The recent cold and wet snap put customers "in the right mood for shopping" at John Lewis last week. The retailer posted sales up 26.5% on the same week last year, which, incidentally, saw the country engulfed in an unseasonable heat wave.
Online sales performed extremely well during the last week of September 2012, up 48.4% on last year. 'At home' stores did particularly well, up 13%, with house sales "continuing to please across all areas of the assortment." Darker nights also lent a boost of 29% to lighting departments, described as "superb" by the retailer, and bed linen also did well at +51%.

Head of selling operations Maggie Porteus said: "There was a real sense of Christmas buying with many of our shops achieving November levels of trade on Saturday."

This week has seen the launch of the Christmas department across John Lewis stores.