Last-minute shoppers drive sales at John Lewis

Johnlewis.com continued its record-breaking run with an increase of 31.0 per cent, and up and down the country our shops have been full of shoppers as part of the last-minute rush, and we anticipate further busy days on Monday and Tuesday, as people complete their Christmas shopping.

We have seen a different shape to trade this year, with an early peak flattening out before the final week's surge, driving a week-on-week increase of 9.7 per cent.

All three of our directorates had record weeks, with growth spread across the business.

Proving that it is once again the must-have gift for Christmas, we have sold one iPad every ten seconds in the last week, leading to an increase of 5.6 per cent in our technology directorate on last year. The new range of iPad Air has been the most sought after gift and we expect that to continue over the next three days with customers attracted by our three year guarantee.

A 3.3 per cent year-on-year sales increase in our fashion directorate was driven by childrenswear in particular, with toys an obvious highlight. Beauty gift sets flew off the shelves and we also saw an increase in lingerie sets, perhaps reinforcing the stereotype that last-minute gift buying is driven by men.

In home, sales were 4.4 per cent up on the year, with people snapping up gifts to create a family Christmas, with board games Linkee, Bananagrams and jigsaw puzzles best-sellers. Gift food sales are strong with Limoncello, Panettone and Stollen favourites. We have also sold a staggering 2.3 million chocolate coins this Christmas, our best-selling gift food product of the year.

Paula Nickolds, buying and brand director at John Lewis, said: 'It's clear that much of Britain has yet again taken shopping for Christmas right up to the wire. Buoyed by this week's record trading, all of our channels are braced for the final three shopping days before Christmas.

'Final Click & Collect orders for pre-Christmas collection will be taken at 7pm on Monday - an extension of one day - before our online focus shifts to Clearance, which starts at 5pm on Christmas Eve on johnlewis.com and in our shops from early in the morning on the 27 December. As ever, bargain hunters can benefit from our Never Knowingly Undersold price promise throughout the year.'

John Lewis Partnership