Department store operator House of Fraser, majority owned by a Chinese conglomerate, has joined John Lewis in reporting strong Christmas sales driven by record levels of online shopping.

The department store chain reported an 8 per cent rise in like-for-like sales in the six weeks to January 3, compared to the same time last year, it said in a trading statement on Tuesday.

Online sales rose by over 31 per cent in the period, compared to an increase of 4.2 per cent in its physical stores. On Black Friday, the retailer said online sales were up 125 per cent on the previous year’s event, and total sales were nearly 70 per cent higher than its previous largest online sales day.

The online boost does not bode well for high street stalwart Marks and Spencer, which is due to report its Christmas trading figures on Thursday. Analysts expect a 3 per cent fall in underlying quarterly sales, as it was hurt by problems with its online distribution centre.

On Monday, its shares fell more than 4 per cent upon news of John Lewis’s strong online Christmas, and in early trading on Tuesday, they dipped 1.4 per cent to 450p.

Reducing the temptation to discount in the week before Christmas meant House of Fraser delivered a 6.8 per cent improvement in its gross margin for this period compared to the previous year, it said without giving the improved figure.

Nick Bubb, an independent analyst, said that House of Fraser has been “quite clever” over discounting by avoiding a price-matching battle with rivals such as Debenhams and John Lewis.

He added: “Unfortunately, House of Fraser still doesn’t really make any money and that is because of the rising costs of online distribution and fulfilment, as flagged in their third quarter results back on 10 December.

John King, chief executive, said that the company expected to report “further growth in full-year earnings” as a result.

“This positive momentum continued over the entire critical selling period with a record sales level during the final week before Christmas,” he said. “With the record sales and margin performance in the period and a close focus on operational efficiencies, we expect to report a further growth in fullyear earnings. We will continue to invest in our online proposition and as a result we expect to continue to see sales growth from this channel.”

Last April, Chinese conglomerate Sanpower acquired an 89 per cent stake in the chain in a deal worth £480m. The deal came a week after Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley bought an 11 per cent stake which was previously held by the Scottish entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter.

Previously, the store was majority-owned by representatives of the failed Icelandic banks Landsbanki and Glitnir.

The group reported annual sales of £1.2bn in 2013-14 were £1.2bn, excluding VAT.