Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
The late summer heatwave and sunny bank holiday weekend played out across John Lewis last week (to August 27), with sales finishing down 3.5% at £78.9m.
The department store group’s director of merchandising operations Jon Williams said EHT (Electricals & Home Technology) had a “solid week” with sales up 2.6% on the year, and the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer continuing to prove popular with customers.
But the Home category saw sales fall 1.7% on the year – although Furniture performed strongly and traded at +11.2% compared with the same week last year.
“Understandably it was Fashion that was most heavily impacted by the warm weather,” Jon said, “with the category finishing the week at -9.9%. However, the sunshine meant that sales of Antler luggage rose by 37%, suggesting that the weather could have prompted customers to book a last-minute bank holiday break”.
