Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Total sales were down 43.3% at John Lewis & Partners last week (to Saturday November 23) but according to the department store group’s trading director Simon Coble, “our performance exceeded expectations with the scheduled launch of Black Friday deals towards the end of the week. Sales were up 30% compared to the week before Black Friday last year, which fell earlier in the month of November.
“We have launched hundreds of Black Friday deals across a range of categories, including technology, home, nursery, fragrance and toys, and we are already seeing positive pick up of these deals.
“For the Black Friday period, John Lewis is also lowering thousands of prices of individual products to match high street competitors’ deals as part of our Never Knowingly Undersold price promise.
“Home sales were down 14.7% but we saw customers shopping for Christmas products, with overall Christmas sales up 5.7% and sales of advent calendars up 4% as we draw closer to December.
“Electrical and Home Technology sales were down 55.9% against last year’s Black Friday promotions. However, we saw high demand for Large Electrical and Vision products towards the end of the week as a range of promotions went live.
“Fashion sales were down 42.4%. However, we saw demand for Beauty, Wellbeing and Leisure products as we price-matched competitors’ promotions.”
