John Lewis sales were up 9.3% to £60m in the week to May 26 as summer “finally arrived across the country”.

The department store bellwether said it experienced a shift in assortment performance.

The start of the week delivered the biggest increase, John Lewis said, with Monday to Wednesday showing double percentage increases.

The retailer said its competitor price match and summer-related sales made a “significant contribution to the results”.

The best performing category was electricals home and technology, surging 17.3%,

Fashion was up 10.7%, with childrenswear rocketing 33.1% and shoes up 59%. Womenswear “benefited from the weather and price matching”.

Home was also up, rising 4.1%, with increasing 20%.

John Lewis said that as customers enjoyed the warm weather, many customers opted to shop online, where sales were up 46%.

David Barford, director, selling operations, Region B, said: “This week with the weather returning to more seasonal normality we still have all to play for with some extremely compelling seasonal promotions and, of course, the Jubilee weekend.” 

At sister retaielr Waitrose the warm weather and the run-up to the Diamond Jubilee weekend helped drive the strongest week’s sales of the year, excluding Easter.

Sales at the upmarket grocer were up 7.8% to £112.5m for the week to 26 May, including a 33% increase in Waitrose.com orders.

The grocer said another Heston Blumenthal-inspired recipe, this time for Diamond Jubilee Strawberry Crumble Crunch, had spurred a sales spike of key ingredients strawberries and cream, up 41% and 65% on last year respectively.

Waitrose also noted that sales of “feel-good litmus test” Pimm’s were up 260% on the same week last year, with record-breaking sales of the quintessentially English tipple predicted for the weekend.