Fashion is star performer again at John Lewis, shoppers buy for cold weather

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 26, 2017

John Lewis had yet another good week in the seven days to Saturday as the autumn season really got under way with total sales up 6.5% to £87.3 million.This was once again driven by the success of its fashion operations.

Fashion directory sales were up 8.6% and womenswear alone rose 18.2%, driven by strong sales of cold weather clothing, even thought British weather hasn’t yet turned particularly chilly. The company also benefitted as it price-matched a competitor's promotion.

Menswear was strong too and also saw double digit-growth with sales up 13.4%. Meanwhile women’s accessories saw sales rise by 8.7%.

The Home category has been a bit of an under-performer all year but at least Home sales rose during the week, albeit only by a tiny 0.6%. Gifts, cook & dine saw sales grow by 3.2% as customers continued to buy back-to-university items and also began to look ahead to Halloween and Christmas. Elsewhere, lighting was up 5.4% and textiles and home accessories saw sales rise by 1.9%.

Apple’s launch of the iPhone 8 helped electrical sales rise 11.1% and accessories also enjoyed a good week, again influenced by Apple and by the launch of own-brand phone cases.