John Lewis hails record-breaking Black Friday week
John Lewis has reported the best week of trading in its 151-year history, as frenzied demand for the latest wearable technology, toys and televisions over the Black Friday helped the retailer smash last year’s record.
The department store group said it racked up £187.7m of sales in the week ending 28 November, which was up 4.8 per cent on the £179m reported last year and 60.1 per cent ahead of last month.
The retailer sold an average of just over three TVs every minute and processed 18 per cent more parcels compared to last year, equal to five units per second during the peak hour.
Sales of wearable technology were up 850 per cent on the year, with Fitbits up by 1200 per cent. In toys, Lego proved just as popular as ever, with sales up 31 per cent compared to 2014 and 270 products snapped up every hour.
On Black Friday, www.johnlewis.com reported a record day, with sales peaking between 9-10am when the site was taking 4.9 orders per second. Overall, weekly online sales increased by 15.5 per cent year-on-year.
Dino Rocos, operations director, said: “Black Friday marks the first of the three peaks of Christmas and there was huge anticipation for the day this year and high expectations to meet. I’m very proud of the fact that we delivered successfully for our customers, this is testament to work of our Partners both on Black Friday itself and in our forward-planning.
“Looking ahead, our teams in our shops and online operations are ready for another busy week as we go into the first full week of December.”