Black Friday fuels ‘biggest ever week’ at John Lewis

The retailer said November 25 – Black Friday – was its “biggest ever day”, giving the week’s overall sales a significant boost.

John Lewis sales leapt 6.5% to £199.8m in the period, with its electricals category leading the march – surging 11% year-on-year.

Bestsellers included the Sonos Play 1, GHD hair straighteners, Samsung TVs and KitchenAid products.

Fashion sales were up 4.6% last week, with beauty up 13.4% and sportswear up 26.1%.

Barbour in menswear and womenswear, and Calvin Klein pyjamas and lingerie proved to be the most popular.

Home sales were only up 0.9% year-on year because, the retailer said, it had “fewer deals on branded items”.

Strong multichannel

John Lewis said its Black Friday event, which fell across two trading weeks, was strong both in shops and online.

Footfall in stores increased as Black Friday weekend progressed.

Its Magna Park distribution centre processed a record 33% more units than the equivalent day in 2015, with an average 12,000 units picked per hour across the weekend.

“At our busiest time on Friday morning, we took five orders every second,” the retailer said.

John Lewis put “the success of the week’s trade” down to “meticulous planning and expert execution” and described the week’s trading as a “milestone result”.

Waitrose

Last week’s sales at the upmarket grocer were up 1.3% year-on-year with the strongest performance coming from its beer, wines and spirits category – up 4.5%.

“Many customers took the opportunity of the last payday before Christmas to stock up for the festive season,” the grocer said.

It added that turkey orders were up by nearly a third compared to last year as Thanksgiving becomes increasingly popular in the UK.