Next has raised its full-year sales forecast after third-quarter trading beat expectations, with overseas shoppers driving all of the outperformance.

Full-price sales rose 8.1% in the 13 weeks to 31 October, ahead of the 5.8% growth the retailer had guided, leaving sales £33 million ahead of forecast. International online sales jumped 32.2%, far above the roughly 21% increase Next had expected, helped by stronger marketing on its overseas websites. UK full-price sales rose 2.0%, in line with guidance.

Despite the stronger sales, Next held its full-year pre-tax profit guidance at £1.26 billion, up 8.4% on last year. The company said the extra £5 million of profit from the additional sales was offset by higher operating costs, largely from new European Union tariffs on orders fulfilled from UK stock.

The retailer did lift its sales forecasts, raising full-year full-price sales guidance to £6.03 billion, up 7.3% on the year, from £6.00 billion, and total group sales guidance to £7.54 billion from £7.49 billion. It kept its fourth-quarter forecast for full-price sales growth of 5.8%.

Shares in Next rose 0.5% in early trading on Thursday, extending gains for 2026 to 17.5%, according to Reuters. The retailer will report Christmas trading on 6 January 2027.

[Source: lse.co.uk](https://www.lse.co.uk/news/nexts-quarterly-sales-beat-guidance-on-strong-overseas-sales-gft3t92sqeepazu.html) | [Source: ajbell.co.uk](https://www.ajbell.co.uk/news/articles/next-holds-annual-profit-guidance-despite-third-quarter-sales-beat)