Gasta Shopping:The Next directory

Bringing middle-market clothes to the home shopper for the first time, it promised delivery within 48 hours. The Next directory was the brainchild of one of the giants in the British retail scene, George Davies, then CEO of Next, and it paved the way for the mail-order and online shopping boom as we know it today.

But it was not all plain sailing. As Simon Wolfson, CEO of Next today, ss it celebrates it's 21'st birthday, reveals: “For the first three or four years, it didn’t make money. What went wrong was a divergence from the Next retail chain, which was a must-go destination on hundreds of high streets all over the country. Next Directory had the same spirit, the same quality, but was more fashionable, less accessible.”

The turning point came in 1992 when Next Directory and Next retail merged, both offering the same aspirational clothes that were good quality and of great design. Next Directory, like its high street namesake, was for a long time renowned for its “working wardrobe” – a look epitomised in thousands of black and navy trouser suits beloved of the young career woman on a budget. But its latest high- summer collection, inspired by Woodstock, is a perfect illustration of how it embraces a more laid-back image, too.

The directory has continually expanded, with a greater emphasis on casualwear, menswear, babies’ and childrenswear, swimwear, party wear, together with homewares, furniture and all the items that reflect the changing lifestyle of the core customers, generally aged between 25 and 55.

Launched in 1999, online shopping meant that the entire book could be viewed on the internet. Today, a copy of Next Directory is in one in every 12 households in Britain. More than three million “books” are printed four times a year, making it the biggest-selling book in Britain – possibly outselling the Bible – and the biggest fashion e-tailor in Europe.

What Next? Simon Wolfson believes online business will continue to grow, but he does not envisage people wanting to relinquish the directory itself.

“Customers like to flick through the pages. It is like being able to shop straight from a great fashion magazine – at prices you can afford.”