John Lewis Case Study
Who?
John Lewis is a chain of upmarket department
stores operating throughout Great Britain. The chain is owned by the John Lewis
Partnership. The first John Lewis store was opened in 1864 in Oxford Street,
London. John Lewis is
different, because – unlike these other institutions like the Co-op, it is
owned not by its customers but by its staff.
Application:
The company, which shares a proportion of its
profits with staff every year, is investing in the latest online technology and
new concepts such as a drive-through facility for collecting groceries ordered
on line as well as ensuring its department stores look good enough to host
up-market beauty brands alongside its traditional home, electrical’s and
fashion ranges.
It also works hard to make sure online customers don't feel
short-changed. "The crucial part of service online is the last
mile," MD Andy Street explains in the documentary. "We have to bring
the service into online." He does this by making delivery options
perfectly tailored to customers' wants and by making sure the standards of
expertise are carried through onto the website. So the site has loads of handy
podcasts and advice guides.
John Lewis Oxford Street is the first department
store in the world to be fully mapped by Google Street View. Designed by Ideal
Insight, the new service will involve over 500 panoramas, allowing customers to
navigate the retailer’s flagship shop and virtually walk through the aisles. If
the trial is successful, there could be a roll-out to other branches in the
next two years.
Meanwhile, this month John Lewis Cheadle, John
Lewis Brent Cross will trial in-store transactional tablets - enabling
customers to skip the queues at till banks and make their purchases directly
with the Partner (member of staff) who advised them. The tablets will be fully
linked to the shop’s till systems, allowing customers to complete their purchase
in the shop or arrange home delivery. They will be trialled in a number of
departments including technology and white goods.
Successful?
·
In the face of persistent economic head winds, Waitrose
has been growing at twice the rate of its major supermarket rivals while its
sister John Lewis department stores are a constant nail in the shoe of rival
Marks & Spencer, which is losing market share as the partnership strides
confidently on.
·
John Lewis is expected to reveal a 17pc rise in profits to
£415m after a 10pc rise in sales to £8.5bn for the year to January.
·
Last
year Which? Member’s voted John Lewis best high street retailer; this year they
gave the award to Waitrose. A poll of 6,000 people by Verdict Research in 2008
named John Lewis "Britain's favourite retailer".
·
To
its customers, John Lewis’s success lies in their service. They have
distinguished themselves by having salespeople who actually know about the products
they’re selling and make the shopping experience a pleasure.
·
John Lewis's latest Christmas
campaign prompted its biggest response on Twitter yet, with 80% of nearly
90,000 mentions praising the TV ad. The ad, ‘The Bear and
the Hare’, debuted on ITV’s ‘The X Factor’ on Saturday night 9
November and prompted 86,300 mentions on Twitter over the weekend, according to
research from agency We Are Social. This was up from 66,800 mentions, or 29%,
from its launch weekend last year – some way short of the stellar 265% increase
in conversations between 2011 and 2012. Mentions peaked at 31,200 between 8pm
and 9pm on Saturday evening, with 4,700 tweets sent between 8:17pm and 8:18 pm
alone. Of the tweeters, 30% were male and 70% were female.
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