Customers appear to be leaving Christmas shopping to the last minute this year, says John Lewis , which today reported click and collect sales up by 30% compared to the same week last year. In response, it has extended the deadline for online orders for in-store collection to today, for Christmas Eve pick-up.
The multichannel department store group, which has become a bellwether for Christmas trading across the industry, said that after an early peak at the end of November, trade was down by 2.4% in the week to December 20, compared to the same time last year, but up by 6.5% compared to the previous week. Online sales grew relatively slowly, at 5.5%, year-on-year.
Andrew Murphy, retail director, John Lewis, said: “Last week we said it’s all to play for and that is still absolutely the case as we have seen a building trend of customers leaving their gift purchases right up until the last minute.
“The record levels of trade in our fashion and home assortments are hard won in what has been a challenging market. However, busy though our shops have been over the past week, it’s only in these final pre-Christmas days that many customers are finally moving to complete their gift buying and other purchases. Consequently our partners are standing ready for a very busy final trading day before the festive break.”
