John Lewis hails Black Friday as it reports biggest ever sales week
John Lewis has cast doubt on the idea that this year's Black Friday was something of a washout, reporting its biggest sales week in its history last week.
There were no scenes of frenzied shoppers on November 30 and news camera crews seemed to outnumber customers on thoroughfares like Oxford Street, leading many to conclude 2015's one-off sales event had been a damp squib.
But department store John Lewis said Black Friday, described as "the first of three peaks of Christmas" helped sales rise 4.8% year-on-year and 60% week-on-week to a total of £187.7 million in the week to November 28. Online sales jumped 15.5%.
Electricals were in high demand, the department store said, with a 3.2 TVs sold every minute.
Wearable tech was also a huge hit, with items like fitness tracker Fitbit sending sales of the devices up 850%.
Sales of women's fashion rose 45.6%, as brands Barbour, Michael Kors and Ted Baker brought the punters in.
John Lewis said the success was down to its distribution teams which processed 18% more parcels than it did during the last Black Friday weekend.
Sales across the John Lewis partnership, which includes grocer Waitrose, were 3.6% higher at £322.45 million.
Waitrose sales, excluding fuel, were up 2% at £134.76 million.
