Fashion suffers in latest week at John Lewis but formalwear is strong

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 16, 2017

It was all change at John Lewis in the latest week as fashion sales went into reverse but home sales, which had been sluggish for some time, powered ahead.

Overall that meant total sales did manage to rise, but only by 1.3% with turnover reaching £74.1m in the seven days to May 13.

So what caused the changing fortunes among the retailer's key categories? John Lewis said that warm weather in the same week a year ago had acted as a major boost for fashion in May 2016. But this time around, the weather has been stubbornly chilly and dull. That meant fashion sales fell 2.8% during the period as warm weather clothing stayed on the rails.

That said, women’s formalwear had a good week as consumers got ready for late spring and summer events, with a rise of 12.8%. In recent weeks, casualwear has been the star performer.

And beauty, wellbeing and leisure sales rose 8.2%, driven by strong sales across the beauty category.

Home had its best week in some time, rising 5.3% year-on-year. Furniture in particular performed well, up 18.1%, driven by double-digit growth across both fitted furniture and beds. Cookshop and cutlery also both had positive weeks, with sales rising by 5.9% and 4.4% respectively, and lighting was a bright spot too, up 9.1%.