John Lewis sales up 9.2% last week with strong trade across all channels
John Lewis saw its sales increase by 9.2% year-on-year last week as trade was strong across all assortments and channels.
Paula Nickolds, John Lewis buying and brand director, said that trade built steadily throughout the week to end with a “really strong” Saturday.
In line with recent trading patterns, electricals and home technology led the way with sales up 18.9% on the same week last year with double-digit increases in all areas. Imaging and audio were among the best performing categories with sales up 42% and 41% respectively.
Fashion sale rose by 5.6% boosted by a 30% increase in sales of outerwear and 23.2% growth in children’s shoes. Men’s own brand products also performed well with an uplift of 27% while men’s shoe sales rose by 17%.
Never Miss a Retail Update!Within the home directorate, trade was 3.4% up on last year driven by a good performance in the retailer’s pick-up business. Home accessories and gifting delivered an 11.5 % increase on the back of strong sales in gift food. Sales of cooking and dining products increased by 7.3%, while baking product sales rose by 15% helped by the popularity of The Great British Bake Off TV programme.
The retailer said the performance in its shops was strong, up 7%, with 33 shops beating the year and 11 returning double-digit growth. Online saw good traffic growth and conversion rates which resulted in a 15.8% increase on the same week last year with electrical and home technology products returning the biggest growth.
Nickolds said: “A great start for our autumn assortments. With lots of new and exciting products in our offer, competitor price matching this week and stocks building well, we have a great opportunity to build momentum in our sales line.”
