John Lewis slips after Black Friday bonanza

 
Simon Neville21 April 2015

Savvy shoppers taking advantage of Black Friday meant fewer went through the doors of John Lewis last week, with sales falling back 5.8%.

The discount event imported from the US saw retailers slash prices last month, especially on tablets and TVs. It meant sales of electronics at John Lewis fell 4% year on year in the week to Saturday following Black Friday when John Lewis recorded its best-ever week of sales.

The company said it has “stood up to the challenge” of a boost in online sales this Christmas, which has seen retailers including Marks & Spencer, Debenhams and Tesco struggle under the weight of orders.

Online sales at John Lewis rose 10% this week on a year ago, with about one in three purchases expected to be made through its website. Click-and-collect orders rose 32%. The number of customers placing orders in-store through tablets and smartphones, or with the help of staff, jumped 31%.

Sales in the week to Saturday rose 0.6% against a year ago to £150.7 million, with an overall 11% growth in Christmas trading so far, thanks in part to Black Friday.

Fashion sales were up 5.2%, but bosses suggested that shoppers are still leaving gift buying to the last minute, with homeware sales rising just 0.1%.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in