People preparing for street parties by buying bunting and bowler hats at department store John Lewis helped to boost its total sales last week by 11 per cent year-on-year, it was announced today.
Patriotism led home sales for the week ending May 19th 2012, with an increase in sales of red, blue and white goods in time for the Queen‘s Diamond Jubilee.
Simon Russell, Director of Retail Operations Development at John Lewis, believes it is a solid performance compared to last year.
He commented: “Bunting, bowler hats and tea towels were the best sellers and will adorn the most stylish street parties.
“Customers were also investing in their houses again with big-ticket textiles and main furniture comfortably up, offsetting what was a tricky week for outdoor furniture and picnicware as customers avoided their gardens, given the weather.”
This week‘s results show a consistency in its strong performance of late, with online sales providing the biggest boon with a 37.5 per cent increase on May last year.
Thanks to the retailer‘s updated click & collect service, which now sees the department store offering customers the option of collecting online purchases from a Waitrose store, click & collect doubled its levels on last year, with the service now live in nearly all of the 100 chosen participating stores.
Extension of its Price Brand Match, rivalling the prices at competitor Tesco, has been well received by customers, giving an overall total rise in sales of 6.6 per cent on last year.
Rob Collins, Retail Director at Waitrose said: “Waitrose.com continues to attract a growing number of customers who want to shop from the comfort of their own home, with sales up more than 37 per cent on last year.”
A taste for Waitrose‘s wine selection has gone down well, in particular the Waitrose Solera Jerezana Fino del Puerto sherry and Grüner Veltliner Terraces 2011 white wine, which both have picked up gold medals in preparation for the Olympic season.
It seems many have lots to celebrate despite the austerity, with cider also proving a popular beverage as sales jumped 18 per cent.
Collins added: “Not only have we seen a surge in popularity of still English wines, up 92 per cent year-on-year, but the business is celebrating a record haul of medals in this week‘s Decanter, IWC and IWSC awards.
“In total, wines stocked at Waitrose have won an impressive 877 awards, including 72 gold awards.”
Earlier this week, Kantar Worldpanel reported that Waitrose saw a seven per cent increase in sales in the 12 weeks to May 13th 2012, leading the way in the upmarket retail grocery sector.
