skip to main content

2,634 shops listed | Last updated: Friday, March 29, 2024

Monitor Add a site

John Lewis benefits from upturn in e-commerce

Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - 11:52 by Graham Miller

Share on

People are starting their Christmas shopping sprees earlier than ever, with John Lewis reporting a 31 per cent rise in e-commerce activity last week.

This year on year growth bodes well for companies providing safe shopping online in 2012, because a significant number of consumers seem to be using online outlets, rather than heading to the high street.

As a whole, the retailer took in 91.7 million, giving it a 7.6 per cent annual growth rate. However, it is clear that bricks and mortar expansion is being far outshone by e-commerce.

While December 3rd will be the UK's busiest day for online shopping ever, with 100 million hits expected to be registered, by sites offering safe shopping online, in a single 24 hour period, it is clear that some are gearing up for the Christmas rush earlier than anticipated.

Toys, tablet computers and children's scooters were all big sellers last week at John Lewis. Meanwhile, men can expect to get a lot of knitted items and warm winter coats, with sales of perfume and bags for women rising for the ladies out there.

One of the reasons for John Lewis' big e-commerce boost last week, is that it follows the release of its annual Christmas TV ad campaign, which generally gets people talking about the retailer and also reminds them that they might want to start shopping around.

Even the song which features in the ad is anticipated to become a significant seller, which shows just how influential this type of marketing can be in the run up to the year's most frenzied shopping period.

It will be interesting to see just how significant the festive sales season has been this year, once the dust has settled and the official figures are published.