Department store John Lewis has appointed Mark Lewis as its first Online Director, it was announced today.
Mark Lewis is currently CEO of delivery service provider Collect Plus and will join John Lewis on March 4th to manage and develop the department store‘s omnichannel offering.
Prior to joining Collect Plus, Lewis worked for pure play e-tailer eBay, taking positions including UK Managing Director and European Marketplaces Director during his six years there.
John Lewis Managing Director Andy Street commented: “Mark is ideally placed to continue the growth and development of our online business.
“He brings insight and experience of the retail sector, and will be driving further innovation across both our website and omnichannel offer.”
As Online Director, Lewis will lead the John Lewis Online team and the Omnichannel Development team, as well as taking responsibility for profitability and development of the online channel.
Commenting that he was “delighted and honoured” to have been chosen, Lewis added: “In the rapidly changing retail environment I believe the John Lewis proposition and partnership model provide genuine and enduring advantages and I look forward to playing a part in writing the next chapter of the business.”
With snow and ice keeping many people in doors last weekend, John Lewis‘s online arm, johnlewis.com, kept sales high, recording a 40 per cent sales surge for the week to January 19th 2013.
Figures for the week revealed that total sales had increased by 6.7 per cent, buoyed by the online success, as sales in Electricals and Home Technology were up 30 per cent.
Although Home and Fashion sales fell by two per cent and seven per cent respectively, there was an unsurprising increase in sales of warm clothing and cold weather accessories, including wellington boots.
John Lewis Retail Operations Development Director Simon Russell praised “the Herculean efforts of Partners around the country who worked tirelessly to keep our shops open and safe for customers.”
“The Operations team, particularly the customer and distribution centre delivery teams, once again did a brilliant job keeping any disruption to an absolute minimum,” he concluded.
