In the run up to Christmas I wrote about the 'Black Friday' and 'Cyber Monday' madness that happened across the UK. These two days had been borrowed from America and became big news stories in themselves. These were the two big days when Christmas shoppers pushed and shoved their way to purchase items, just because they had been reduced. Now that peak trading has returned to normal, retailers are wondering if they should have bothered discounting their profit margins by so much. One of the High street big names, John Lewis, said it was it's biggest trading week on record, with sales up 22% on last year. However it has affected the bigger picture. They are now thinking if it was worth concentrating all their trade and promotion in those few days. That week put their back line operations under so much pressure, that it affected other areas of the business. Staff had to be relocated to help with the mountain of work, but left there normal work stations empty. Other big name retailers and couriers became so snowed under with Deliveries to stores, businesses and homes that all the hard work had gone to waste. Customers took to social media to complain about having to wait for something delayed, forgetting that the price was discounted. Sadly some people didn't have items in time to give as presents on Christmas day.
In the five weeks leading up to the 27th December, total like-for-like sales for the John Lewis chain rose 4.8% to £777million. Online purchases went up by 19%. John Lewis also plans to increase its store numbers from 42 they currently have to another 20 stores. They are looking at increasing it's retail sections in the Birmingham, Leeds and Oxford area.
