A decade on from the first John Lewis How We Shop, Live and Look report, which looks back at the products and trends that shaped the year, we are a nation that has fallen out of love with DVD players and fidget spinners and gained a burgeoning obsession with air fryers and pizza ovens. Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen customers return to shops, especially on Saturdays for a family day out where footfall is up 11%. During the height of lockdowns, 81% of our sales came via the internet, this has fallen back to 57%, with many dwelling in stores and hospitality and catering sales up 20% versus last year, with an astonishing 3.09 million cups of coffee sold and 1.79 million pots of tea.
Throughout the year, many TV and pop culture moments influenced customer shopping habits, from the finale of hit series ‘Succession’ influencing tailoring to increase 70% to the two blockbuster films of the year, Barbie and Oppenheimer, creating the ‘Barbenheimer effect’. Meanwhile, social media platform TikTok allowed influencers such as Hailey Beiber to create new weekly beauty trends such as ‘Strawberry Girl’ for customers to purchase the products to ‘get the look; sales of the Hourglass Unlocked Mascara featured in her video increase 389% the week it was posted.
Within the home and during a year of economic uncertainty, customers opted for efficiency with rechargeable lamps and fans among this year’s best sellers. Microwave cooking products saw an increase of 41%. and the “duvet sandwich” also proved popular where customers have been buying a 4 tog for summer and a 9 tog for autumn which can be buttoned together to create a 13 tog winter warmer. Supersized interiors, whether indoor or out, are also proving to be popular for many with sales of sofas with 5 or more seats jumping 36%, and the best seller being the lozenge sofa, a supersized statement corner sofa with enough space to binge and sprawl alongside sales of larger statement rugs increasing 61% compared with last year and sales of super king mattresses up 32% versus a decade ago..
For womenswear fashion it’s puffa coats that have been left behind in favour of tailored trenches and formal coats where John Lewis have increased their buy by nearly a third versus last year whilst in menswear it’s the overshirt ‘shacket’ that has been in demand, so much so, John Lewis has doubled their offering. Saving the planet and conscious shopping is front of mind for many with nearly half a million customers visiting the John Lewis fashion rental site with more than 1,500 rentals booked.
Kathleen Mitchell, John Lewis commercial director, says: “Over the last 10 years, our ‘How we shop, live and look report’ has shown us how the nation’s shopping habits have evolved, with customers forming new shopping habits and traditions. Within the last 12 months we have really seen a return to the shops and a return of style. Customers are eating, drinking, spending time in our shops and enjoying all that our stores have to offer – customer numbers are up 8% on last year as many families have discovered, it’s quite a good value day out! We are excited for what is to come as customers seek out a more contemporary look and a bit more excitement within the way they shop, live and look with us.”
Key takeaways from the report:
Products of the Decade (2013 to 2023)
The Inflatable Flamingo
Products that defined the year:
The Stanley Cup +272%
Mens Boxer Shorts (For Women) +20%
Outdoor Sofas +155%
Baseball Caps +58%
Birkenstocks +86%
Strapless Bras +20%
John Lewis Handheld Fan – sold the equivalent of 153 huge wind turbines stacked on top of each other +481%
Barbie Range +31% (top product – The Barbie House)
90s Fragrance – Angel Mugler, launched in 1992, +23%, Armani Aqua di Gio, released in 1996, +29%.
Products we left behind:
Beauty Tech – down double digits
Drinks Trolleys -13%
Beach Towels -48%
Pique Polos -10%
Printers -26%
Firepits/Outdoor Heaters -35%
Chandeliers – 29%
Ditsy Floral Midi Dress
How has TV/pop culture influenced us this year:
Succession – stealth wealth
Sales of tailoring have increased 70% on last year, and sales of half-zip jumpers outsold crew neck pullovers by 62%, since the start of the season. Sales of luxe silk scarves have increased. And following the episode when Tom lampoons a character’s “ludicrously capacious bag”, searches for large bags jumped 20%.
Barbie – we’re all living in her pink universe now
Sales of pink handbags increased 70%, not least handbags, up 70%, and searches for the pink Arizona Birkenstocks up 67%.
Oppenheimer – where I lay my hat
Nearly a decade on from the Peaky Blinders Flat Cap, Cillian Murphy was responsible for another hat craze: the fedora, the stylish headwear outsold flat caps by 21% during July.
Cost of Living – turning down the thermostat
John Lewis launched an ANYDAY, extra-warm 15 tog duvet, which became an immediate bestseller – with twice the number sold than expected. People also invested in a “duvet sandwich”, buying a 4 tog for summer and a 9 tog for autumn which can be buttoned together to create a 13 tog winter warmer. Consumers also cottoned on to the expense of turning on the oven for an hour. Microwave cooking products saw an increase of 41%.
Eurovision fever
Footfall at the John Lewis Liverpool store was up 44% on the week of the finals. The highlight was the kitchenware department at the store being transformed into a Sophie Ellis Bextor kitchen disco – at scale!
A summer of music
Beyoncé undertook her first tour in seven years and cowboy boots were the perfect festival footwear. Searches for cowboy boots were up 128% in comparison to this time last year.
Daisy Jones & the Six
Within days of the launch in March, searches for flared jeans increased by 43 %, denim shorts by 80% maxi skirts by 62%.
How we shopped:
2013-2023 throughout the decade:
The rise of online
Back in 2013, the first year that the Shop, Live, Look report was published, products bought online represented just a quarter of all sales (25.9%). This grew steadily, climbing to 42% in the years before Covid. With department stores forced to close for two prolonged periods during 2020, shoppers flocked online, helping online sales shoot up to 81% of total sales during 2020. But since the end of lockdowns, many customers have returned to the high street, meaning online sales now represent 57% of sales.
The evening shop
By 2013, the huge popularity of the tablet computer meant that the John Lewis website would see a surge in orders around 9pm – often during the advert break between TV shows, as people started for the first time to embrace ‘double screening’. Now, traffic builds steadily throughout the day until 4pm, where it stays steady for a couple of hours, as people juggle finishing work, picking up children from school and cooking the evening meal. Then, at 7pm it starts to surge again, peaking between 8pm and 10pm as most people do their shopping from their mobiles or a laptop on the sofa. More people shop between 10pm and 11pm than between 12 noon and 1pm.
Over the last 12 months:
The Weekend Shopper
Customer numbers on Saturdays have increased by 11% compared with last year, with many making it an occasion to spend time with family and friends, browse new collections and spend time in the shop. The ‘big day out’ in the department store, long part of John Lewis’s heritage, has been revived with customers taking advantage of the relatively cheap food and drink prices on site to save money on their day out. Over the last year, hospitality and catering sales are up 20% versus last year, with an astonishing 3.09 million cups of coffee sold and 1.79 million pots of tea. With a generous two cups per pot, that means tea remains the no.1 drink for John Lewis customers.
Social Media Savvy
The rise of platforms such as Instagram and TikTok has fuelled our customers’ shopping habits. From the Stanley to viral beauty trends such as ‘Latte Make up’ which saw Dior Amber Neutrals Palette sales increase 101% versus last year and Hailey Biebers ‘Strawberry Girl’ which saw Sales of the Hourglass Unlocked Mascara featured in her video increase 389% the week it was posted. The air fryer, now in its third-year of unbroken growth, was initially fuelled by celebrities and influencers showing off increasingly outre airfryer recipes on social media, from halloumi fries and pasta chips to whole cakes and steaks. The gadget has now proved it is more than a viral fad, however, with John Lewis selling enough last year for them – laid out – to stretch from the Oxford Street store to the Reading store.
How we lived and looked:
Puffa out, Trenches in
The super-warm but not very flattering puffa jacket, which has held sway for the last few years, is falling in favour of the more formal coats, where John Lewis have increased their buy by nearly a third versus last year, particularly the tailored trench coat.
Portable Everything
This rechargeable LED Mushroom lamp has been a huge hit, in part because it is stylish and dimmable, but mostly because it is portable, allowing people to take it with them as they move rooms, even outside into the garden of an evening.
Supersized Interiors
Sales of sofas with 5 or more seats jumping 36%, and the best seller being the lozenge sofa, a supersized statement corner sofa with enough space to binge and sprawl alongside sales of larger statement rugs increasing 61% compared with last year and sales of super king mattresses up 32% versus a decade ago..
Pet tech
Pet cameras and other pet tech have boomed, with sales up an astonishing 219% on last year. Most of this boom has come thanks to the litter robot, an ingenious device that works, in effect, as a flushing cat toilet, meaning you no longer have to scoop out your feline friend’s poops.
Sleep
Sales of super king mattresses have increased by 32% vs a decade ago and ‘In January our Sleep sales are double that of the summer months’ says Nicola Waller, Lead for Sleep Projects at John Lewis.
It’s not just adults. Babies are being helped to drift off thanks to ever-sophisticated buggies and tech. Parents can now invest in gadgets that make bedtime routines easier from brands such as Tonies, who create screen-free digital storytelling products where sales are up 48% compared with last year.
Comfortable cans
Headband earphones (rather than in-ear) make up 60% of sales, up from 52% last year. Sales of those headphones, notably Sony ones, that cost more than £250 have jumped by 79% over the last year.
Ingredients, not brand
John Lewis has introduced a search function allowing customers to search by active ingredient and the big asks have been hyaluronic acid – hydrating skin and giving it a plumped appearance, with searches up by 30% and glycolic acid – known for exfoliating the skin, searches have increased 50%.
