Retail will take centre stage on prime time ITV tonight as companies including Very and John Lewis discuss their plans for the festive period in ‘Christmas Shopping Wars’.

The programme, which airs at 7.30pm on ITV1, features Very owner Shop Direct’s group retail and strategy director Gareth Jones and John Lewis director of selling, north and new format Maggie Porteous discussing how they are preparing in the run-up to Christmas and how consumers shopping habits are changing.

It will focus on how shopping has transformed in the past forty years, particularly looking at the growth of online shopping over the past four years and the ways the high street has had to adapt to survive.

Jones will talk about the growth of etail business Very and why not having stores works for it while Porteous will highlight John Lewis’ multichannel approach and some of its innovations in store.