Yesterday it was announced that John Lewis is bringing back its ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ price pledge “for the modern age” as of Monday 9 September, two years after abandoning it after it had become “not fit for purpose” in its original format.
The move is being driven by John Lewis Executive Director, Peter Ruis, who rejoined the retailer in January 2024. Ruis was previously at John Lewis between 2005 – 2013 and held various senior roles, including Buying & Brand Director.
He began working on the plan to reintroduce the price pledge in February, and now his vision is coming to fruition. It also has the approval of incoming new John Lewis Chairman, Jason Tarry.
A major component of the new plan is a price match with 25 of John Lewis’s main competitors, including NEXT, M&S, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, Fenwick, Flannels and House of Fraser – both in-store and online. All made possible by John Lewis investing “multi-millions” in a new AI technology called new Quicklizard, which it has trialled with 5,000 customers – amazingly without word getting out to the wider public and press until now.
It means that if a customer is in a John Lewis store and sees a product they like, and then finds it cheaper at one of the other 25 retailers online while searching on their phone, John Lewis staff on the shop floor will instantly match the price. But the technology will allow staff to be one step ahead of the game on pricing anyway.
There will even be a seven-day price promise, so if a customer discovers their purchase cheaper somewhere else in that time period they will be refunded the difference.
Ruis delivered John Lewis’s new strategy to press in some depth yesterday (though there will be more to come when the retailer’s half-year results are announced next Thursday), including revealing its biggest ever marketing spend.
The ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ price pledge will return as of Monday 9 September.
There are to be three new TV commercials, the first of which will air nationally on 19 September featuring actor Samantha Morton and music artist Laura Mvula, celebrating 100 years of Never Knowingly Undersold. The other two will follow in quick succession as the build up to Christmas gains momentum.
There will also be double-page spread advertising in national press as of 9 September, all centred around the reintroduction of Never Knowingly Undersold alongside the retailer’s brand values and “commitment to quality, service and price”.
Ruis said: “I’ve been back (with the business) for seven months, and I’ve been talking to our customers, our partners and our brands, and I’ve been seeing what’s going on in the marketplace.
“The biggest and the most important thing that was called for, was to do something really exciting with our brand. Something about the future that is relevant and radical, but something that is also about the past – and is the purest and most exciting definition of our brand.
“That’s why, as of Monday, we are bringing back Never Knowingly Undersold – 100 years since it was introduced (in 1925). This is our brand promise, and it’s about the quality, service and prices we offer – I’ve always believed that the reason John Lewis is so unique is the combination of the three. It’s also very rare that you can be at a brand that’s got a 100-year brand promise.
“It has always been amazing, it just has to be appropriate for the arena we are in now. It’s not just a throwback, it had to be updated. My philosophy in life and my philosophy in work is to have the best of the old and the best of the new.
“It’s going to be back, but it’s going to be a lot better and different to before. Our agility on price is way ahead of what it has ever been.
“But this is not a drive to more value-led proposition, it’s about being us. It’s more about that everyday price rather than running promotional offers and customers having to wait.”
Ruis said that much has been written about the issues the retailer had two years ago, where there was the Never Knowingly Undersold price promise that hadn’t lasted the test of time. He said customers had got confused. They didn’t know if it was online, in-store or how it worked.
What John Lewis has now done is updated the proposition with a new price mechanism, and it has also tested it with 5,000 customers. Ruis said he’s “amazed” that didn’t leak.
What it revealed is, 87% of customers thought it was clear, simple and easy to use, 75% said it would make them say that John Lewis offers great value for money, and 63% said it would make them more likely to shop with John Lewis.
“I was genuinely amazed by these stats,” said Ruis. “We do offer really great value every day, but this has really sharpened the customers’ perception of us.
“Quality has always been about what we are. We handpick from the best brands and we truly choose our assortment – it’s not a blind marketplace. Typically speaking, our competitors are either opening price, luxury price or stuck in the middle. We offer that lovely combination.”
The department store’s increased focus on beauty comes as the category does “incredibly well” for John Lewis.
Ruis also talked of some 680 investments in store improvements across its retail estate. They include a new jewellery section launching in its Oxford Street flagship store on Monday. It is also only four weeks away from launching a new beauty section in the same store, while its Cheadle and High Wycombe stores are getting a makeover of their beauty departments too.
Shop staff will have the ability to walk from brand to brand to curate an assortment for customers.
Changes are also afoot on the fashion department front. Ruis said they will take inspiration from its beauty concessions model, with “more staff on the shopfloor” as it “brings more partners to the front of house rather than to the back of house”. They will also have greater product knowledge. That includes taking on brand experts for the likes of Ralph Lauren and offering better service in the process. Shopfloor staff will also have the ability to walk from brand-to-brand to create a curated assortment for customers.
New investment in technology means John Lewis will have the biggest use of digital headsets on the shopfloor in Europe, so staff will be much more “connected”. Some 6,000 headsets are being issued, and it is already helping to cut wait times and remove the need for staff to have to track each other down in any given branch. As a result, John Lewis is “already seeing improvements in customer satisfaction scores”.
Ruis says that customers still see John Lewis as number one for service in terms of omnichannel retailers. “We’ve actually got 18,000 Click & Collect points – that’s a lot,” he commented.
“I’m also really excited about two big investments that centre around service coming this year. One of them is new ship from store technology, which means that everything in our 36 stores will become available for our customers online.
“It will be completely friction free – you won’t know that your t-shirt has arrived from our Cardiff store, or from our DC (distribution centre) in Milton Keynes – it will make our online service really good.
“Then we are also investing in a new direct to consumer platform where we can have more of the brands our customers love directly coming from the DC of the brand, which will be quicker and will allow a greater choice of the best brands – directly to our customers.”
Ruis describes John Lewis as “a national treasure”, but reviving the price pledge is not just for sentiment.
Regarding the new price promise, ahead of Monday’s launch there has been approximately 30,000 price changes implemented.
Ruis commented: “We are now going to price match our 25 major competitors – over £50 billion worth of competitive trade, with a seven-day price mechanism. We are proudly creating a very simple mechanism for customers to understand how we match price.
“Why are they the top 25 competitors? Because they are either the market leader or they are where our customer shops elsewhere. So, it is NEXT, it is M&S, Boots, Fenwick – and all of the specialists, whether they are online only or omnichannel. We’ve chosen 25 to make it quick, simple and easy for our customers to understand. It also needs to be relevant in terms of where our customers consider shopping.”
According to Ruis, the 25 selected competitors are not set in stone. They will change over time to make it work and be the most relevant at any given time.
“Why can we make this work?” asked Ruis. “Because we’ve invested in a multi-million pound new technology called Quicklizard. It’s AI enabled and it allows us to compare all prices every minute of every day.
“We know all the prices, we know where they are, and it gives our teams a chance to see in real time – with complete visibility and accuracy. As I said, we’ve been playing with this tool for a few months. We know it works and it allows us to be much more dynamic.
“We’ve talked to our customers and the primary thing around a price promise is believing (in us). They don’t want to be checking the whole time, and this AI tool allows us to give them that reassurance.”
Ruis does concede that “things will go wrong” and that some retailers “change prices five or six times a day”. That’s why he says that, if at any point they do get it wrong, there’s the seven day price promise as a back up.
“A customer can therefore come in the store, show a price online from a competitor, and if we don’t have the right price we will give them the difference straight away,” said Ruis.
“If they’ve bought a product from us, and they’ve discovered the price is not right in the seven-day period, we will refund the difference directly to them depending on their method of payment, whether it was online or in-store. It’s quick, simple and easy.
“This is a brand promise, not just a price promise. It’s about the relaunch of Never Knowingly Undersold – which is about our brand and why it’s so special and different.”
Never Knowingly Undersold was launched publicly in the retailer’s Peter Jones store in Sloane Square in London in 1925, before rolling out to its other shops in 1926 as a promise of great value to customers.
When it was first introduced, the concept was revolutionary, setting John Lewis apart as a retailer that prioritised customer trust and fairness over profit margins.
Ruis describes John Lewis as “a national treasure”, but reviving the price pledge is not just for sentiment. He said it will drive sales, not hit profits. The huge investment the retailer is making to make it work will become very evident in the coming weeks.
Ruis added: “Coming behind this, there’s a huge national advertising campaign that will kick off on 9 September. There will be our biggest ever investment in marketing in the second half of this year. There’s going to be three big [TV] ads, with the first one launching on 19 September.
“It relaunches our brand promise and it talks about how John Lewis has worked with Britain and the public for over 100 years – looking forwards and looking backwards, and it plays on the lovely term ‘Knowingly’, which is at the centre of our promise.”
