John Lewis sales up 1.8% driven by record online week

The department store retailer revealed overall sales of £144.5m as online sales hit another record high, up 22% against the same week last year. It is the second week when the website has generated more than a third of overall trade.

Despite a year-on-year increase, sales dropped 1.7% against the previous week, which was led by discount day Black Friday.

John Lewis said the Sunday beginning the trading week ending Saturday December 7 set a new record for the business as its biggest ever Sunday. Online traffic surged 29% against the same day last year and mobile and tablet users represented more than half the traffic to the site. Top purchases were chocolate coins, baubles and gift wrap, in contrast to Black Friday when electricals topped wishlists.

John Lewis said in the week it delivered almost five times a normal week’s orders and loaded 200 trailers per day to help replenish stores.

The use of click-and-collect grew 58% against last year and Collect Plus orders surged 88% against the previous week.

John Lewis said customers were shopping for their Christmas party outfits as fashion sales jumped 4.9%. Home sales  were driven by furniture, Christmas decorations and gifts. Tablets continued to be top sellers in electricals and home technology, as John Lewis exclusively launched the new Nokia Lumia 2520, Nokia’s first step into the tablet market.

John Lewis director of selling David Barford said: “With online sales setting a new high, records have been falling for a number of days but none of this would be possible without a stellar distribution operation or the sophisticated IT support that go hand in hand with the front of house service we offer instore and from our call centres.”