John Lewis has today published its five-week sales update, revealing a market beating omnichannel Christmas. For the five weeks to 27 December 2014, total sales were £777m, +5.8% compared with last year, +4.8% on a like-for-like basis. Compared with two years ago total sales were +13.4% whilst like-for-like sales grew by 12.0%.
Online sales for the five weeks were +19% on last year with johnlewis.com representing 36% (versus 32% last year) of total John Lewis sales during this period. As anticipated, the Click & Collect delivery option is proving to be the delivery means of choice, with 56% of online orders being collected in shops, overtaking home delivery this Christmas. Sales in shops for the five weeks remained level with last year.
The standout feature driving a new shape of trade was the success on Black Friday (28 Nov). This yielded an early sales peak and impacted the shape of trade over the five-week period. It was the biggest week for sales in the group's 150 year history and was up +22% on last year, with johnlewis.com experiencing a 300% increase in traffic during the early hours of trading on Black Friday itself.
John Lewis - John Lewis operates 43 John Lewis shops across the UK with 31 department stores, ten John Lewis at home and shops at St Pancras International and Heathrow Terminal 2, as well as johnlewis.com.