John Lewis Christmas sales hit £734m as it plans to open 25 stores by 2023

The department store retailer said in the five weeks to December 28 like-for-likes increased by 6.9%. Shop sales jumped 1.2% and online sales surged 22.6% year on year.

Johnlewis.com accounted for 31.8% of the total John Lewis business in the period. Click-and-collect orders soared 61.8% on last year.

Across the electricals and home technology categories sales were 10.7% up on last year. Fashion, including beauty, climbed 8.5% and home increased 2%.

John Lewis managing director Andy Street said: “I am extremely pleased with the results of the past five weeks. Our growth of 7.2% is broadly based and we expect to have outperformed the market. It bodes well for trade in 2014.”

In the most recent week to December 28, fashion sales rose 20.3%, electricals 16.5% and home 0.9%. John Lewis said 23 of its branches had record trading days on December 27.

The results come as Street revealed John Lewis wants to operate 65 stores by 2023, up from 40 shops at present, according to The Telegraph. He also wants to open the retailer’s first overseas store and plans to launch a French website.

Street said: “It will still be predominantly a UK brand, let’s be absolutely clear about that. I think we will have moved from taking baby steps to slightly more grown up steps internationally.”

In the Christmas trading period John Lewis broke a number of records. Black Friday on November 29 was the biggest ever day for online orders, while the final pre-Christmas week broke the £160m sales mark for the first time. December 27, the first day of clearance, was the biggest ever day for the business as a whole, as the retailer took £35.6m.

“This Christmas has seen trade take a different shape to previous years, with an early peak driven by Black Friday and a huge surge in the final 10 days,” Street added. “Many of the big online shopping days and weeks occurred earlier in the period but shops were packed in the last-minute rush on ‘manic Monday’ (December 23) when we saw our city centre shops record peak days.  

“The shift to mobile devices for online shopping has been confirmed but the in-store Sale is well and truly thriving, as shown by the record first day for clearance in our shops on December 27. With new highs in branches as well as for Johnlewis.com, this has been a genuine omnichannel Christmas.”  

Street said sales were driven by gifts and decorations. Must-have products included tablets, indoor and outdoor Christmas lights, crackers, coffee machines, gift food, Lego, hair straighteners, DAB radios, cashmere, audio streaming systems and beauty and fragrance products from brands including Liz Earle, Clarins and Chanel.

The popularity of the department store retailer’s The Bear and The Hare Christmas TV ad led to soft toy versions of the characters “flying off the shelves”, and the book telling the story of the animals was its best-selling children’s title. The advert has received more than 11.5 million views on YouTube since its launch.