Chain · United Kingdom · data through July 2026

W WHSmith logo WHSmith

Iceflower tracks 775 WHSmith stores across 12 of the UK's 12 regions and nations. It ranks #1 of 1,018 tracked UK bookstores chains by card spend. Its share of tracked category spend moved -2.3% over the last year.

Rankings come from real card and bank transactions across a panel of 130M+ US and EU consumers. We publish relative growth and rankings, never revenue figures. About the data

Tracked stores
775
Regions
12
Category
Bookstore
Category rank
#1

Growth

WHSmith against its category

The biggest tracked UK bookstores chains by card spend, with year-over-year growth of category share. Share means a chain's slice of tracked category spend. It can decline while the chain's own sales grow. The chart tracks WHSmith's share of the category quarter by quarter, indexed to 2024 Q1 = 100.

# Chain YoY share
1 W WHSmith logo WHSmith -2.3%
2 W Waterstones logo Waterstones +8.2%
3 F Forbidden Planet -
4 T The Kiosk +13.6%
5 T Travelling Man -
6 H Havant -4.2%
7 N News 24 -15.0%
8 S Sackville News -33.3%
9 T The Paper Shop +9.0%
10 B B P -

Share of tracked category spend, indexed

100 91.4 2024 Q1 2025 Q4

Store footprint

Store map

775 tracked WHSmith locations across 12 of the UK's 12 regions and nations.

Tracked stores by region

  • South East 139
  • London 108
  • East of England 85
  • North West 84
  • South West 78
  • West Midlands 71
  • Scotland 58
  • Yorkshire and The Humber 53
  • East Midlands 38
  • Wales 38
  • North East 21
  • Northern Ireland 2

Customer overlap

Who shops at WHSmith

Tracked chains WHSmith customers also buy from more than a similarly active shopper would, indexed to the strongest overlap (100). From real card transactions.

More trends

Ready to see your market clearly?

Create an account, pick a plan, and explore your merchants, competitors and customers the way they actually behave.