DIYWEEK.net

John Lewis has published its trading report for the five weeks to December 28. It revealed new "bricks and clicks" records as total sales amounted to £734m, up 7.2% from last year, 6.9% like-for-like.
Compared with two years ago, total sales were up 23.1% while LfL sales grew by 20.5%. Online sales throughout the five weeks were 22.6% up on last year with johnlewis.com accounting for 31.8% of the total John Lewis business during the period. Click & Collect orders were 61.8% up on last year.

Sales in the Home department increased by 2% from 2012, while Electricals and Home Technology were 10.7% up and Fashion was up 8.5%.

The retailer broke records in the final pre-Christmas week (ending December 21), as sales broke the £160m barrier for the first time, and the first day of the clearance (December 27) was the biggest ever day for branches and the business as a whole, taking £35.6m. Before Christmas, Black Friday (on November 29) was the biggest ever day for online orders with Cyber Sunday close behind.

John Lewis also highlighted the change in shopping habits during December and its prediction of a "mobile Christmas". On Christmas Day, traffic from mobile phones and tablets made up three quarters of total traffic, overtaking that from desktops by a considerable margin.

Managing director of John Lewis, Andy Street, said: "The shift to mobile devices for online shopping has been confirmed but the in-store sale is well and truly thriving, as shown by the record first day for Clearance in our shops on 27 December. With new highs in branches as well as for johnlewis.com, this has been a genuine omni-channel Christmas.

"Customers sought inspiration from our broad range of gifts and decorations. Must-have products included tablets, indoor and outdoor Christmas lights, coffee machines, gift food, DAB radios, cashmere and beauty and fragrance products.

"Many also fell in love with our TV advert which has received over 11.5 million views on YouTube since launch. I am extremely pleased with the results of the past five weeks. Our growth of 7.2% is broadly based and we expect to have outperformed the market. It bodes well for trade in 2014."