The John Lewis Partnership, them of the eye-wateringly expensive adverts and never knowingly undersold, is having a cracking Christmas online. Sales online are up overall 22% on 2012 so far and an astonishing 1/3 of the firm’s business is now done online.
December 1st, sometimes now called Cyber Sunday, was one of the busiest days ever for johnlewis.com. Traffic was up 29% on the same day in 2012. And the traffic spikes they are experiencing are further evidence of how shopping habits have developed.
The website’s traffic peaked at 8pm on December 1st and the online tills were busiest making sales at 9pm. Not bad for a Sunday night. December 22nd, Mega or Cyber Monday saw sales spike between 9 and 10pm.
Two other John Lewis innovations are also seeing strong growth. Click & Collect orders rose by 58% on the 2nd, compared to the same time last year. And orders to be fulfilled by CollectPlus were up by 88% week on week.
David Barford, the director of selling at John Lewis, said: “With online sales setting a new high, records have been falling for a number of days, but none of this would be possible without a stellar distribution operation or the sophisticated IT support that goes hand in hand with the front of service we offer instore and from our call centres.”
All this augurs well for a really strong Christmas retail wise with online leading the way. It’s good news for sellers because John Lewis has become a bit of a bellwether for the health of ecommerce in recent years.
