John Lewis fashion sales dip but autumn womenswear remains strong

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 4, 2017

John Lewis is one of those retailers that seems to prosper whatever the backdrop and recent weeks have seen it powering ahead. Which is why its latest weekly results (for the last seven days of September) were such a surprise. 

Its sales fell 1.9% to £86.32 million. Admittedly that’s not exactly the kind of figure that’s likely to spur a major inquest, but it’s certainly unexpected after early September was so strong.

So what went wrong at the end of last month? Well at least it wasn’t fashion that was the driving force here. Sales in this category fell only 1.8%, which managed to beat the retailer’s average across all departments. And there were major pockets of strength.

The company said autumn/winter clothing has been performing well and continued to do so last week, while its exclusive Modern rarity line was also a standout performer.

Beauty continued its run of good results with total sales up 7%. The company said its beauty counters were particularly strong and fragrance saw a rise of 14.2%. That must have given the company some encouragement for the Christmas season as the biggest period for fragrance sales draws closer. 

But home sales were down 5.1% and the category remained the weakest of all for the chain. Yet again, with the coming festive season looming large, John Lewis’s Christmas Villages performed strongly and Halloween products rose too, by an astonishing 24% compared to last year.