John Lewis’ managing director has warned UK retailers to reconsider heavy discounting on Black Friday.
The US sales day that follows the Thanksgiving holiday brought the company its biggest trading week on record, with sales up 22% on last year.
However, Andy Street said the US phenomenon was “more challenging profitability-wise.”
“We’ve got to ask if it’s right to concentrate trade so much in that one period,” he told the BBC.
Overall, in the five weeks to 27 December, total like-for-like sales rose 4.8% to £777m, with shop sales flat, but online purchases up 19%. Click-and-collect represented 56% of online sales, overtaking home delivery, the firm said in a trading update.
