John Lewis plans to capitalise on recent successes in beauty by revamping its beauty halls across its stores – as executive director declares the “buzz” is back.
John Lewis has announced an £800m investment into the business over four years, with revamped stores and attention paid to building upon its successes in beauty.
Sales in beauty were up 7% in the first half of the year, with sales for the Partnership as a whole, including Waitrose, topping £5.9bn in the first half, up 2% year-on-year, with total revenues increasing by 2% to £5.2bn.
New look beauty halls will be installed across stores, starting with its flagship Oxford Street store, which has seen its £6.5m upgrade conclude this week.
High Wycombe and Cheadle have also received store refurbishment, and over 70 customer events will be held across the country this week to celebrate new look beauty halls and improvements.
On the investment, executive director for John Lewis, Peter Ruis, declared the “buzz is back in John Lewis” with the brand giving its customers “even more reasons” to shop in its “brilliant” stores.
He continued: “We’re backing ourselves with significant investment to ensure customers get the exceptional quality, outstanding service, and competitive prices they love about our unique brand.”
A partnership with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has also been announced, with Oliver set to bring his Cookery School and Café to its Oxford Street flagship in spring 2025. This comes after Waterstones opened within John Lewis earlier this month.
John Lewis revisits history for first ad in ‘golden quarter’ trilogyThe investment comes as the retailer embarks on a “transformation” of its brand, including the resurgence of its Never Knowingly Undersold price promise, which lets customers price match John Lewis against 25 major UK retailers.
Customer director Charlotte Lock told Marketing Week in September that value perceptions have been a “detractor” for the brand, which led to the resurgence of the price promise.
Part of its brand transformation has included the launch of a trilogy of ads in the run up to Christmas – but the price promise and ad campaign has received a mixed response from consumers so far.
According to Kantar data, John Lewis customers were found to respond much more positively to the ad, compared to non-shoppers.
But Kantar’s head of creative excellence, Lynne Deason, told Marketing Week the advert “is not quite hitting a note for those more distanced from the brand”, and that the retailer is “creating noise around the brand but perceptions aren’t being shifted”.
She added the brand “has a job to do in terms of bringing Never Knowingly Undersold to life and explaining to people what it means”, as just over half of the sample who had heard the slogan could attribute it to John Lewis. This increased to 69% among those aged 55 plus, but dropped to just 21% for those aged 18 to 34.
