First full clearance week is strong for John Lewis

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 8, 2019

John Lewis Partnership sales surged 9.1% in the latest seven days to reach almost £238 million and the John Lewis department store chain/website did even better with an 11.2% rise.

The company clearly benefited from the first full week of its clearance sale and saw fashion turnover soaring as the weather stayed cool and shoppers snapped up winter season bargains.

That helped to drive Fashion department sales 20.4% higher with menswear seeing the biggest leap of all - an astonishing 34.3% in the week to January 5.

Womenswear and women’s accessories also rose strongly though, up an impressive 19.7% and 24.3% respectively.

Unfortunately the under-pressure Home department’s sales were up only a tiny 1.7%, although gifts, cook and dine continued to perform well with sales up 11.3%. Cookshop and tabletop also had strong sales driven by a standout performance from its Special Buy lines.

It’s generally good news for the retailer coming after what has been a mixed season overall and suggests that its inventory position should be in a healthy state as new season product starts to drop in the weeks and months ahead.