Department store John Lewis has announced that it will be launching the Oculus Rift headset in its stores to expand its virtual reality products.

The new product which combines state of the art displays and optics with 360 degree sound will be available online and in stores on 20th September and will be priced at £549 and customers will be able to test the product from the beginning of September at the flagship store in Oxford Street.

Head of buying for electricals at John Lewis, Will Jones, said: “We are very excited to be launching Oculus Rift in the UK. We’ve seen interest in virtual reality rise dramatically in the last few months, with sales of the Samsung Gear VR, powered by Oculus, headset up 310% in the last six weeks alone. The Oculus Rift device is a significant progression in virtual reality technology, set to reinvent how we work and play, and we are proud to offer our customers the chance to experience it first.”

Elsewhere in the business, sales saw a drop of 2.3% year-on-year as a combination of weather and holidays affected footfall.

Figures show that fashion sales dropped 2.6%, however warm weather products did well as sunglasses sales increased 21% and sandals grew 14%. Also in the electricals and home technology department sales decreased 2.2%, despite a 54% increase in sales in the cooling category, as well as sales increasing 6.7% in audio.

Director of retail operations development, Simon Russell, commented: “In what proved to be a challenging week, footfall was down as customers chose to enjoy the great outdoors, as well as making the most of the school holidays by heading abroad with their families. The latter, however, also supported a 17.8% year-on-year rise in sales at John Lewis Heathrow.”