John Lewis’ weekly sales break £100m barrier as Xmas shopping begins

This week saw sales of £108.8m for John Lewis – breaking the £100m barrier for the first time this year and matching its 2013 record for the earliest week to have reached this milestone.

Sales at the department sales group were up 7.2% on last year and up 13.7% week-on-week. Online sales were up 15% year-on-year.

John Lewis director, retail operations development Simon Russell said: “We’re delighted to have broken the £100m sales barrier this week, matching our previous record for the earliest week to achieve this level of sales.

“Alongside this, our lighting department achieved its best ever sales week (+10.4% year-on-year), with designer brands performing particularly well. This is particularly pleasing, reinforcing John Lewis as the destination for both design-led and practical home interiors.

“Planning for additional guests over the festive period appears well under way this week too, with customers giving their homes pre-Christmas makeovers with impressive results from guest beds and kitchen appliances.”

Home showed the strongest signs of this trend with sales up 9% year-on-year. Guest beds and bedlinen were particularly strong performers: up 50% and 11% year-on-year respectively. Pre-Christmas kitchen improvements also started with Smeg range cookers up 179% year-on-year. This was joined by ‘impressive’ week-on-week performances from the Bosch American style fridge freezer (up 44%) and John Lewis built in oven (up 10%).

Simon Russell added: “Sales were also helped by customers coming into shops for our Countdown to Christmas weekend. Our Never Knowingly Undersold promise also came into force as we matched a competitor’s promotion.”

The Countdown to Christmas event drove footfall to branches, with ‘stand-out’ performances from John Lewis ‘At Home’ shops at Newbury (+21.4%), Chichester (+20.3%), Poole (+19.6%), Tunbridge Wells (+13.5%), Exeter (+19.%) and Stratford (+12.5.%).