32-33 PG&H John Lewis.qxp_Grid 18/12/2023 20:49 Page 2
FACE TO FACE: JOHN LEWIS & PARTNERS Explaining what defines a lifestyle collection, Jason says it’s an opportunity for customers to immerse themselves in every element of a brand. “Sara Miller is a good example, with products ranging from hand creams that address the beauty side to products for the home.” Of course, lifestyle brands are all different, and as Jason points out, “It’s not one size fits all.” He cites Tinc as an example of a stationery-focused children’s brand that does fun, novelty products, which include pens, erasers, backpacks and lighting, and Stackers which offers stackable jewellery boxes and accessories where there’s an emphasis on storage and travel. Another favourite is Caroline Gardner, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in Autumn 2023, with JL having an ongoing collaboration with the company for almost three decades. “Although the brand originally started out with greeting cards, which we still stock, the company has also had great success within their homewares sector – especially mugs, plates, coasters and double oven gloves – which are loved by our customers.” While Caroline Gardner is a well-established brand, an exciting new gifting brand for JL is Elizabeth Scarlett. “The company creates velvet pouches and wash bags embroidered with animals,” explains Jason. “It’s a very ethical, sustainable brand too, with 2% of the profits donated to wildlife charities. We know that our customers love animals, so there’s an important synergy. In collaboration
with other JL pure buyers, products in the gifting collection include wrapping paper and crackers. It’s a stretch across several categories, rather than solely a focus on gifting,” Jason highlights. Additional favourites also include Katie Loxton, with the retailer about to introduce the brand’s new Birthstone pouches as a JL exclusive for Spring. “We also offer Katie Loxton sentiment product that’s directed to the recipient, such as a mum mug, grandma mug, friendship mug etc,” Jason adds. Encouragingly for JL there’s been a return to the weekend shopper, with families regularly having a day out at one of the stores. “Within the lifestyle brands that I’m buying for, customers are looking for the perfect edit the curation of perfect gifts from each of the companies.” He says that despite the cost-of-living crisis, gifting is up at JL, showing growth on the year. “People are buying as normal and we’re expecting that to continue, as we offer something for everyone and for all budgets.” Jason says what he loves most about his job, is
What’s Trending: Spring/Summer 2024 John Lewis prides itself on setting the trends rather the following them, with Jason highlighting travel as the biggest trend for Spring/Summer 2024. “Post pandemic, people are delighted to be able to travel again, so we will be introducing travel-related products from brands such as Katie Loxton (sunglasses and passport covers), along with travel manicure sets, wash bags and shoe shine kits from men’s gifting brand Gentleman’s Hardware, (a sub brand of Designworks Collective), all with the recipient in mind,” says Jason. Also trending at JL are alcohol gifts, with Gentlemen’s Hardware tapping into this trend too, offering whisky stones, whisky tumblers and beer glasses which tie in with JL’s alcohol collections. Post-pandemic, wellbeing too, remains a strong trend. Explains Jason: “In the gifting space, I’m looking for product for customers who come in to buy a gift, but also self-purchase at the same time.” Seasonality is also becoming a bigger trend across all occasions throughout the year, with customers not only celebrating Christmas, but also Valentine’s, Mother’s Day, Easter and Halloween which are all becoming bigger events. “Easter in particular has become a much bigger event, where we offer Easter trees, decorations, crackers and more,” Jason confirms. “Plus, we also do Autumn-scaping, with people wanting to put a wreath on their front door. It starts with an Autumnal wreath in September and goes through to Halloween in November, and then Christmas in December. There’s no reason to stop decorating and stop celebrating.”
PROGRESSIVE
33
GIFTS & HOME
Inset: Whisky stones from Gentlemen’s Hardware. Bottom: Elizabeth Scarlett is a new JL lifestyle collection. Below center: Caroline Gardner homewares.
working with a cross-section of brands, with creativity a big part of his role. “I love working with people and collaborating,” he states. “Working on collections is very much about creativity, and it revolves around what I can create through those collaborations. My art education was about aesthetics, understanding colours, shapes and trends as well as analytics. Buying is quite similar because it’s a balance of both creativity and analytics so it actually suits me perfectly.”