Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Online sales at John Lewis have passed the £1bn mark on a rolling 52 week basis, alongside a successful launch of a new multi-million pound web platform.
The milestone comes a year ahead of the retailer’s forecast, which had estimated reaching £1bn of sales in 2014.
Online director Mark Lewis said: ‘Passing the £1bn milestone almost an entire year ahead of schedule is a fantastic achievement for us, and a reflection of how central online shopping has become to our customers.
“We have a leading omnichannel strategy which our customers love, but to continue to deliver the service our customers want, we need a website which will serve us as well as the old one did, and maintain our position as a leading innovator in online retailing.”
He said the website features “new functionality including an enhanced wish list function, search history, and more inspirational content,” with more customer-focused functionality planned for the future.
The site also features a prominent feedback form, which generates around 300 pieces of feedback a day, which the department store group will use to prioritise issues and spot trends.
With mobile now accounting for over 25% of traffic to johnlewis.com, the retailer has also revamped its mobile offer to mirror the creative design of the main site, and plans to launch a new app with details to follow later this year.
John Lewis IT director Paul Coby added: “With sales up over 40% for johnlewis.com in 2012, we’re seeing an unprecedented pace of online growth and customers are making more demands on our website, than ever before.
“The billion-pound success of johnlewis.com is a reflection of our strategy to put the customer at the heart of our online operations. Early testing at every stage of the build, and inviting over 3 million customers to use our beta site before full launch, has resulted in what we believe will be an outstanding experience and journey for customers.
“We have designed the new site to incorporate the best features of our previous site making it not only easy and intuitive to use, but inspiring to shop.”
