CALLED TO ACCOUNT

guidance for group pre-tax profits for the year to January 2018 from

£717 million to £725m on the back of the better-than-expected sales figures.

John Lewis announced commendable year-on-year growth in festive sales yesterday but noted pressure on profit margins. Looking ahead, it forecast “volatile” trading given the economic environment.

Meanwhile, amid straitened household finances, supermarket groups including Wm Morrison and Sainsbury have also turned in creditable performances. Tesco yesterday unveiled a year-on-year rise in festive sales, although the scale of this disappointed the City. It was interesting to observe Wm Morrison’s emphasis of the importance of pricing, in what is a fiercely competitive sector.

Many email inboxes will be packed with evidence of retailers’ general recognition of the price-sensitivity of consumers in these grim times. Flash sales, discount codes, and extra price reductions on sale or full-price stock or both will have over-run some consumers’ inboxes in recent weeks.

The tough times for retailers are not all about the woeful economic backdrop. The breakdown of Next’s figures highlights the pressures on the high street from structural change in the retail sector, and the growth of online sales.

Next has long been regarded by the City as something of a trailblazer in omnichannel retailing, having finessed its online offering early on.

Sales in Next’s retail stores in the 54 days to December 24 were down by 6.1 per cent on the same period of the previous year. So the overall year-onyear rise in sales was driven by Next’s online offering. The retailer’s full-price online sales over this key festive trading period were up by 13.6 per cent on the same period of 2016.

Of course, those traditional retailers