John Lewis fashion sales dip again but fragrance, gifts and wearables are strong

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 17, 2017

Weekly sales fell again at John Lewis in the latest seven days with the period to October 14 seeing a drop of 4.6% to £86.4 million. That’s bad news for a store that’s used to sales rise after sales rise.

So was there any good news in its latest report? Certainly not on the fashion front. The company blamed the warm weather that has been offering very un-autumnal temperatures across much of the UK for its overall drop and also for fashion sales falling as much as 5.1%. Fashion had done well back in September as chilly weather encouraged people to buy knits and coats early.

At least beauty had a good week. It wasn’t as good as some other periods but a 4.3% rise was to be welcomed in the circumstances. The company said fragrance sets were up 3% on last year as customers begin to look ahead to Christmas, and the first ever John Lewis beauty advent calendar continued to sell “exceptionally well” in a year when beauty advent calendars have been proving popular at a number of Uk retail chains.

Home sales were down 2% although sales of fitted furniture rose by 13.9% and bathroom products were up 6%. And Halloween products continued their impressive run after rising significantly on last year’s sales over the past few weeks.

On the wearables front, electrical and home tech sales rose 6.7%, partly helped by strong sales of the Apple Watch and the Dyson Supersonic hairdryer.