John Lewis Christmas ad prompts online rush for penguins Stuart Baldry, who runs gardens2u, an online store on eBay selling garden ornaments, was completely unprepared for the sudden increase in sales of his cast iron penguin ornament. "In October, we sold maybe 20 of them," he said. After the advert aired, we sold 50 and it is still one of our best-selling items. It's not the time of year we usually have lots of customers searching for penguin garden ornaments. According to Baldry, his sales are frequently affected by television trends. "One year, the big silver spheres we sell were put in the Big Brother garden," he says. We saw a huge spike in sales. Stuart Baldry with his best-selling penguins NotOnTheHighStreet.com, a UK-based marketplace for bespoke or handmade goods, has reported a 150pc increase in sales of penguin products since the ad went live. The best-selling products are a personalised "Penguins In Love" print and a penguin wine rack. Online marketplace Etsy said it "observed a considerable lift in penguin-related searches from the UK compared with the last three weeks in October." The penguin wine rack available on NotOnTheHighStreet.com