John Lewis sees festive sales leap online

British department store chain John Lewis posted a leap in festive trading figures as surging sales online offset falls across its stores.

The retailer saw like-for-like sales lift 5.1% in the six weeks to January 2, but it relied on a 21.4% jump in online trade as comparable store sales dropped 1.2%.

The Partnership also revealed “challenging” trading at its Waitrose supermarket arm, which suffered a 1.4% fall in like-for-like sales excluding fuel over the six weeks.

Charlie Mayfield, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, said: “’This has been a strong Christmas trading period for the partnership despite the non-food market seeing significant shifts in trade patterns and the grocery market continuing to be challenging.”