Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Trading at John Lewis soared to record levels last week (to November 29), fuelled by Black Friday and price matching of competitors’ events
The department store group delivered the biggest ever week for sales in its 150-year trading history. The figure totalled £179.1m – up 21.8% on last year and up 56.8% on the week. This surpassed the previous sales record of £164.4m, set during the week before Christmas last year.
John Lewis enjoyed a record week for online sales too: up 42.2% year-on-year. And on Black Friday, several of its shops achieved record takings for the day, including Oxford Street, York, Southampton, Liverpool, Ipswich and Tamworth.
Black Friday started on the stroke of midnight as customers logged on to johnlewis.com, resulting in a 300% increase in traffic during the early hours. About 70% of traffic came from smartphones and tablets between midnight and 8am.
For the first time ever, all our shops opened at 8am and at the same time, online sales also peaked with almost 13,000 orders placed on johnlewis.com between 8am and 9am.
Electricals led with record-breaking weekly sales, up 40.9% year-on-year, driven largely by the hundreds of Black Friday offers. There were significant year-on-year gains across all categories on the Friday including small electricals, up 66%.
Home sales rose 3.6% year on year. Lighting saw a record week, up 10.2% year-on-year, while furniture remained strong, up 15.5% year-on-year.
