TL;DR: The best data providers for UK retail marketing leaders find plenty of mobiles. The trouble starts when your team dials them. In our first benchmark (2025 to 2026 data, published May 2026), Forager and Wiza found clean UK mobiles on these lists. In October 2026, only 21% of the UK Kaspr mobiles we dialled reached the right person. Of the big countries we call, only Switzerland came in lower, at 20%. Keep your providers, add one for staff at global groups, and check every number before your team dials.
21%.
That is how many dialled UK mobiles reached the right person in October 2026. We dialled 333 usable Kaspr numbers across UK campaigns. 71 got the person we wanted. The rest rang out, hit voicemail, or reached someone else.
The UK looks easy on paper. In October 2026, 66% of the UK Kaspr numbers we checked were usable mobiles. They look clean. Then the reps start calling.
Answrd is part of Profitbl, which runs cold calling campaigns across Europe. This post covers UK retail marketing leaders: CMOs, marketing directors and heads of brand at UK retailers. Here is what our data says about finding their mobiles, and the step that decides whether anyone picks up.
Which data providers find UK retail marketing leaders' mobiles?
Forager and Wiza found clean UK mobiles on our retail marketing lists. In our first benchmark, a Forager-first phone waterfall took 47% of phone wins on a 121-contact UK retail cohort. 90% to 100% of the numbers it won were UK mobiles in the right format.
That UK slice covered five UK retail marketing cohorts and 580 contacts, run in 2025 and 2026. It sits inside the full benchmark: 15,000 enrichments for 28 companies across 12 countries, published in May 2026.
Here is what held up per provider, from our 2025 to 2026 data on those 580 contacts:
- Forager: 47% of phone wins on a 121-contact UK retail cohort when placed first, with clean mobile format on its wins.
- Wiza: 95% to 100% mobile format on UK retail samples. Fewer wins when placed behind Forager, but the wins were clean.
- Datagma: clean mobiles on its UK retail wins. It sat late in the waterfall and costs more per credit, so it won fewer contacts.
One caveat sits on every number above. The provider placed first sees every contact. The ones placed later only see what is left. So win share tells you as much about position as about quality. We cover that bias in our waterfall guide.
In the earlier runs, the email side of this cohort had one odd result: Hunter took 13% to 16% of email finds here and almost nowhere else. That is an email story. Your reps need phones, so we leave it there.
Why do UK numbers that look clean fail on the dial?
UK numbers fail on the dial because a clean format tells you nothing about who answers. A +44 7 number can belong to someone who left, someone who never takes cold calls on it, or someone else entirely.
Our first benchmark measured fill and format. It promised a dial layer later. That layer is here. Across Europe in October 2026, about 1 in 4 dialled usable mobiles reached the right person.
The UK sits below that line. From our October 2026 data, all UK campaigns:
- Kaspr usable rate, UK: 359 of 548 numbers checked (66%). Usable means a mobile, in the contact's own country, that we did not already know was bad.
- Kaspr dialled, UK: 333 numbers.
- Kaspr reached the person, UK: 71 of 333 (21%).
Some UK numbers never had a chance. In a batch of 100 UK mobiles we checked in October 2026, 12 were not in service. Across all 1,195 B2B mobiles we checked that month, it was about 5%. No country we checked had more dead lines than the UK.
Here is one UK retail cohort that shows the gap. In our first benchmark, we ran 121 UK retail contacts through a Forager-first phone waterfall. Forager won 47% of the phone finds, and its wins were clean UK mobiles. On paper, that list was ready to call. What a format check cannot show is who answers. Our October 2026 dial data gives that answer for the UK: about 1 in 5.
Now compare that with the best countries we call. In Denmark, 25 of 59 dialled Kaspr mobiles reached the person (42%). In Sweden, 18 of 42 (43%). In the Netherlands, 37 of 106 (35%). Only Switzerland, at 8 of 40 (20%), sat as low as the UK.
One honest note. The October numbers are UK-wide. They mix every UK cohort we dialled. We do not have a retail-only October sample, so we will not invent one. But retail marketing leaders sit inside that UK pool, and nothing in our data suggests they pick up more than the rest.
What goes wrong on UK retail lists in particular?
Many big UK retailers sit inside global groups, and that is where foreign numbers creep in. Staff at global companies often carry a number from another country, or a provider matches them to a colleague abroad.
We saw this on global-company staff in October 2026 with FullEnrich. That sample mixes industries, so treat it as a warning sign for retail groups. We have no retail-only sample here. On 282 hard contacts it tried, it found usable numbers for 109 (39%). But when it ran after Kaspr and Eficia on mid-level staff at global companies, it found only 15 of 97. Many of its misses were US or foreign numbers on global-company staff, or repeats of numbers other providers had already given us.
Two other UK patterns from the earlier runs still hold:
- Small company bosses sit on the switchboard. On UK Managing Directors at companies under 200 staff, specific providers returned 30% to 40% landlines. A retail chain with 50 stores can still be a small head office.
- Foreign codes on UK lists. We saw US and Canadian numbers on UK sales leadership lists. Filter every UK list for +44 7 mobiles before anyone dials.
Treat a UK marketing director on a US number as a personal phone or the wrong person. Count it as a miss.
Which providers should you add for UK retail?
Keep the providers you run today. Then add one or two that find people the first ones miss. Kaspr and Eficia are our big two. In October 2026 we ran Tomba, FullEnrich and Lusha through looot, the data gateway we run these providers through. They ran on the contacts Kaspr, and often Eficia, had already missed. Read their numbers as "what is left after the big two" rates, on the hardest contacts in our lists:
- Kaspr: our first step. 66% usable on UK numbers checked (359 of 548, October 2026). We have dialled Kaspr and Lusha numbers on our campaigns.
- Eficia: we use Eficia. Across Europe, 471 of 503 numbers checked were usable (94%), and 60 of 233 dialled reached the person (26%), October 2026. About USD 0.27 per number.
- Tomba: the cheapest per usable number we found. 63 usable from about 478 hard contacts (13%), about USD 0.05 per usable, October 2026. It bills on hits only. It did best on Benelux (31 of 236) and France.
- FullEnrich: 109 usable from 282 hard contacts (39%), about USD 0.75 per usable, October 2026. Strong on senior security contacts: 14 of 15 in the Netherlands and Belgium, and 5 of 5 in Denmark. Weak after Eficia on mid-level staff at global companies (15 of 97), which matters for retail groups.
- Lusha: 3 usable from about 75 hard contacts (4%), about USD 7.75 per usable, October 2026. Most hits were foreign mobiles and direct lines.
Six cheap providers found about 3 usable numbers on about 250 senior European contacts (about 1%), October 2026. Most of what they returned were US numbers for people based in the US. On senior UK retail lists, skip that tier.
For a deeper look at why some mobiles from big providers ring the wrong person, read why Lusha and Kaspr mobiles reach the wrong person.
How do you build a UK retail phone stack that reaches people?
Order providers by cost per usable number, gate every step, and check the output before the call block. Here is the setup we run:
- Start with a big source. Kaspr gave us 66% usable on UK numbers in October 2026.
- Add a cheap gap filler. Tomba costs about USD 0.05 per usable and bills only on hits.
- Add a second big source. 94% of the Eficia numbers we checked in October 2026 were usable.
- Add one specialist for senior people. FullEnrich found 14 of 15 senior security contacts in the Netherlands and Belgium that others missed (October 2026). Watch its numbers on global-company staff.
- Gate every number. It has to be a +44 7 mobile for a UK contact. It cannot be on your list of known bad numbers. A foreign or neighbour-country mobile is a miss.
- Check every number before the team dials. The gates catch junk. They cannot tell you whether the right person picks up.
Profitbl cancelled Clay on 2026-04-22. Our waterfall now runs in-house, built in Claude Code, so we set the order and the rules ourselves. The waterfall guide linked above covers the design detail.
More providers means more numbers. More numbers means more wrong ones. That is why the last step matters most on UK lists. The UK regulator, the ICO, expects the personal data you hold to be accurate, and that includes the numbers you bought. A line check alone will not catch a number that moved to a new owner or belongs to a private phone, as we show in the limits of HLR lookups.
What does checking the numbers change?
Checking the numbers before the call block means your reps dial a shorter list and talk to more people. Answrd takes the numbers your waterfall found and returns the ones that pick up, with wrong and dead ones flagged.
On a UK list where 21% of dialled mobiles reach the person, four out of five dials go nowhere useful. Cut those out before the session and the same hour of calling buys more real conversations.
You pay EUR 0.75 per verified number. Credits never expire. Your first 100 numbers are free. We never sell data, so we sit at the end of your stack and never compete with your providers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best data provider for UK retail marketing leaders' phones?
No single provider wins. In our first benchmark, Forager-first took 47% of phone wins on a 121-contact UK retail cohort with clean mobiles, and Wiza returned 95% to 100% mobile format. Stack two or three and measure what each adds.
How many UK mobiles reach the right person?
In October 2026, 71 of 333 dialled usable Kaspr mobiles across UK campaigns reached the right person (21%). Only Switzerland ran lower, at 20%. Denmark and Sweden ran at 42% to 43%.
Why do UK retail contacts get foreign numbers?
Many UK retailers belong to global groups. Their staff often carry numbers from another country, or a provider matches them to someone abroad. In October 2026, many of FullEnrich's misses on global-company staff were US or foreign numbers.
Should I stop using my current data provider?
No. Keep it. Add one or two providers for the contacts it misses, then check every number before your team dials. More numbers found also means more wrong numbers to catch.
How does UK retail compare to UK manufacturing?
Both enrich cleanly in our 2025 to 2026 data. Wiza led on UK manufacturing, Forager on UK retail. Read the full UK manufacturing breakdown. The October dial data is UK-wide and covers both.
Where can I see the full European picture?
Our European B2B data enrichment study covers every country, with the first benchmark's fill data and the October 2026 dial results.
Find the UK numbers that pick up
The data providers for UK retail marketing leaders do their job: they find the numbers. Reaching the person is the hard part. Keep your providers, add one for staff at global groups, gate every number to +44 7 mobiles, and check the list before your reps dial.
Run your next UK list through a check before the call block. Test 100 numbers free, no card needed. If you would rather talk it through, book a 15-minute call.