John Lewis Partnership posts good pre-Christmas sales

Its countdown to Christmas events in its shops and online this weekend have proved popular with customers and with more activity planned, it has become clear that across the country, consumers are preparing to decorate their homes.

Within Christmas shops both in-store and online this has been evident with the Scandi-chic reindeer head a top seller this week and the carol singer tealight lantern selling fast. Online the snowy paper tree remains a best seller and our LED pre-lit reindeer are proving particularly popular with customers wishing to have festive décor in their gardens as well as inside their homes.

With the arrival of Father Christmas getting closer, sales of Christmas stockings and sacks have also been strong this week - the John Lewis Baby Christmas sack proving a popular choice.

The continuing cold weather has meant strong sales of outerwear across menswear, womenswear and childrenswear. Unsurprisingly hats, scarves, gloves and slippers have been selling well and cashmere products have been proving a firm favourite.

Maggie Porteous, director selling operations, John Lewis said: 'It has been pleasing to see sales surpassing the £100m mark for the second time this month with strong figures coming from both our shops and online. We have been up against tough comparisons this week with Black Friday falling into a different week this year – but looking at the two year figure of +13.3 per cent sales are encouraging.

“Across the country our Partners have been working hard to give customers a weekend full of festive fun with Countdown to Christmas events taking place in all our shops and online. Our Christmas TV ad continues to get lovely responses and views have now exceeded 8.3 million on YouTube. This week we launched our 'ReWorked' competition to give one lucky winner the chance to record their version of Keane's 'Somewhere Only We Know' on our ad and have it played out on television this Christmas Day.

John Lewis Partnership