John Lewis sales up 13.3% last week as strength of pre-Christmas trade continues into Clearance
John Lewis saw a 13.3% rise in sales year-on-year last week as the retailer made the most of last minute trade in the run-up to Christmas.
In the week to 28 December, the retailer’s branches increased their sales by 14% while online sales climbed by 10%.
Within the directorates, fashion was the stand-out performer with sales surging by 20.3% as the lucrative extra day pre-Christmas compared to last year boosted trade in beauty and women’s accessories.
Sales in the electricals and home technology directorate increased by 16.5%, while home sales edged up 0.9%.
Never Miss a Retail Update!The retailer said the strength of pre-Christmas trade had continued into the clearance sale period.
Simon Russell, director of retail operations development at John Lewis, said: “The online and IT teams worked hard to enable a very smooth clearance launch on the website which was instantly rewarded by very strong customer demand from 5pm on Christmas Eve.
“Many customers were clearly making early use of their new tablets and mobile phones to do their shopping on Christmas Day and Boxing Day with traffic from these devices very strong.
“Click & collect was once again the fulfilment route of choice with more than half of online orders collected in John Lewis or Waitrose shops, illustrating the power of being a true omni-channel retailer.”
John Lewis enjoyed a record day of trading in its shops on 27 December with 23 branches reaching new levels of trade. For the week as a whole, the Stratford City store achieved the biggest increase on the same week last year with sales rising by 30.8%. This was closely followed by the Swindon, Cardiff, Trafford, Chester and Glasgow stores.
Russell added: “As we enter 2014 our focus for the next few weeks will be on inspiring customers with our new season’s stock while ensuring a good performance in our key Clearance assortments can support and deliver a strong final trading period for the year. “
