virtual foot on a brand's page, so outdoor clothing brands will want to convey an image of being high-performing and fast.
In our previous report, Cotswold Outdoor flagged the slowest mobile site speed (9). This quarter, Cotswold Outdoor has decreased their mobile site speed to 6; ideally, all brands will aim for a minimum of 50 for mobile site speed. However, the brand to watch this quarter is Snow + Rock, with a score of 5. Visitors expect websites to load quickly on their phones, and even a few seconds’ delay can cause frustration. Fast-loading pages keep users engaged, reduce bounce rates, and encourage them to explore more of the site.
Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance, and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. Outdoor clothing brands can look to collaborate with outdoor pursuits influencers, along with any publications within their niche, to gain high-authority backlinks that will improve their DA.
A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it’s generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. In our last report, Tog 24 received the lowest DA score (50). This quarter, Tog 24 remains the brand with the lowest DA, and they’ve since decreased their score to 49 — in the ‘average’ zone. Websites with higher domain authority tend to rank better in search engine results. Search engines see them as reliable sources, which boosts visibility for competitive keywords. This leads to more organic traffic and greater exposure to potential customers.
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. As with all retail sectors, we're seeing a shrinking pool of customers for outdoor clothing brands, whose usual audience may be cutting back on 'treat' purchases and relying on older, or second-hand items as opposed to buying new products.
Six brands reported a drop in organic traffic on desktop, with Blacks receiving the biggest loss (-31%). On mobile, 4 brands reported a drop in organic traffic, with Blacks receiving the biggest loss on this device, too (-37%). Organic traffic reflects how well content aligns with the users’ intent. High-quality, relevant content drives consistent engagement across both device types.
Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a site can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. For outdoor clothing brands, universal search results are an opportunity to show images and reviews of their products, using the 'image pack' and 'reviews' search results.
Go Outdoors remains the brand to beat for the most Universal Search appearances (45,281) — a decrease from 42,906 in our previous audit. The majority of Go Outdoors’ appearances came from ‘images’ (42,700).
Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for brand new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Longtail keywords for outdoor clothing companies would show high-purchase intent, and key buying signals. These could be terms such as 'ladies walking shoes size 4 next day delivery' - a phrase looking for a specific size that has immediate availability.
Go Outdoors remains the brand to beat for the most Universal Search appearances (45,281) — a decrease from 42,906 in our previous audit. The majority of Go Outdoors’ appearances came from ‘images’ (42,700).
With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019.
We’ve included screenshots of Cotswold Outdoor’s sponsored Facebook posts. This UK outdoor clothing brand’s posts had only one line of text, which is a great way to increase social media engagement.
When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'Evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for longer. It's great for your brand engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. In addition to 'evergreen' content, outdoor clothing brands can use content and social media to appear for any relevant seasonal events, such as holidays and festival season.
Patagonia secured the most Facebook Likes (1.9m) and the most Instagram followers (5.4m). Facebook was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Mammut received the highest total engagement rate (7,757) and the highest average engagement (86).
20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, brands lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. For any brand within the fashion and clothing space, such as outdoor clothing, they'll want to ensure they are not favouring form over function, and that their sites are as simple to use as they are impressive.
In our previous audit, Blacks the most accessibility alerts (298), and Alpkit received the most contrast errors (79). This quarter, Blacks has increased their accessibility alerts to 301. However, Go Outdoors is the one to watch this quarter, with a total of 413. Additionally, Alpkit has made progress with their contrast errors, reducing them from 79 to 64. Removing accessibility alerts and contrast errors is vital for creating an inclusive online experience. Visitors with visual or cognitive impairments rely on clear contrasts and accessible design to navigate content easily. Fixing these issues ensures everyone can use the website without barriers.
To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Rory Tarplee.