John Lewis fashion sales fall but lingerie, beauty are strong

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 24, 2017

It was another slow period for John Lewis last week as the on-going mild weather rounded off October with a further sales fall.

The retailer said Tuesday that its sales dropped at much as 4.7% to £86.67 million in the seven days to October 21 and once again, fashion had a big part to play in that drop.

In fact, fashion overall was down a hefty 6.9% due to weather issues, although there were some bright spots too. Own-brand womenswear ranges saw growth while jewellery and lingerie sales rose. 

The company also said that beauty, wellbeing and leisure products grew, albeit by a tiny 0.5%.

But that certainly wasn’t enough to make up for the shortfall, especially with the retailer’s Home department continuing the unimpressive performance it has turned in for much of this year. In the latest week, Home sales dropped 6%, although lighting performed well with sales up 5% due to price matching a competitor's promotion and John Lewis’s own promotion.

Even electrical and home technology sales were down 0.5%, although sales of communications technology products such as smartphones, computers and iPads were up.

But as we head towards November, the company’s sales could pick up. John Lewis is a major destination for Christmas season shoppers and the opening of its new Westgate store in Oxford on Tuesday should add new shoppers to its customer line-up.