John Lewis gets fashion boost as shoppers buy warm clothing

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 19, 2019

For the seven days that included the launch of its Christmas campaign last week, John Lewis Partnership reported its sales down 0.1% to £237.8 million. 

And unfortunately, in the period to November 16, it was the Waitrose supermarkets chain that was the strongest part of the business as the John Lewis department stores operation saw its sales falling 3.4% year on year.

That said, the launch of the Christmas ad on Thursday saw customers starting to shop Excitable Edgar merchandise and the company also said it enjoyed positive sales in cold weather product across both its Fashion and Home departments.

This meant that Fashion department sales rose, although only by 0.7%. But the big boosts that John Lewis has benefited from in previous periods after the sudden onset of cold weather happened again this time as women's outerwear sales rose as much as 52%. And women's gloves were up 16%, while cashmere sales, which have been doing well for a while, were up 2%.

Surprisingly, even the beleaguered Home department benefited from a sales uptick in the latest week after many months of worrying declines. This time around, sales rose 3.4% and the company’s recent Home promotion saw flooring sales up 31% and fitted furniture up 70%.  

Customers also “cosied up last week with high-tog duvets and faux fur blankets in strong demand”. 

Meanwhile, Christmas product sales were up 22% and sales of Christmas trees were up 25%, as customers prepared for the festive season.