John Lewis & Partners beats the department store blues as it takes home four awards in the GlobalData customer satisfaction awards 2019

John Lewis & Partners wins four GlobalData Customer Satisfaction awards, including the most prestigious Best Retailer category, having been runner-up for the past four years 

  • Investing in its own-brand and exclusives has paid-off for the department store as it takes home four awards including Best Electricals Retailer and Best Homewares Retailer.
     
  • The athleisure trend shows no sign in slowing down, with Adidas and Nike winning Best Clothing Retailer and Best Footwear Retailer respectively. It highlights that brands are successfully cutting out the middleman and engaging directly with their customers.
     
  • There was polarisation in the Best Food & Grocery Retailer award with winner Aldi, triumphing with its focus on price while Waitrose & Partners with its premium focus coming in third.

John Lewis & Partners is the most successful retailer at this year’s Customer Satisfaction awards

Patrick O’Brien, UK retail research director at GlobalData Retail remarks, “While its department stores peers have struggled, John Lewis’s brave store investment strategy has paid off, creating highly enjoyable places to shop. Its high standards of service across stores and online, together with its continuing commitment to price matching, clearly resonates with shoppers.”

Online pureplays Amazon and AO had stopped John Lewis & Partners from winning Best Electricals Retailer for the past two years, but the department store finally pipped them to the post in 2019. John Lewis & Partners investment in range and service in its home and electricals categories, combined with its online offer, is paying off as its customers enjoy exclusive products and strong service levels.

Sportswear brands show retailers how it is done

Maureen Hinton, global research director at GlobalData Retail remarks, “The ability of sportswear brands to win the highest level of customer satisfaction is down to their complete understanding of their customers; their capacity to connect with them; and to create products and experiences that fit current consumer trends and how they want to shop now.”

The sportswear market is forecast to grow 20.9% over the next five years, and investment by brands such as Nike and Adidas are an integral part of this market’s success. These brands that sell directly to consumers and through popular retailers such as JD Sports are in tune with their customers’ demands, ensuring that online and instore environments are tailored to their needs as well as including engaging content. This has ensured that Adidas has won Best Clothing retailer 2019 and Nike has won Best footwear Retailer 2019.

Polarisation in the top three Best Food Retailers

While Aldi and Lidl take first and second place respectively, this year Waitrose & Partners has pipped ASDA (2018 third place retailer) to the post. Historically, value-focused food retailers have performed well in these awards but the inclusion of Waitrose & Partners highlights that when high quality food is done well, consumers are willing to make the investment. Waitrose has also devoted time to sustainability with this being well received by its customers as the premium grocer aims to eliminate all unnecessary plastic from its stores and make all its own-brand packaging either reusable or widely recyclable.

Award Winner Second Third
Best Retailer John Lewis & Partners Nike Amazon
Best Online Pureplay Amazon AO ASOS
Best Online Fulfilment Retailer Boohoo Group Marks & Spencer Superdrug
Best Food Retailer Aldi Lidl Waitrose & Partners
Best Clothing Retailer Adidas Amazon ASOS
Best Footwear Retailer Nike Amazon Marks & Spencer
Best Electricals Retailer John Lewis & Partners Amazon AO
Best Homewares Retailer John Lewis & Partners IKEA Marks & Spencer
Best Furniture Retailer John Lewis & Partners IKEA Argos
Best Health & Beauty Retailer Lush Home Bargains Wilko
Best DIY & Gardening Retailer Screwfix Argos Wilko

These calculations are based on what customers have told us in the consumer research we conduct for this series only: no calculations are based on what we think or feel about the retailers ourselves, it only comes from the people who actually shop at the stores.

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