John Lewis reports record sales at £200 mn in lead-up to Black Friday

UK retailer John Lewis reported record sales of around £200 million in the lead-up to Black Friday, marking the biggest ever trading week in the retailer's history.

Sales rose 6.5 per cent to £199.8 million for the week to 26 November as against £187.7 million over the same period last year, which was the previous record.

The company, which saw increasing traffic at both its bricks and mortar and online stores, was taking around five online orders per second during the busiest time on Friday morning.

Its Magna Park distribution centre processed 33 per cent more units on Saturday than it did last year, with around 12,000 units processed per hour across its network over the weekend.

Samsung TVs, KitchenAid items and GHD hair straighteners were some of the best sellers in the electronics department, which reported an 11 per cent increase in sales last week as against 2015.

Fashion sales rose 4.6 per cent, coupled with a 13.4 per cent  jump in beauty sales, a 15.1 per cent increase in women's wear and an 8.1 per  cent rise in men's wear.

Sales in sportswear and equipment registered a bumper 26.1 per cent year-on-year increase.

Operations director Dino Rocos said, "Overall, the success of the week's trade for John Lewis is down to meticulous planning and expert execution, Belfast Telegraph reported.

Kevin Jenkins, UK and Ireland managing director at Visa, said, ''We continue to see an increase in the shift from cash to cards when people do their Christmas shopping. Consumers are now armed with a variety of new ways to pay, such as wearables and a range of digital wallet options on their mobile devices," The Guardian reported.

According to Barclaycard, which processed almost half of all credit and debit card transactions in the UK, payment transactions were 6 per cent higher than last year's Black Friday.