John Lewis hails service and value for sales bump
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John Lewis has credited its strong service and value proposition for a 9% sales increase over the Christmas and New Year period.
The department store chain reported a 9.3% rise in total sales to £596m in the five weeks to 31 December and recorded its best ever week of sales reaching £133.1m in the week ending 17 December.
Like for like sales, which exclude new stores opened in the past year, increased 6.2% during the period, compared to the previous year.
Over the Christmas trading period two years ago, total sales up nearly 20% and like for likes up 14.4%.
The strong performance follows John Lewis’ much lauded Christmas advertising campaign and illustrates the trend towards value rather than discounting in the year ahead, as highlighted by marketers across a number of sectors.
Electricals and home technology sales were 4% up, clothing and beauty sales were up 10.3% and homewares increased 13.6% during the five-week period, the retailer sales.
Online sales increased 27.9% and have exceeded £600m for the year to date.
The final week before Christmas (18 to 24 December) saw sales increase 32.7% to £124.7m.
John Lewis says that while its clearance sale has seen “a strong start”, comparisons are with the final week before the VAT increase last year adding that “it was always going to be a challenge to match sales, particularly with ‘big ticket’ items”.
Sales in the final week of the year (25 to 31 December) fell 4.8% year on year.
Andy Street, managing director of John Lewis, says: “Above all our success can be attributed to the excellent service delivered by our partners as well as inspiring products and outstanding value. Although trade in 2012 will undoubtedly be challenging and economic conditions volatile, John Lewis will continue to be the trusted retailer of choice for our customers and will always fulfill its ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ promise.”
John Lewis’ performance comes ahead of what are expected to be weaker sales figures amid falling consumer confidence.
Meanwhile, Next has reported “disappointing” retail sales in November and December, despite good trading in the final week before Christmas.
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Readers' comments (3)
Louis | Wed, 4 Jan 2012 2:50 pm
The up to 70% off sale may have had something to do with it....
Cynicism aside, JLP are an excellent retailer that has true attached customer service perception so well done to them.
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Mark Pettit | Wed, 4 Jan 2012 11:07 pm
John Lewis is one of few retailers to continuely post postivie sales results around the Christmas period. They have got every element of their Marketing Mix correct and continue to provide a service that is rare to see these days!
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Nigel Wilson | Thu, 5 Jan 2012 2:54 pm
Retailers who combine their on and offline marketing are more successful at driving sales and footfall in store, with click-and-collect being a prime example of this joined up thinking. Data has shown that one of the key difficulties consumers face when shopping online is a lack of convenient delivery times, something which is particularly prevalent amongst younger consumers. John Lewis is one of several retailers that have identified and addressed this issue, no doubt resulting in the "strong service" which has played a key role in their outstanding sales figures leading up to Christmas . This intelligent approach to multi-channel marketing will help the high street to flourish in these tough economic times.
Nigel Wilson, Managing Director of Experian Marketing Information Services
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