Black Friday powers John Lewis’ best week ever

John Lewis has reported its best-ever week for sales in its 150 year history, thanks to the power of Black Friday. 

 

The sales bonanza, which the department store had invested heavily into, resulted in sales of £179.1m, up 21.8 per cent year-on-year, and 56.8 per cent up on the previous week. 

 

It easily beat John Lewis' previous weekly record of £164.4m. 

 

Oxford Street, York, Southampton, Liverpool, Ipswich and Tamworth all broke individual store records for sales, while online sales rocketed 42.2 per cent, with the early hours of the day seeing a 300 per cent uplift in traffic. 

 

Between midnight and 8am around 70 per cent of traffic to the site came from smartphones and tablets. 

 

Electricals was the best performing department, breaking yet another record, as sales rose 40.9 per cent year-on-year. Sales of tablets and computers were up 127 per cent, while what John Lewis dubs 'vision' – TVs, home cinema and so on – jumped 131 per cent. Small electricals were up 66 per cent. 

 

Fashion climbed 16.7 per cent, reporting its biggest ever single day of sales on Black Friday, with menswear and sport “the standout category”. Barbour, Ted Baker and Polo Ralph Lauren were among the best performing brands. 

 

Homeware was up 3.65 per cent. 

 

John Lewis' operations director Dino Rocos said:  “There was clearly huge customer anticipation of Black Friday this year and we knew we had high expectations to meet, both in terms of the products we had on offer through our Never Knowingly Undersold commitment, and in ensuring that we fulfilled customer orders as promised.

 

“While the sales figures are attention-grabbing, for me our biggest achievement was delivering an operation which ran like clockwork. We picked and packed 87 per cent more online parcels on Saturday than we did last year, and to have delivered successfully on customer expectation is a testament to the work of our partners both on Black Friday itself and in our forward-planning.

 

"Our website coped well with exceptional demand whilst the atmosphere in our shops remained both seasonal and calm with customers enjoying extended opening hours and the great offers to be had.”