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John Lewis Partnership plans to expand beyond retail
31 Jul '20
2 min read
Pic: John Lewis Partnership
The John Lewis Partnership, which owns British retail brands John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners, expects the first and the second brands to be retailers with 60 per cent and 20 per cent online share respectively compared to figures of 40 per cent and 5 per cent before the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also plans to expand beyond retail.
As retail profit margins are under pressure, for the company to be sustainable over the long-term, it plans to expand beyond retail. It has selected four fields for further development: financial services, horticulture, private rented housing and rental/resale/recycle.
“In both brands we will double down on making shopping easier and more convenient, investing in: availability in store and online; useability and personalisation of our apps and websites; better rewards for our most loyal customers; online personal services; convenient pick-up, like the 505 Co-op stores offering John Lewis Click & Collect; and introducing John Lewis into Waitrose,” chairman Sharon White said in a recent progress update on the group’s strategic review.
“We will focus on home and nursery - our traditional strengths - with a new home collection and expanded gift lists launching this autumn; more exciting and inspirational design; more affordable ‘entry point’ pricing; stronger ‘curation’ so that shoppers can find what they want easily; and more local assortments that reflect the diversity of our customers,” she said.
As flagged in March, the company is reviewing its Never Knowingly Undersold price promise to ensure it offers fair value for how customers shop today.
“We expect to see continued rebalancing of stores, opening new ones where we see strong customer demand, and potentially closing others where demand wanes. Our existing stores will be updated to meet customers’ expectations,” she added.
John Lewis & Partners operates 50 shops plus one outlet across the United Kingdom as well as johnlewis.com. Waitrose & Partners has 337 shops in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, including 61 convenience branches, and another 27 shops at Welcome Break locations. Waitrose & Partners exports products to more than 50 countries worldwide and has nine shops which operate under licence in the Middle East.
As retail profit margins are under pressure, for the company to be sustainable over the long-term, it plans to expand beyond retail. It has selected four fields for further development: financial services, horticulture, private rented housing and rental/resale/recycle.
“In both brands we will double down on making shopping easier and more convenient, investing in: availability in store and online; useability and personalisation of our apps and websites; better rewards for our most loyal customers; online personal services; convenient pick-up, like the 505 Co-op stores offering John Lewis Click & Collect; and introducing John Lewis into Waitrose,” chairman Sharon White said in a recent progress update on the group’s strategic review.
“We will focus on home and nursery - our traditional strengths - with a new home collection and expanded gift lists launching this autumn; more exciting and inspirational design; more affordable ‘entry point’ pricing; stronger ‘curation’ so that shoppers can find what they want easily; and more local assortments that reflect the diversity of our customers,” she said.
As flagged in March, the company is reviewing its Never Knowingly Undersold price promise to ensure it offers fair value for how customers shop today.
“We expect to see continued rebalancing of stores, opening new ones where we see strong customer demand, and potentially closing others where demand wanes. Our existing stores will be updated to meet customers’ expectations,” she added.
John Lewis & Partners operates 50 shops plus one outlet across the United Kingdom as well as johnlewis.com. Waitrose & Partners has 337 shops in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, including 61 convenience branches, and another 27 shops at Welcome Break locations. Waitrose & Partners exports products to more than 50 countries worldwide and has nine shops which operate under licence in the Middle East.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
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