John Lewis sees fashion growth as colder weather drives sales

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 9, 2018

John Lewis Partnership sales edged up by 0.6% to just £218 million in the seven days to last Saturday, but the John Lewis department store chain lagged the company as a whole with a barely noticeable 0.1% increase.

However, as we have come to expect from the chain, its Fashion directory performed much better than the store as a whole with sales in this area up 4.4%. 

The company appears to be benefiting from customers buying into the new season and said that both womenswear and menswear sales increased. The former was up by as much as 8.9% while the latter rose a respectable 3%. Meanwhile the retailer’s accessories sales rose a healthy 6.6%.

The company confirmed that the increase in sales was due to the cooler and wetter weather driving demand for warmer clothing and accessories, and also that it matched a competitor’s promotion through its Never Knowingly Undersold price promise.

And was there any improvement in the struggling Home category? Unfortunately no. Home sales were down 6.5%.

However, it saw an increase in customers committing to future purchases of sofas and beds. And its contemporary own-brand House had another strong week with sales up 13.5%. It also saw strong sales of its new own-brand gifting collection ‘Find Keep Give’, and of its Christmas hampers and trees, which means that Halloween may not have happened yet, but UK consumers are already thinking hard about the Christmas season.