Most retailers survived Christmas - but did their profits? - Telegraph Nick Bubb, the veteran retail analyst, said: "Apart from Tesco, we had only one profit warning - when a company was forced to bring forward their Christmas trading update. That was Game. That suggests there really was a late, dazzling dash by the consumer to spend money in December. Dunelm Mill and Greggs, the bakery chain which enjoyed excellent trade in December, were just two of the retailers gracious enough to admit the lack of snow in December, compared with the treacherous conditions on the high streets in 2010, had been a real boost to trade. Neil Saunders, at the retail consultancy Conlumino, said: "Fashion was pretty solid, but in some ways a lot of it was delayed spending that just hadn't happened in October and November." The December sales figures were undoubtedly better than expected - especially at the clothing chains, which were widely believed to be suffering badly following the unreasonably warm weather in September and October, which had left warehouses and shelves full of unsold winter coats, scarves and boots. "Maybe there were so few profit warnings in January, because we got the warnings and downgrades out of the way before Christmas," said Richard Perks, long-time retail analyst at Mintel. But putting these caveats aside, it's worth highlighting John Lewis; House of Fraser; Mulberry; Burberry, Superdry and Ted Baker as some of the best performing clothing chains. Aurora Fashions, which owns the 765 Whistles, Coast and Oasis shops, enjoyed an amazing 13pc increase in sales during December, as its middle class customers splashed out on new party dresses. John Lewis, hailed by nearly all analysts as one of the biggest winners, put much of its success down to a better range of clothes and relatively wealthy clientele. But Mr Bubb points out that John Lewis's bumper figures were in fact "a tale of two cities. Without online where would they be? Conversely, Next appears as a loser in the graph above, but that's because its high street stores suffered badly. Its online and catalogue sales, however, were good. On Thursday, IMRG the trade body for online retailers, confirmed that retail websites enjoyed a sparkling December, with sales up by 16.5p, and more than one in every six pounds now spent online. This was one of the lessons of Christmas, analysts say: to thrive retailers need a genuine multi-channel strategy, combining both a good website as well as plenty of stores, a tactic espoused by John Lewis and Next. But if that is right, why did Argos do so badly, posting an 8.8pc fall in like-for-like sales? It has a slick website, and - web designers say - one of the best mobile phone "apps," combined with an extensive store portfolio. Mr Saunders said: "Next and John Lewis's shops arguably drive a lot of traffic to their websites. The stores support their online operation. But the Argos shops are so poor. I can't imagine they inspire any of the shoppers to visit the website. Another loser, most analysts agree, was Marks & Spencer's clothes and gift sales. Mr Perks said: "I thought M&S was poor. It really wasn't a bad Christmas for fashion at all. And in that context flat like-for-likes was disappointing and it was discounting an awful lot. M&S's performance demonstrates the difficulty with all of these Christmas trading figures - they are sales numbers, not profits. Matalan, for instance, enjoyed a bumper 9.9pc increase in trading during the final five weeks of the year, but it admits that this was partly driven by substantial discounts. Next's sales look poor, but we know that it is likely to report a decent increase in profits. Philip Dorgan, at Panmure Gordon, said: "People focus on like-for-like sales but when you give away product, you give away profits. I do wonder about how many of these brands have been dented by all the discounting that went on. Despite the iPad and Kindle being two of the most popular Christmas presents in the UK, the biggest losers on the high street were electricals shops. Dixons managed to keep its margins in tact, but Comet's performance was very weak. Even worse, though, were HMV and Game, the video games retailer. The increasing move of supermarkets into non-food, and the rise and rise of Amazon, suggests life will only get tougher.