John Lewis boss ‘optimistic’ for Christmas despite ‘perma crisis externally’

The outgoing boss of John Lewis says he remains “optimistic” ahead of Christmas despite the “perma crisis externally” affecting consumers.Peter Ruis, who is set to step down this month “to pursue new projects”, acknowledged that the economy is not one for splurging as the department store chain unveiled a raft of investment including a studio to boost its festive social feeds.Mr Ruis said: “I’m pretty optimistic about Christmas.“The perma crisis externally isn’t going to go away.“Obviously people still have money but it’s tough out there, isn’t it? I’m someone with graduate and teenage kids. I think I read recently there are 10 and a half thousand graduate jobs compared to 60 or 70 thousand five or six years ago, so a lot of our key customers in their 40s and 50s are worrying about their kids and having them at home.“There’s a lot of pressures in the economy. There’s a sense of interest rates possibly going up and all sorts of challenges.“John Lewis sells lots and lots of things and I think you have to be very careful with what you buy. The beauty is that people are still buying really good stuff but it isn’t an economy where you’re going to splurge, when you’ve got that inflation swirling around you.”Mr Ruis was speaking at the launch of The Box Studio inside the chain’s Oxford Street flagship store, which will provide a hub for video and social content in a trial that will run until Christmas.John Lewis said digital assistants and social platforms were now the fastest-growing channels through which customers find products, rather than traditional searches.About 60% of sales are online, with a growing number of its 13 million customers first encountering new products via video.Referring to the retailer’s Christmas ad, chief customer officer Anna Braithwaite said: “We have shown every Christmas for nearly 20 years that we can make something people choose to watch.“What we have not been able to do until now is do it all year round, quickly, and at the pace social moves.Read More“Customers have trusted John Lewis for a very long time, and that is worth more in this channel than any amount of production.”The studio’s first content is a vodcast series titled Gift List, hosted by Angela Scanlon, which talks to celebrities about their experiences giving and receiving gifts.The studio is part of an £800 million multi-year programme covering all 36 John Lewis shops and the retailer’s digital channels.Recent investment at Oxford Street includes Platter John Lewis, a 300-seat restaurant that opened in August with an in-house coffee roastery and bar and a new sport and wellness department.Elsewhere, the chain is investing £50 million across five shops this year, including a £20 million redevelopment of John Lewis Glasgow, the retailer’s largest single-shop investment in recent years, alongside Cambridge, Leicester, Reading and Liverpool.