According to John Lewis Managing Director Andy Street, the retail giant has seen a 40pc year-on-year rise in online sales in the last three weeks. In explaining the boost, Street says that consumers are looking to them and turning their back on Amazon in the midst of the tax dodging controversy.
He said: “I can’t prove it, but it definitely has been good, I’d call it background publicity for us. I think our customers expect John Lewis to be a responsible business in every sense of that, to be a good citizen and that extends from the conditions in the supply chain, through to paying the right amount of corporation tax.”
It’s difficult to know if there is a backlash against Amazon. And of course, John Lewis have once again spent heavily on TV and online advertising. Their Click and Collect model, which is hooked up to Wairose stores up and down the country, has also been a huge success. And they remain a trusted and admired brand with no quibble returns. So lots of factors will have contributed to these remarkable figures.
5 Responses
I’m trying to imagine John Lewis seeing a 40% drop in sales… I’m thinking that the same PR bull would have blamed Amazon for a drop in sales just as speedily as they’re blaming Amazon for an increase.
Come to that…. if Amazon is killing the high street through not paying tax why aren’t John Lewis’ sales down?
pathetic , it just tells me that amazon worries him, and the mighty john lewis is vunerable
He may have something. I personally have minimised (not stopped just yet) using those comapnies I have percieved to be caught up in this controvesy with their UK tax arrangements. I am just one of the millions who live in the UK. I am prepared to put up a view for bloggers to read and others to gauge feeling amongst customers. Millions will simply vote silently with their feet (or click).
Didn’t I see that the online market had increased as a whole year on year by 30 odd%. So on that basis all traders could have expected a similar increase year on year. Obviously some will have done better and some worse. However a 40% increase year on year probably means that John Lewis is just slightly ahead of the game.
I would have been much more impressed if John Lewis were reporting say a 60% or a 100% year on year increase because that would mean that they are substantially ahead of the game.