John Lewis Report Examines How We Shopped In An Extraordinary Year

John Lewis has released its annual Shop Live Look report which looks back on the last 12 months, revealing how the Covid-19 pandemic reshaped our lives in almost every way. Based on analysis of extensive internal sales data and shopping trends, the report found that in a year when we couldn’t go out into the world, we brought the world into our homes.

From transforming spare bedrooms into workspaces to turning our gardens into summer holiday destinations, Britons fell back in love with their homes this year.

Take a look at the full report here; read excerpts of the report below.

The report found:
We truly turned our homes into our castles; reconfiguring our living spaces as offices, schools, gyms and home cinemas. As the year has progressed, we’re more in love than ever with our homes, treating them to a facelift with nearly 10,000 home design appointments (both virtually and instore) taking place this year and ready-made curtains sales up 19% and sales of paint up +33%. We also furnished them with more permanent additions such as hot tubs (newly on sale at John Lewis due to overwhelming demand), as well as gourmet BBQs and garden rooms.

We binged-watched our favourite TV shows (sales of TVs up 45%) and the ‘Netflix Effect’ saw sales of items used in its landmark series soar. Sales of chess sets are up 121% as The Queen’s Gambit proved a huge hit, sales of berets rocketed by 65% thanks to the show Emily In Paris, and sales of chintzy floral curtains and patterned upholstery increased by 20% due to The Crown.

We freed ourselves from the tyranny of the waistband and we became comfortable keeping it casual. With many of us working from home, sales of loungewear and leggings rose by 1,303%.

And as we eventually ventured back into the world, we brought our joggers with us as sales of loungewear this winter show no signs of slowing down.  Old routines were replaced with new. Gone were alarm clocks (-38%) waking us up for the daily commute, replaced by longer breakfasts that have stayed with us (espresso makers up 12%).

We sought for new ways to keep the kids entertained and introduced them to the toys of our childhood as Hornby and Scalextric returned to our shelves. Travel was off the agenda (suitcases -69%), as was going “out out” (high heeled shoes -62% and party handbags -56%) but as gyms across the UK closed we embraced home fitness (fitness trackers and smart watches +64% and we launched Peloton concessions in nine of our shops in response to the trend).

Source : John Lewis Partnership

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