Selfridges defies high street turmoil with sparkling Christmas sales

While other retailers look set to report miserable Christmas trading periods, Selfridges has posted record-breaking results over the festive period.

The luxury department store best known for its flagship Oxford Street store bucked the trend of decline on Britain’s high streets with an eight per cent sales boost across its physical and online business in the 24 days running up to Christmas on the same period last year.

Selfridges’ Oxford Street emporium had the best of the Christmas rush, with a 10 per cent year-on-year surge in the same period.

Meanwhile, the week before Christmas also saw sales spike eight per cent on the year before across all channels.

Footfall was mainly driven by “newness and exclusive product in the run-up to Christmas, along with in-store entertainment”, the company said.

The store ran a programme of Christmas events including cabaret, pop-up choirs, visits from Santa and confetti cannons every day.

It also ran an in-store campaign called Selfridges Rocks Christmas, which saw its stores full of decorations inspired by famous rock’n’roll acts including the Rolling Stones.

Anne Pitcher, managing director of Selfridges, said: “We are delighted to have delivered such a strong performance over the Christmas period.”

“Our Selfridges Rocks Christmas theme and entertainment really resonated with our customers, both across our stores and online; our customers come to us for the unexpected and I feel this year we delivered just that.”

The news comes at the start of a week that is expected to see other high street retailers put under the microscope, with a flurry of quarterly trading updates due in the coming days.

Troubled department store Marks & Spencer is one of several set to reveal yet another fall in sales over the festive period, according to analysts at Shore Capital Markets.

But despite the drop, John Lewis and Next last week reported a late sales rush before Christmas, suggesting a glimmer of hope for Britain’s embattled retailers.