• Customers offered bookable shopping slots and virtual queuing in shops
• Shops to be given flexibility to extend trading hours  
• Click & Collect car park collections available at over 30 locations, self check-in collection available at 98 Waitrose shops.

John Lewis has announced 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 will be able to pre-book their visit online to any John Lewis shop including those in Scotland and Wales prior to arrival.

From 2nd December, customers can visit johnlewis.com and pre-book a slot to visit their local shop up to 14 days in advance of their visit. They will receive a confirmation email once they have booked and will be asked to show this on arrival at their chosen shop. They will be sent a reminder 24 hours in advance of their shopping slot. For those visiting a John Lewis shop, if there are queues outside, customers may be added to a virtual queue by a Partner who will provide them with a timeframe around when they should return to enter the shop.

In addition to more than 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 where they 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.

Pippa Wicks, Executive Director, John Lewis says: “We’re excited to reopen our shops in England and 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 it’s 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 and we hope that they will bring our customers some Christmas cheer as they prepare for the festive season”.

To help spread footfall over a longer period so customers can continue to shop safely, John Lewis shops will have the option to extend trading hours in the run up to Christmas to give them greater flexibility. Customers are advised to check times of individual shops online at JohnLewis.com.

Shops are 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 and the heart umbrella, which features in this year’s Christmas advert. 100% 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, or they can make a text or online donation which will be match-funded by the Partnership up to £2m.

£1m will also be donated by shop Partners to charities who support families in their local communities.

Customers can learn more about the safety measures we have in our branches by visiting our website – https://www.johnlewis.com/customer-services/shops-reopening

The majority of shops will be open from 9am-5pm on Christmas Eve. Our shops will be closed as usual on Boxing Day (with the exception of Trafford) and New Year’s Day.