John Lewis sales up 4.5% last week
John Lewis increased its sales by 4.5% year-on-year last week despite the snow in some parts of the country impacting trade in the shops.
Online sales climbed by 18.6% driven by a 22% increase in traffic. Looking at the shops, Ipswich, Swindon and Ashford all achieved double-figure increases while the big stores in Cardiff, Stratford City and Leicester posted solid uplifts.
Maggie Porteous, director of selling for North and New Format at John Lewis, said: “The first week of the new financial year dawned cold across the country, with snow hitting a number of regions over the course of the week, causing minor disruption to trade in some of our shops. But that is where the strength of our omni-channel trade comes to the fore – with customers shopping across all channels we saw an increase last week of 4.5% on last year.”
Fashion sales climbed by 7.7% with childrenswear putting in a standout performance. In addition, haberdashery returned to form as customers were inspired by the new series of The Great British Sewing Bee.
Never Miss a Retail Update!In the home directorate, trade was boosted by the new Fusion range which helped sales to rise by 6.6%. Sales of beds and bedroom furniture were particularly buoyant and flooring also enjoyed strong sales.
Meanwhile, electrical and home technology sales edged up 0.3% helped by a solid increase in sales of vacuum cleaners and heating products.
