John Lewis’ sales rose 2.1% year on year last week as it notched up £111.9m in sales.

John Lewis sales rise

The department store group’s sales rose 10.3% week on week as shoppers gear up for Christmas. Online sales rose 9.4%.

The retailer said its ‘Scandi-chic reindeer’ was a top seller last week as well as a carol singer tealight lantern.

Sales of Christmas stockings and sacks were also strong with the John Lewis Baby Christmas sack proving a popular choice.

The continuing cold weather has meant strong sales of outerwear across menswear, womenswear and childrenswear. Hats, scarves, gloves and slippers also sold well with cashmere products sought after.

John Lewis said it sold out of Microsoft’s new Xbox One console within two hours of it being available online and it expects the new Playstation 4, released on Friday, to generate sales.

John Lewis director selling operations Maggie Porteous said: “It has been pleasing to see sales surpassing the £100m mark for the second time this month with strong figures coming from both our shops and online.

“We have been up against tough comparisons this week with Black Friday falling into a different week this year – but looking at the two year figure of +13.3% sales are encouraging.”

John Lewis’ Christmas TV advert has been viewed 8.3 million times on YouTube.