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Retailer John Lewis is bringing back its “never knowingly undersold” price pledge from Monday, two years after abandoning it.<\/p>\n
It will also apply to online sales for the first time, whereas it previously only applied to in-store shopping, and will use AI to match the prices of 25 top retailers.<\/p>\n
The department store chain has been trying to win back customers after a tough few years that has seen it cut jobs and close several stores.<\/p>\n
It swung back to profit earlier this year, but is expected to continue shedding jobs as it seeks to revive its fortunes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The decision by John Lewis’ new managing director Peter Ruis to restore the price pledge marks a change of direction from his predecessor.<\/p>\n
“When we removed the price promise, people automatically assumed that all prices went up… that wasn’t necessarily the case,” said Mr Ruis.<\/p>\n
Mr Ruis said the pledge had not been “fit for purpose” in 2022, with staff relying on pencils, spreadsheets, and trips to other shops to keep track of rivals’ prices.<\/p>\n
There was “confusion” about how the century-old price pledge worked, he said, adding that it was based too much on a “pre-web world” where customers were local people.<\/p>\n
His predecessor Pippa Wicks, who ended the pledge, said it at the time that it “doesn’t fit with how customers shop today as more purchases are made online”.<\/p>\n
However, Mr Ruis said improvements in computing and artificial intelligence made the pledge more feasible.<\/p>\n
The new version of the policy will only apply to branded products, with software tracking prices from competitors, including <\/b>Marks & Spencer, House of Fraser, AO.com and technology products on Amazon.<\/p>\n
Analyst Catherine Shuttleworth said the initial decision to scrap the pledge in a cost of living crisis was something “a lot of people were scratching their heads over”.<\/p>\n
She told the BBC the return of the price promise is a win for customers, but it is “impossible to predict” how much it will cost the retailer or whether it will help it win back customers.<\/p>\n
“The challenge will be how easy shoppers find it to use it,” she said.<\/p>\n
Mr Ruis did not give a figure for the cost of reintroducing the pledge when asked by reporters on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Bringing it back was one of his priorities after he joined in January, the retail veteran said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
His appointment this year is his third stint at John Lewis, having previously been a director and a senior buyer at the retailer as well as chief executive of Jigsaw and Anthropologie.<\/p>\n
The news comes as the High Street struggles to recover from the double-whammy of a pandemic and the rise of online shopping, with data from PwC revealing a net loss of 5,000 stores last year.<\/p>\n
Rival department store chain Marks & Spencer has been axing 110 shops as part of a major overhaul, while Debenhams closed its final shop in 2021.<\/p>\n
Debenhams has since been reborn as an online-only brand.<\/p>\n
This is an increasingly common trend, with collapsed retailers Topshop, Cath Kidson, TM Lewin and several others also re-emerging as websites after collapsing as physical chains.<\/p>\n
Topshop currently trades as part of the Asos website. However, on Thursday morning, Asos revealed plans to sell 75% of its stake in Topshop for \u00a3135m.<\/p>\n
The new joint venture intends to relaunch TopShop.com as a standalone website within six months of the deal’s completion.<\/p>\n
Additional reporting by Emer Moreau<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n