John Lewis has reported online sales up by more than a fifth as Christmas spending continues to climb.
The department store saw online sales rise by 22% in the week to December 7, the second week in a row in which more than a third of its business went through its website.
That helped to take total sales up by 1.8% on the same week last year (and 17% up on two years ago) to a total of £144.5m. However, sales were down by 1.7% on the previous week showing, said John Lewis, “just how significant Black Friday has become in the UK.”
Cyber Sunday, on December 1, was also one of the busiest days of the year for johnlewis.com, with traffic up by 29% compared with the same day last year. Site visits spiked at 8pm and sales peaked at 9pm. Mobile and tablet users accounted for more than half of the traffic to the site that day.
The following day, Mega Monday, saw orders spike between 9pm and 10pm. Click and collect orders rose by 58% that day, compared to the same time last year, while CollectPlus orders were up by 88% on the previous week.
David Barford, director of selling at John Lewis, said: “With online sales setting a new high, records have been falling for a number of days, but none of this would be possible without a stellar distribution operation or the sophisticated IT support that goes hand in hand with the front of service we offer instore and from our call centres.”
