Tough week for fashion at John Lewis, beauty proves popular

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 11, 2017

Clearance weeks are always difficult periods to call when it comes to what product categories consumers are prioritising for purchase. Their main priority during both winter and summer sales is price, regardless of the category.

John Lewis is currently in that twilight zone as it shifts spring/summer inventory and the retailer said Tuesday that its sales rose a fairly tepid 2% in the seven days to July 8.

Turnover reached £86.74 million in total. But while fashion was a big part of that, it wasn’t the sector driving growth.
In fact, Fashion directory sales dropped an unaccustomed 1.6% during the week after what’s been an undeniably strong few months. However, beauty, wellbeing and leisure sales rose a respectable 4.1%.

The Home directory performed better than Fashion, which is good news after some not-that-impressive performances so far this year. Admittedly, total Home sales were up only 0.2% but outdoor living stormed ahead with a 55% increase as the UK weather stayed generally favourable for summer-linked lifestyle purchases.

That was a record for July and the company also said that the hot weather and the move towards outdoor entertainment continued, causing a rise in ‘cocktail gifting’ with gin sales up 102%.

Meanwhile Electrical and Home Technology sales were up 8.4% with strong Microsoft sales, up 42%, following the recent launch of its new Surface Pro Tablet and Surface Book.