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Early Opening for Festive E-Commerce Site from John Lewis

Thursday, August 27, 2020 - 12:01 by Paul Tissington

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Although Christmas is still months away, retailers are already gearing up to make up lost ground when the busiest shopping season of the year arrives by launching various options and incentives for customers who want to get prepared well in advance.

Department store giant John Lewis is one such firm, having announced that its web-powered festive retail platform will be opening its doors earlier than ever before so that consumers can carry out safe shopping online in the comfort of their own homes and avoid disappointment on December 25th by ensuring that all of their gift-buying responsibilities have been met.

The site is open already, and this move was partly inspired by the fact that the number of people carrying out Christmas-related shopping searches via the likes of Google is almost four times higher this year than it was last.

Part of the reason for this will no doubt be that Brits have been convinced to buy online more frequently in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, meaning that these same habits are being pushed forwards in the context of Christmas shopping.

John Lewis is certainly pushing its e-commerce offerings over its bricks and mortar equivalents this year, with its online Christmas shop opening its digital doors more than month before the same products will be winging their way to its high street locations.

The retailer even pointed out a few trends that are projected to hit the big time as December approaches, with a lot of buzz focusing on animal-themed Christmas tree decorations, according to Internet Retailing.

The economic fallout of both the COVID-19 crisis and Brexit is proving difficult to calculate at the moment, so while businesses are hopeful that Christmas will stimulate record spending, this will all come down to how consumer confidence fares in the coming months.