The first company to go public with sales data from its Black Friday sale is John  Lewis, which says it is says it was taking 300 orders every minute between 8am and 8.30am this morning.
The department store has a control room (pictured above) that would not look out of place inside NASA tracking all orders in real time and feeding them through to its distribution warehouses.
The company revealed within hours of Black Friday getting underway that sales through mobile phones saw a particular increase with a 21% spike between 8am and 9am.
No specific sales information was provided about watches, but John Lewis said that its most popular products sold to date include:
- The Sonos Play 1Â as the biggest technology seller, selling one every ten seconds
- The Lego simpsons house as the top seller by value
- Marc Jacobs perfume as a strong seller by volume
- Sophie Conran crockery as the best seller in Home
All John Lewis shops opened their doors at 8am, and some shops will stay open later than usual.
Dino Rocos, lead director and operations director, John Lewis said: “Sales on johnlewis.com exceeded expectations overnight as customers logged on to take advantage of our great Black Friday deals. We expect traffic to continue to the website today but for customers who prefer to visit one of our shops they will open earlier than usual at 8am. Over the weekend we expect to see the usual pattern of trade resume as customers head to our 48 shops.
“We have carefully planned for this year’s Black Friday event to ensure orders can be fulfilled without compromising the customer service and seamless delivery we’re famous for. I’d like to thank our Partners in shops, distribution centres and head office for all of their hard work as we kick-off the countdown to Christmas.”
