Snow at the beginning of the week to February 11 prompted customers of department store group John Lewis to move their shopping online.

It resulted in sales at johnlewis.com rising 43.9 per cent above those of a year ago, and this, despite the fall in store footfall, allowed the retailer to push its total sales figures 4.1 per cent ahead of the same week last year.

David Barford, director of selling operations for John Lewis Region B, called it “an endorsement of our multi-channel approach”.

Again, electricals and home technology outpaced the other two product directorates (fashion and home) “by a mile” with sales 15.9 per cent up on a year ago.

According to Mr Barford, sales of communication technology products soared by 33.1 per cent.

“IT was the pacesetter here,” he said, “with an excellent +60.2 per cent, then consumer electronics accessories at +21 per cent. Electrical achieved a notable +9.8 per cent with vision in the lead at 24.1, helped by the imminent digital switchover [in London and the South-East].”

The John Lewis Partnership also announced that it has appointed Helen Weir as group finance director.

She will join the partnership on April 1 and will take up her new role on June 1 when current group finance director Marisa Cassoni retires.

Ms Weir, who was previously the chief executive of the retail division of Lloyds Banking Group, was a former finance director of B&Q and group finance director of Kingfisher.