John Lewis is launching an online chatshow and social media studio to help make itself and its products more visible to chatbots and more prominent in AI search results.
The department store chain’s Gift List “vodcast” hosted by the TV presenter Angela Scanlon will air on YouTube with clips disseminated via other social media channels and comes after the success of its sister chain Waitrose’s Dish podcast.
The premise is guests discussing good and bad presents they have given and received, with the broadcaster Louis Theroux appearing on the first show. There will be six episodes running up to Christmas, with more planned if the series takes off.
Shoppers are increasingly influenced by the likes of ChatGPT and Gemini to find and recommend products and also by information on social media such as Instagram and TikTok. The AI large language models tend to prioritise third-party advice and live content when formulating their responses, which is forcing retailers to change their marketing plans.
The department store’s outgoing boss, Peter Ruis, said that a year ago just 0.3% of its customers were searching for products via AI large language models such as ChatGPT, but that had already risen to 2.5%, and usage was growing exponentially with all ages using the technology.
Being able to rapidly respond to trends and interests with clips of influencers or experts filmed for social media – such as the opening of the British Museum’s Bayeux tapestry exhibition, which is expected to spur an interest in cross stitching, or the launch of the Harry Potter TV series before Christmas – has become just as important as the group’s festive TV ad or its ‘never knowingly undersold’ price pledge.
Ruis, who departs John Lewis this weekend after almost three years as managing director, said John Lewis had to move with the times as it faced an economy which was “a bit swirly”.
He said the chancellor’s budget announcements next month would come at a “critical period” for retailers and he wanted to see more help on business rates.
Ruis said strong trading this week and a string of recent innovations, including modernised cafes and sports departments as well as the social media push and a recent “toy boom”, made him optimistic about the run-up to Christmas.
Details of John Lewis’s half-year figures will be released next week. Ruis said it had been a “summer of winners and losers” but indicated there was now “decent momentum” as shoppers still had money to spend.
The chain rang up record sales of garden furniture, fans and air conditioning over the summer but Ruis said it was not yet clear if the “Burnham bounce” over the summer would last. “People are not going to splurge when you have got inflation swirling,” he said.
“It’s not an easy economy. It’s not easy for customers and inflation is kicking in and the fuel pump is costing people a lot of money.”
Ruis last month announced his abrupt departure, saying he was going to “pursue new projects”. He gave no further clue on his future plans on Thursday but said there was “no misalignment” on strategy with John Lewis’s relatively new chair, Jason Tarry.
“We are getting things done at pace,” Ruis said, adding there was “never a good time” to leave but it was “far better to leave a winning team at the top of its game and all that excitement with events next year to unveil, rather than finishing bottom of the league and running out of the door”.
Ruis insisted his departure did not indicate that he had lost hope in the future of John Lewis, saying it was not a traditional department store reliant on fashion and beauty like Harvey Nichols, which was bought out of administration by Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group last month.
He said John Lewis sold a third of all UK prams and pushchairs, garden furniture and the latest technology and “this is not stuff Harvey Nichols can sell”.
