John Lewis online sales grow, despite retail dip

Popular U.K. retailer John Lewis, which sells everything from furniture to toys, announced this week that its ecommerce efforts are paying off handsomely.

The vendor reported that the online sector of its store is growing rapidly, and its online sales rose by well over a third in the second half of the fiscal year, according to Internet Retailing magazine.

Sales at JohnLewis.com were up by 38.3 percent in the 26 weeks to 29 Jan, compared to the same period last year. In the week ending 29 Jan, ecommerce sales in general throughout the U.K. were up by a more modest 18.4 percent, highlighting the success that established retailers can enjoy when they launch an ecommerce portal with a trustworthy payment provider and a good shopping cart.

"The year ahead promises to be even more testing, but we are budgeting for growth," said Andrew Murphy, retail director at John Lewis. "In doing so it is the consistent quality of our partners' delivery of a great assortment, real value and exceptional service that gives us genuine confidence that, once again, we will be able to outperform our competitors and gain market share in all of our categories."

Meanwhile, sales at the store's brick-and-mortar outlets - include its flagship store on London's Oxford Street - slipped slightly, down 0.9 percent over last year.