Freemans is to stop printing its catalogue after 118 years as customers move to shopping online and the company reinvents itself as a purely digital shopping experience.
The Bradford-based retailer has printed well over one billion copies of its catalogue since launch in 1905, while the catalogue has launched modelling and TV careers, and featured the likes of Yasmin Le Bon, Lulu, Lorraine Chase and Denise Van Outen.
The Freemans catalogue is the ninth oldest mail order catalogue in the world (For the pub quiz aficionados Tiffany’s Blue Book, launched in 1845 is the oldest) and is among the UK’s best-read printed material, reaching millions of homes each year. The last print run dropped on eight million doorsteps.
Time marches on, however, and although each catalogue carries a few thousand items the Freemans.com website offers a whopping 55,000 items for shoppers to choose from, including dozens of exclusive ranges and partnerships with leading designer brands at high street prices.
In its past the catalogue introduced and made affordable a host of products including made-to-measure suits, three-piece suites, televisions, washing machines, fridges, off-the-peg dresses, coats, and lingerie. It also allowed customers to spread the cost, in many cases providing access to these types of goods for the very first time.
Today, with more than 30 million unique visitors to the brand’s digital destination annually, and sales surging since a digital transformation of the well-known retail brand that started three years ago, bosses decided the time was right to retire the trusted tome – Freemans’ most recent sales data, for the six months to June 30, 2023 showed sales were up 13 per cent YoY, its customer base had increased by 34 per cent to over one million, and it was growing ahead of the market by a total of 16 per cent. The move will also save 650 tonnes of paper – the equivalent of 11,000 trees a year.
Ann Steer, Freemans’ CEO, said: “The Freemans catalogue was a national institution and one of the most successful retail sales tools the UK has ever seen. It was the UK’s biggest and the best store catalogues and has served generations of families.
“However, we need to move with the times in response to how customers are shopping these days. The transition to digital means we can serve today’s families with even more choice of great value items, all at the swipe of a phone screen.”
“It’s significant step towards Freemans becoming the digital department store of choice for customer both new and old. We have made huge in-roads over the last three years and it’s paying dividends as shoppers with Freemans.com continue to grow.
“This is just the start – I promise you, there is loads more to come.”
Customers will be able to get an early look at what’s come to come with a new digital and TV campaign which is due to go live on September 25.
