Including John Lewis unveiling its Christmas TV ad and Amazon’s Black Friday plans.
The Source rounds up some of the key retail stories of the week.
John Lewis has unveiled its eagerly anticipated Christmas TV ad. Set to a cover version of One Day I’ll Fly Away, the ad focuses on Buster the Boxer dog who is desperate to jump on a trampoline which has been bought as a Christmas gift for the little girl in his family. The retailer has chosen The Wildlife Trusts as this year’s charity partner, and will be making a donation from the sale of soft toys of the characters featured in the ad.
Amazon UK has confirmed that it will be running 12 days of Black Friday deals. Kicking off on Monday November 14, The Black Friday Sale will run until Friday November 25. New deals will become available as often as every five minutes, with more than a thousand Amazon Marketplace sellers also participating this year – offering double the number of deals compared to 2015.
Sainsbury’s general merchandise sales grew 5% in the first half, while clothing sales were up almost 1%. However, in general the grocer said that first half profits dropped 10.1% to £277 million for the 28 weeks to September 24. Like for like sales dropped 1%, although underlying group sales were up 2.1%.
M&S is to close around 60 clothing and home stores across the next five years. The news follows the retailer’s interim pre-tax profits dropping 88.4% to £25.1 million. Clothing and home like for likes fell 5.9% during the half year.
Stationery specialist Paperchase is to launch standalone stores in the US in 2017. The move follows UK sales growth of 11% to £114 million in its last full year results. It will open two stores in Chicago.
Value retailer Poundland is trialling Pep & Co lines in stores as it looks to grow its clothing offer. The trial includes men, women and children’s clothes.
Fashion sales were boosted at John Lewis for the week ending November, helping the retailer reach £105.9 million. Fashion sales grew 8.6% year on year, while electricals and home technology grew 17.6% (driven by Apple MacBooks and Sonos speakers). In addition, homewares sales increased 3.7%.
Halfords‘ half year results were something of a mixed bag. Like for likes grew 2.4% across the group’s retail division, while autocentre like for likes were up 0.9%. However, pre-tax profits were down by 12.1%.
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