In pictures: Littlewoods through the ages

To celebrate its 80th birthday, mail order giant Littlewoods has recreated some of its most iconic catalogue covers from years gone by starring Coleen Rooney. Shot by British photographer Terry O’Neill, who has worked with icons including Audrey Hepburn, Elvis and The Beatles, the new images illustrate how Littlewoods has evolved since the first catalogues in the 1930s all the way to present day.

Founded by Sir John Moores in Liverpool, the first Littlewoods catalogue was published in May 1932 and comprised 163 pages showing hand-illustrated images offering such items as flat irons and nickel-plated gas irons, each costing ten shillings (50p). In 1936, the Littlewoods mail order business recorded sales of more than £4 million. Since then, the company has gone from strength to strength, with a host of big name stars from Jerry Hall to Joan Collins gracing the pages of Littlewoods catalogues over the years. Now one of the UK’s leading online department stores, on its 262nd catalogue and delivering more than 12 million parcels to customers every year, Littlewoods continues to play a key role in the lives of millions of families across the nation. Sales at its parent company Shop Direct Group hit £1.7 billion in 2012.

Coleen’s Littlewoods covers through the ages

1937: Right back to the formative years of Littlewoods in the 30s, when the cover image of the catalogue was still hand-illustrated, Coleen teams a curled blonde wig with a red skirt suit in this living room setting in Liverpool.

1947: Following the war, the late 40s become a real boom time for fashion in Britain. Wearing a fitted striped blue and white dress, Coleen captures the look of the time in this recreated 1947 catalogue cover. Fun fact: During World War II, thousands of men and women conducted their war service in the “Littlewoods Army”, which manufactured supplies at Littlewoods’ headquarters in Liverpool.

1955: From the decade that saw women’s fashion changed by stars such as Audrey Hepburn, this cover sees Coleen wearing a buttoned red coat with high black heels and standing in a Georgian house-lined street in 1955. Fun fact: Littlewoods sold out of TVs in 1952 due to the unexpected surge in demand for this new product.

1965: In an iconic era for female fashion, Coleen recreates this classic swinging Sixties look in a simple red woollen jumper and blonde bob wig. Fun fact: The popularity of the miniskirt peaked during the 60s as a result of celebrities like Twiggy embracing the trend, which saw it become Littlewoods’ best selling fashion item of the decade.

1971: In the most elaborate recreation of the shoot, Coleen dons a vintage white coat and brown suede high-heeled boots for this early 70s catalogue.

1982: Wearing a white snake t-shirt and sports shorts, Coleen effortlessly pulls off this 80s in this black and white shot. Fun fact: Fashion increased in popularity in the 70s and 80s at Littlewoods, with flares and shellsuits among the must-have clothing items of the times. 

1991: The girl power movement of the 90s saw a host of A-list stars model for Littlewoods. None more so than Hollywood actress Jane Seymour in this purple cocktail dress and dramatic big hair from 1991. Fun fact: Littlewoods continued to grow in the 1990s and, by 2001, the company had become the second largest home shopping retailer in the UK.

2004: This traditional portrait shot from the 2000s not only shows how styles have changed but also allowed Terry O’Neill to display his trademark style of shooting to perfection.

July Catalogue Log

An American friend of mine asked me recently whether I had noticed a decline in catalogue volume as mailers cut back or postponed mailings in the run up to the Olympics. Apparently it’s common practice in the US to do so during big sporting events. However, with the Catalogue Log tracking a 6 percent increase in catalogue volume July on July, it doesn’t appear to be the case in the UK.

In fact, looking through the selection of 68 catalogues we received, you wouldn’t know the Olympics were taking place, let alone being hosted in the UK. Some give the Games a cursory nod, such as health and safety products supplier Seton, which places a medal at the top right-hand corner of the catalogue’s front cover with the legend “Olympic Money Off Deals!” Retail supplies cataloguer Morplan takes a more practical angle, making its customers aware that extra charges may apply on large deliveries during the Games. Gracing the Samuel Windsor catalogue is double Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell, but aside from modelling the smart/casual attire, Cracknell’s achievements are not used as a specific selling point, nor are the Olympics mentioned again inside the catalogue.

More of an effort is displayed by packing supplies cataloguer Rajapack, which gets into the spirit of the summer of sport with its RajaCup 2012 competition. For the July catalogue it opts for a suitably athletic cover, which currently leads the unofficial Direct Commerce medals table for best Games-related marketing.

In the silver medal position is Long Tall Sally, whose catalogue arrived on 31st July. Page 74 features Anna Watkins and Katherine Granger of the London 2012 gold-winning women’s sculling squad—both of whom are 6-feet tall. The copy reads: “After months of training hard, our favourite athletes Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins took some time off the water to get glam on our latest photoshoot. The girls swapped their lycra for LTS Row as they modelled the latest offerings from our exclusive leisurewear range.”

Also on the podium in July is Crew Clothing, taking the bronze medal. I interviewed brand marketing director Sarah Baskcomb for our cover story in July, who described how Crew was actively taking part in the Olympics by sponsoring athletes, including rower Louisa Reeve and the Paralympic GB boccia squad. Although its summer sale catalogue doesn’t explicitly mention the Olympics, it dedicates several pages to the GBR range, flying the flag for all things British.

Record breaking
So if mailers were keeping the Olympics off their catalogue covers what were they pushing instead? It certainly wasn’t free gifts. The July Catalogue Log tracked just two covers, 2.9 percent, touting a freebie, setting a new record. Previously the lowest percentage was 5.3 percent, tallied in February 2012.

Keeping with tradition, sales and discounts were the most popular promotion, with 32 of the 68 catalogues—47 percent—featuring a special price on the cover. That said, the percentage tracked in July 2012 was considerably lower than the preceding month (56.8 percent) and July 2011, when 54.7 percent of catalogues promoted a sale on the cover.

The decline continued with July 2012 also seeing a downturn in the number catalogues offering free shipping—17.6 percent compared with 21.9 percent in July 2011. Among those offering free delivery were the relaunched Rowland’s Clothing catalogue, which set an order threshold of £150 in order to qualify for free p&p and White Stuff, whose high summer mailer generously promises 15 percent off and free delivery.

With all these declines, it didn’t come as a surprise that more than two-fifths of the catalogues we tracked featured no offer whatsoever. Last year August was appreciably less promotionally led than July, which leads me to wonder whether we’ll see the reverse happen this year. As well as the run-up to the Olympics, cataloguers had to contend with an extremely wet July, with dampened demand for summer clothing and seasonal goods. I’m going to predict that August’s haul of catalogues will feature a spike in promotional activity as direct sellers try to shift summer stock ahead of the arrival of the Autumn/Winter catalogues towards the end of the month.--MT

Dart’s data--the Olympics issue

In the July issue of Direct Commerce, which hit desks last week, our cover story focused on what online retailers are doing in order to profit from a summer of sport including the Olympics, this week’s edition of Dart’s Data takes a look at some recent reports that cover the effects of this summer’s Olympics on merchants.

EPoS and ecommerce services provider Cybertill surveyed around 600 of its customers nationwide, and discovered that more than half (54 percent) said the Olympics would have little or no effect on their business. Just 19 percent said the Games would increase sales, of which most were based in the London area or sold sporting goods.

In contrast, however, a survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) concluded that the Olympics could provide a much-needed boost to employer confidence as a quarter of UK bosses say they think the games will be good for their businesses with only four percent predicting a negative impact on their bottom line. What’s more 63 percent said they planned to increase the number of permanent employees over the next three months.

But Conlumino’s Illuminating Retail study gives food for thought with the suggestion that much of the potential benefits and sales uplift attributed to the Olympics could be offset by higher costs due to retailers having to fund more staff, a greater number of deliveries and, potentially, longer working hours during the period of the Games.

Clearly, the Olympics are expected to deliver some benefits but the idea that the Olympics will be a saviour to the retail sector and reverse its fortunes are quite wide of the mark.--JD

Cross-Atlantic catch-up

We’re more than half-way through 2012, so we thought we take this opportunity to pause and reflect on the past six months and take a look back at the five most popular Cross-Atlantic Insight articles of 2012 so far--as measured by click-throughs.

And if you’ve not heard of Cross-Atlantic Insight before, here’s a taste of what you’ve been missing...

What you need to know about the ePrivacy Directive
In a nutshell: What UK businesses should do to comply with new cookie regulations

Going global with multilingual search engine marketing
In a nutshell: For online businesses with the right strategy, attracting trade from foreign markets need not be as hard as it seems

Seven steps to getting cross-border VAT right
In a nutshell: To avoid possible fines and penalties when trading cross-border, it is important to be aware of and comply with relevant VAT obligations

European online retail market larger than the US
In a nutshell: European online spending is set to see double-digit growth, once again outpacing its US counterpart.

Five key markets
In a nutshell: predicting hotspots for business growth in 2012

Cross-Atlantic Insight is a fortnightly enewsletter delivering international news and tactical articles. To sign up to recieve your free copy, click here.--MT

Email idea to steal: user-generated copy

Nearly every online shop now collects user reviews from satisfied, and sometimes not so satisfied, customers. Once the reviews are published on the site, what then?

Cashmere apparel cataloguer Brora has great idea for using online reviews to keep in touch with its customers by email. The “Brora Customer Favourites” email featured 10 items from the Brora collection that have attracted glowing references from customers. And it’s an easy idea to steal. Simply select a few of your best-selling items, or the ones with the best reviews—the copy has been written for you. --MT

June Catalogue Log

It’s a Catalogue Log first; we received the same number of catalogues in June 2012 as we did in June 2011. There were more similarities between the two months; not least that June is firmly establishing itself as the sales month of choice among cataloguers. 

 

In June 2011 we noted that 59.3 percent of the catalogues we received promoted a sale or discount on the cover, the highest percentage recorded in 2011. Last month we tallied 46 catalogues, or 56.8 percent, promoting a sale—making it the most sales-driven month of the year so far.

Of the 81 cataloguers we received last month, only 26 featured no offer whatsoever on the cover. Of those 26, there were several that sent promotional carrier sheets or included loose inserts to make up for it. Take, for instance, gifts catalogue Nauticalia, which included a flyer for free delivery on orders of £80 and featured cut-price gift ideas on its order form on page 63. Business-to-business catalogue Action Storage hid its free p&p offer on the inside front cover, while homewares brand Cologne & Cotton offered us 15 percent off and free UK delivery on a voucher included with the main catalogue.

The remaining 55 catalogues went all-out to squeeze an order from recipients. The most popular method was using a sale or discount. As mentioned above, 56.8 percent of catalogue covers in June touted a price-based promotion. Among them were Garden Trading (15 percent off), Graham & Green (10 percent off) and Sweaty Betty (up to 50 percent off).

In distant second place was the offer of free delivery, promoted on just 15 catalogue covers. Often it was teamed with another offer; Woolovers, for example, promoted free delivery and 5 percent off a first order. At Tulchan, customers could shop its “up to 60 percent off sale” and take advantage of free delivery. Hotter Shoes made a similar offer: 20 percent off a first order plus free delivery.

It’s worth noting that free shipping was much more popular this year, offered on 18.5 percent of all catalogue covers last month compared with 12.3 percent in June 2011. Is this a sign that catalogues have become more aggressively promotional in order to compete? According to the Catalogue Log, which has been tracking the offers touted on catalogue covers each month since 2009, it appears to be the case. We’ve tracked an overall June-on-June increase in the percentage of catalogues featuring some sort of offer on the cover rise from 60 percent in June 2010, to 64.1 percent last year to 67.9 percent in June 2012.

I was at a conference recently where I was told older consumers responded well to free delivery offers, while the younger generation preferred receiving a free gift with purchase. I’ve consistently found little to support this argument when compiling the Catalogue Log. Most of the catalogues we tracked offering a free gift—a mere 9 titles in June 2012—were aimed at the grey market like Coopers of Stortford and Witt or at business buyers, like 4imprint. All in all, it appears June is not the month for touting a freebie; free gifts were promoted on 11.1 percent of the covers we logged. Although, that’s the second-highest percentage of 2012 and slightly higher than last year’s 9.8 percent, it’s lower than 2010’s 12.8 percent, and lags significantly behind the 17.8 percent we logged in June 2009.—MT

TV Shopping Week's most wanted

Launched in January 2012, DC's TV Shopping Week is a free fortnightly enewsletter from the editor of Direct Commerce delivering news, insight and strategic advice on all aspects of TV selling. Curious to know what you've missed in the year to date? Catch up here with the five most popular articles with newsletter subscribers.

1. CatEx unveils TV shopping channel—trade body CatEx DCA and The Specialist Works partner to launch a new TV shopping proposition

2. Successful launch of The Dept Store—catching up with The Department Store after it goes live

3. Thinking of embarking on a TV-shopping venture?—Ideal Shopping Direct’s Mike Hancox has the following advice

4. TV shopping insider with JML’s Ken Daly—we interview JML’s new chief executive about his day-to-day challenges and vision for the future

5. eBay unveils first TV ad campaign since 2007—the online marketplace launches its first TV advertising campaign since 2007 showcasing its top-selling new products.

To add yourself to the list to receive the next edition, click here.--MT