Slow week for John Lewis but casualwear stays strong

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 3, 2017

It was all going so well for John Lewis with fashion sales benefitting from new launches and improved spring weather. But in the latest week, the seven days to April 29, it all seemed to slow down.

Sales at the department stores and online  retailer fell 1.8% to £83.1m as few categories turned in standout performances.

The company said the main reason its sales fell was due to there having been strong price promotions in the same week last year.

Fashion sales rose only 0.5% and even though sales of beauty, wellbeing and leisure products were up the most, they still only rose 4.1%. Sales of clothing were impacted by the colder weather and womenswear grew just 2.6% year-on-year with casualwear performing the strongest.

Home sales were down 7.2% on last year but outdoor living performed the best with sales up 10.9%. The company has high hopes for the category as this week a new furniture collection called 'Open Home’, which was developed by London-based design studio Doshi Levien, goes on sale in selected shops and online.

Electrical, and Home Technology sales were up 1.1%. Sales of mobile phones and photography continued to grow with sales up 32.1% on last year, partly due to the launch last week of the new Samsung Galaxy S8 mobile phone. Vision also had a strong week with sales up 9.7%.