John Lewis is carrying out measures to ensure customers can shop safely and conveniently both in-store and online in the final weeks before Christmas. These include the opportunity to book timed shopping slots in advance when it reopens its shops across England. Customers can pre-book their visit online to any John Lewis shop, including those in Scotland and Wales.
From 2 December, customers can visit John Lewis’ website and pre-book a slot to visit their local shop. This can be done up to 14 days in advance. They will receive a confirmation email once they have booked, which they will have to show on arrival. Customers will also be sent a reminder 24 hours in advance of their shopping slot.
For those visiting a John Lewis store, if there are queues outside, customers may be added to a virtual queue. A Partner will then provide the customer with a timeframe around when they should return.
As well as 900 Click & Collect locations available across the UK, customers can also collect their Click & Collect orders from 15 Waitrose and 16 John Lewis car parks.
Customers can simply stay in their car while a Partner brings their purchases out to them. Self-check-in for Click & Collect is also available at 98 Waitrose shops where customers can check in to collect their parcel via their personal device.
Commenting is Pippa Wicks, executive director, John Lewis. “We’re excited to reopen our shops in England. We’re looking forward to welcoming back our customers to help them make this Christmas extra special.
“Our priority is to make sure that they are able to shop as safely and easily as they can; whether in our shops or online, while continuing to be delighted and inspired by our Christmas offer.
“While the nation is famous for its love of queuing, we want to make sure that as temperatures drop, our customers have the chance to do their Christmas shopping in a comfortable, convenient way, however they choose to shop with us.
“Our Partners have been busy making our shops look and feel as festive as ever. We hope that they will bring our customers some Christmas cheer as they prepare for the festive season”.
To help safely spread footfall over a longer period, John Lewis shops will have the option to extend trading hours in the run-up to Christmas.
Shops are also supporting the John Lewis and Waitrose ‘Give A Little Love’ campaign, which is aiming to raise £4m for two charities: FareShare, which helps those facing food poverty and Home-Start, which works with parents who need support.
Customers will be able to buy ‘Give A Little Love’ products ranging from mugs to T-shirts. Plus, the heart umbrella, which features in this year’s Christmas advert.
One hundred per cent of the profits from the sale of these products will be donated to the charities. Customers will also be able to boost donations by swiping their loyalty card in-store to trigger a donation by the Partnership. Alternatively, they can make a text or online donation that will be match-funded by the Partnership up to £2m.
£1m will also be donated by shop Partners to charities that support families in their local communities.
