In terms of brand perception, John Lewis has trumped a number of other major retailers and organisations in a new study conducted by YouGov.

Analysts assessed the ‘health’ of hundreds of brands across a range of criteria, including things like customer satisfaction, value for money and the likelihood of shoppers choosing to recommend them to friends and family.

While John Lewis took the top spot, second place went to the BBC’s popular streaming service, iPlayer. Meanwhile, Marks & Spencer was in joint third position, sharing it with tech giant, Sony.

Amazon, the company which helped to popularise safe shopping online in the UK, was ranked as the fifth healthiest brand. Just entering the top 10 was Boots, rounding off a British list which suggests that long standing stores and organisations hold greater sway than newcomers.

This unusual state of affairs is highlighted further by the fact that on a global level, the most trusted and relied-upon brands are not well-established names that have been operating for decades, but the great and good of the internet age. This includes search provider, Google, and social media titan, Facebook.

Consumers from the UK may love safe shopping online, but their brand loyalties clearly lie with the companies and services they grew up experiencing in a pre-digital age. This means that John Lewis, M&S and Boots have been able to make the leap to safe shopping online successfully without diluting the impact of their branding in the e-commerce market.

What is especially impressive about John Lewis’ position at the top of the brand health rankings this year is that it has a strong lead over all of its rivals. It is clearly doing a lot of things right and will, no doubt, remain a trend-setter in the world of retail.