John Lewis has reported another record sales day, across its channels.
It said that online sales hit £7.3m in a day on Cyber Monday, while in the week to December 8 it took more than £42m via johnlewis.com. This helped to push overall sales up by 15% to £142m, with demand for toys and fashion high.
“We are delighted to have achieved these new sales records, particularly in a market which is still economically challenging,” said Andrew Murphy, retail director at John Lewis .
“It shows that customer trust John Lewis to deliver the perfect Christmas for their family and friends, whether it is finding the right gift or finding the right touches to decorate their homes. It is great to see a really festive buzz in our shops.”
His comments came as the soundtrack to the John Lewis Christmas advert, Gabrielle Alpin’s cover of The Power of Love in what John Lewis says is its “first-ever chart topper”.
Meanwhile Andy Street, the managing director of John Lewis, is reported to have told Sky News that he believed the retailer was benefitting from tax-related criticism of rivals such as Amazon.
“I can’t prove it, but it definitely has been good, I’d call it background publicity for us,” Street is reported to have told Sky News, adding that paying tax “is about morality”.
He added: “I think our customers expect John Lewis to be a responsible business in every sense of that, to be a good citizen and that extends from the conditions in the supply chain, through to paying the right amount of corporation tax.”
