John Lewis sees fashion, accessories and beauty success in latest week

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Aug 30, 2017

Fashion had a storming week at John Lewis in the seven days to August 26 as the retailer’s sales across categories rose 6.2% to £83.8bn. Fashion sales powered ahead by 12.8% as the company continued its tradition of price matching a competitor's promotional event.

As in much of the year so far, beauty, wellbeing and leisure sales performed particularly strongly, rising an impressive 22%, driven by strong sales at beauty counters. But both men’s and womenswear were buoyant too and each saw double-digit growth, while women’s accessories grew by 11.4%.

Fashion and beauty have been a bright spot for John Lewis in recent months, justifying the investment the chain has put into the categories and underlining the appeal of the premium own brand labels that it has launched recently.

But sales in the Home directory were down 2.3%. This is one product are where the performance has been tepid for much of the year, despite standout sales in specific categories. The standout in the latest week was BBQ with an 11% rise as customers made the most of the warmer weather heading into the bank holiday weekend.