Fine weather helps John Lewis secure online growth

Tuesday, April 1, 2014 - 11:16 by Graham Miller

John Lewis revealed that this month it has seen online sales rise by almost a quarter, with the improving weather conditions and the sheer enthusiasm for safe shopping online amongst British consumers helping to boost its performance, according to Retail Week.

Thirty three per cent of the products purchased by its customers online were not delivered to homes, but instead chosen to be collected from local stores. Click & collect services are clearly becoming a top choice for people in the UK, because this means that they can get same day access to the items they have ordered from the web.

Spokesperson, Mark Lewis, revealed that m-commerce sales were also on the rise, with its mobile marketing strategies helping to convert more smartphone users into paying customers than ever before.

Waitrose saw similarly strong performance online, with the number of people placing click & collect orders rising by 80 per cent this month, as spring weather finally found its way to the UK.

Overall, there was a 35 per cent rise in sales made by shopping online at Waitrose, which has been a long time supporter of web-based deliveries.

The weather was not the only factor in improving online sales at some of the UK's largest retailers, as Mother's Day always has a big impact. A late Easter this year was thought to be cause for concern, but seemingly not every outlet is having issues as a result.

Year on year, the number of sales made by Waitrose through its website were up by 70 per cent, which is especially impressive, given that other established retailers have seen e-commerce growth tailing off, as the market matures and consumers in the UK get used to the availability of web based delivery services.