New John Lewis boss Peter Ruis has made quite the statement by bringing back its ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ price promise, two years after the department store scrapped it.
The first major move since he joined in January indicates that Ruis – who previously spent 10 years at the department store – is refocusing on what makes John Lewis special.
“As of Monday, we are bringing back Never Knowingly Undersold,” says Ruis. “This is our brand and has always been our brand. It’s about the quality we offer, it’s about the service we offer, and it’s about the prices we offer.”
He describes its return as “the best of old and best of new”, adding “it’s back and it’s going to be a lot better and different to before”.
The “reimagined” pledge will see the department store use AI to match its prices to those at 25 major retailers – including, for the first time, online brands.
The return of what some say is the best of John Lewis is being supported by the retailer’s “biggest ever marketing campaign” and the start of more than 650 store improvements being rolled out across its entire store network.
A new and improved Never Knowingly Undersold
Ruis admits that Never Knowingly Undersold was “not fit for purpose” when it was ditched in 2022, as staff were left relying on pencils, spreadsheets, and trips to other shops to keep track of prices at competitors.
He says there was “confusion” about how the price pledge worked, adding that it was based too much on a “pre-web, pre-omnichannel world”.
However, he admits the move to focus on everyday quality and value instead – spearheaded by his predecessor Pippa Wicks – had backfired.
“When we removed the price promise, people automatically assumed that all prices went up…that wasn’t necessarily the case,” Ruis says.
The executive director is hoping to change customer perceptions with a new improved and simplified price promise.
“We’ve invested a multi-million pound contract with a new technology called Quicklizard,” he says, explaining that the tech is “AI enabled and allows us to scrape all prices, every minute, every second of every day, and it gives our teams a chance to see in real-time with complete visibility, complete accuracy”.
The software allows the retailer to be “more dynamic” on pricing, with store staff able to update price tickets daily.
“It’s sharpened-up price in a more everyday fashion rather than customers waiting for the big offer,” he says. “You’ll see how dynamic and how competitive they are from today,” he says, noting that the team have made 30,000 price changes so far ahead of its official launch on Monday.
The retailer will be price matching “25 major competitors over £50bn worth of competitive trade with a seven day price mechanism,” Ruis says.
The brands being matched are: AO.com, Amazon (on technology), Apple, Argos, Asos, Boots, Currys, Dunelm, Dreams, The Entertainer, Fenwick, Flannels, Furniture Village, Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Heal’s, House of Fraser, Lakeland, M&S, Mama’s & Papa’s, Next, Richer Sounds, Selfridges, Smyths Toys, and Space NK.
In short, the businesses that are likely to have been stealing share from John Lewis in recent years.
“They are the top competitors,” says Ruis. “Why are they top competitors? Because they’re either the market leader or they’re where our customer shops elsewhere.”
John Lewis is also providing a 7-day price promise, where customers can come into stores or file an online claim form if they find the product cheaper elsewhere to get the difference refunded for a week after purchasing the product in store.
Back with a bang
Restoring John Lewis’ ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ pledge was one of the first things on Ruis’ to-do list after returning to the Partnership at the start of the year, he shares.
“I joined in January [and] we started discussing it very strongly in February…It’s been an extreme fast track from about February,” he says, adding its relaunch coincides with the pledge turning 100 next year.
“This is not just a price promise,” Ruis makes clear. “This is about the relaunch of Never Knowingly Undersold, which is about our brand and why it’s so special and so different.”
This includes double page spreads in national newspapers, changes in store and three big ads, which “talk about how John Lewis has worked with the public over 100 years, looking forwards and looking backwards,” says Ruis.
He hopes the new campaign will restore trust in the John Lewis brand among customers to deliver on quality, price and service.
While the John Lewis boss is tight-lipped on how much the retailer is investing in the relaunch, the Partnership revealed earlier this year that it would inject £542m into strengthening its John Lewis and Waitrose brands.
Refreshing John Lewis stores
As well as Never Knowingly Undersold, investment is also being made into John Lewis’ stores. Ruis plans to make more than 650 store improvements, which will apply to the whole estate.
“We’re about four weeks away from launching the new beauty section [in Oxford Street],” he says, explaining the new design will include “a combination of changing the brands around in terms of their new concepts and new brands that we’re increasing distribution of”.
The space dedicated to premium fragrance will grow and a new part of the floor will be allocated to what the department store calls “beauty discovery”, which Ruis describes as “that SpaceNK/Sephora-type world”.
The Oxford Street flagship is one of three stores receiving a makeover of its beauty department, with Cheadle in Stockport and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire set to follow.
John Lewis’ technology department is also getting a revamp and expanding in size, with Ruis sharing “we’ve got a new AI-inspired and PC Laptop rollout coming across the estate”.
Changes will also be brought into its fashion department, which will take inspiration from the concessions model used in its beauty department to boost brand perception.
In another major move that shows that Ruis is looking to improve John Lewis’ other big USP of service, he is vying to bring more partners on the shop floor after the business restructured its store staffing last month.
“I see the opportunity for us to use our staff on the floor in a more effective way,” says Ruis, explaining that John Lewis has “simplified back of house” with the help of a multi-million pound investment into store technology.
The investment includes over 6,000 new digital headsets to help cut wait times and remove the need for staff to have to track each other down in the branch, as well as mobile printers to to allow partners to easily replace missing shelf-edge labels.
Other technology rollouts include a new ship-from-store technology, “which means that everything in our 36 stores will become available for our customers online,” says Ruis.
“It’ll be completely friction free – you won’t know that that your T-shirt has arrived from our Cardiff store or has arrived from our DC in Milton Keynes. It’ll just be virtual and will make online service really good.”
Ruis says the retailer’s online offer will also be bolstered by shipping direct from suppliers. He says this new “direct-to-consumer platform”, will be quicker and will give customers a greater choice from its best brands.
While the John Lewis alumni does not mind looking back and reinstating the important elements that make the department store special, Ruis is also looking to new technologies and ways of selling to make this unique business fit for the modern age.
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