John Lewis had a record trading day on Black Friday following the “biggest ever” week in the department store group’s trading history during which it achieved sales of almost £200m (an increase of 6.5% year-on-year).
The store’s Never Knowingly Undersold policy means it promises to match prices of the same goods found in other stores, so it must always follow others’ promotional activities.
Its Black Friday event ran from Thursday to Monday so covered two trading weeks. The figures released today are for the week ending on the day after Black Friday, Saturday 26 November. John Lewis said it had traded well both in-store and online with sales increasing as the weekend progressed.
“In distribution, our Magna Park centre saw a record day on Saturday when it processed 33% more units than the equivalent day in 2015. Across the weekend, we picked on average 12,000 units per hour across our network. On Black Friday itself, customers shopped on mobile phones between midnight and 9am, but desktop quickly took the largest share of traffic from 9am onwards as customers arrived at work. At our busiest time on Friday morning, we took five orders every second on johnlewis.com,” lead director and operating director Dino Rocos said.
John Lewis: five sales every second at peak
In category sales, electricals led the way with an 11% year on year increase but fashion performed well with sales up 4.6% and it had a particularly strong week in beauty (up 13.4%).
Womenswear was up 15.1%), menswear was up 8.1%, and sports up 26.1%. Best sellers included Ted Baker and Michael Kors in women’s accessories, Barbour in menswear and womenswear, and Calvin Klein pyjamas and lingerie.
“Overall, the success of the week’s trade for John Lewis is down to meticulous planning and expert execution. From our Retail and Distribution Partners who helped customers get the products they wanted, to our teams behind the scenes in Commercial and IT, each of our Partners should be rightly proud of the part they have played in delivering this milestone result,” Rocos concluded.
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