Biggest ever sales week for John Lewis

John Lewis has reported that it achieved sales of £214.3 million last week (to Saturday November 25) – up 7.2% year-on-year.

The department store group’s operations director Dino Rocos commented: “After a few weeks of challenging sales in the run-up to Black Friday, this was the biggest ever week – and Black Friday was the biggest ever day in John Lewis’ trading history.

“Our Black Friday event fell across two trading weeks (Thursday-Monday). We traded well in both shops and online, with shops becoming increasingly busy as the weekend progressed.

“In distribution, our Magna Park centre saw a record day on Sunday when it processed 54% more units than the equivalent day in 2016. Across the weekend, we packed on average nearly 13,000 units per hour across our network.

“On Black Friday itself, the use of the John Lewis App between 12am and 8am for snapping up Black Friday deals increased by 36.8%. During our busiest ever hour for online sales, from 9am to 10am, an average of 705 units were purchased per minute on johnlewis.com.”

He noted that with the majority of Black Friday deals focused on Fashion and EHT (Electricals & Home Technology), Home sales were -2.1%. Some of the best sellers in Home for the Black Friday period included the John Lewis Sacha Sofa Bed, the SIMBA Hybrid Memory Foam Pocket Spring Mattress and the John Lewis Brunswick Spruce Christmas Tree.

Electricals sales were up 9.7% with “standout performances” in mobile and wearable technology and small electricals. Best sellers across the Black Friday period included the Sonos Play 1 Smart Speaker, LG Smart TVs and Apple Macbooks.

Fashion sales rose 9.9%, with a particularly strong week in beauty (up 27.5%), and womenswear (up 8.3%) and a record online week for sales.

Best sellers across the Black Friday period included CREED Aventus Eau de Parfum, Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser and the Barbour Wax Cotton Travel Explorer Holdall.

John Lewis Brunswick Spruce Christmas Tree