Halfords come in at ninth place on the mainstream coverage table, up from 21st place in June, according to the analysis of 50 retail brands across mainstream and social media.

Within social, River Island surged from 22nd to 8th spot, surpassing usual league table toppers Primark and Topshop. Mentions were boosted by the chain’s summer sale, which kicked off on June 3, leading to a spike in Twitter mentions. Another spike happened on July 16, the day it announced Rihanna would be designing a collection.

The other big social mover was H&M which jumped from 10th to 19th in social, with mentions led by the announcement that singer Lana del Rey would be the new face of the brand.

The final Olympics build-up and subsequent kick-off did not appear to impact general retail coverage, but it still featured prominently for the grocery, high street and department store sectors.

Tesco, Marks & Spencer, The Co-op, Sainsbury's and ASDA made up the mainstream league table for July; while Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury's, Ikea and The Co-op were the five most talked about brands in social.

With Marks & Spencer reporting its worst set of quarterly figures since 2005, CEO Marc Bolland was in the limelight throughout July, making him the most quoted retail head with 28% of mentions.

The Independent and Evening Standard stock market reporter Toby Green wrote the most retail-related stories in the month.

Gorkana Group's Barometers allow organisations to benchmark themselves against competitors within their sector. For more information about the Retail Barometer, click here.