Black Friday fuels biggest ever sales week for John Lewis
John Lewis said Black Friday helped drive the biggest ever sales week in its 150 year trading history as sales surged by 21.8% on the corresponding week last year.
In the week ending Saturday 29 November, John Lewis delivered sales of £179.1 million. Online sales increased by 42.2% year-on-year while on Black Friday several shops achieved record takings including Oxford Street, York, Southampton, Liverpool, Ipswich and Tamworth.
John Lewis said its website saw a 300% increase of traffic during the early hours of trading on Black Friday as shoppers began logging on at the stroke of midnight to browse its ranges. Approximately 70% of traffic came from smartphones and tablets between midnight and 8am.
For the first time ever, all of the retailer’s shops opened early at 8am on Black Friday at which time online sales peaked with almost 13,000 orders placed between 8am and 9am. Its distribution centres picked and packed 54% more online parcels compared to last year’s Black Friday event with the increase growing to 87% on Saturday as customer orders from Friday were processed.
Looking at the directorates, electricals and home technology achieved the biggest percentage increase on last year with its weekly sales rising by 40.9%, driven by the hundreds of Black Friday offers available. There were significant increases across all categories on the Friday including tablets and computers, vision and small electricals where sales rose by 127%, 131% and 66% respectively.
Fashion also performed well with sales climbing by 16.7% in the week. On Black Friday the directorate posted its biggest ever sales for a single day’s trade with menswear and sport being the standout category. In accessories, handbags had a record week with sales rising by 37%.
In the home directorate, sales edged up 3.6% year-on-year boosted by a record week for lighting where sales increased by 10.2%. In addition, furniture sales remained strong, climbing by 15.5% year-on-year.
Dino Rocos, John Lewis operations director, 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% 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.”
