Changing Channels

Established direct home shopping retailer N Brown Group Plc has experienced a number of major changes in the past 140 years and, with the increasing emphasis on Internet shopping, continues to adapt and evolve. Here, RLI talks to the group’s CEO, Alan White
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The N Brown Group is a leading direct home shopping retailer with almost a century of experience in the distance shopping market. Its extensive ranges of value products, principally clothing, footwear, household and electrical goods, are carefully targeted and are provided through whichever channels to market our customers demand

The company’s portfolio of catalogues target women from the age of 30 upwards, with a special emphasis on customers over the age of 50 and, typically, of a larger frame. Over 50 per cent of N Brown’s sales are to women of size 20 and above. It also carries menswear, which accounts for around eight per cent, again focusing on the older and larger man.

Whilst the company utilises a number of channels, its focus currently lies very much on the Internet. Says Chief Executive Alan White: “Clearly, this is where we have seen dramatic growth, but the truth of the matter is that the success of our business has come via a combination of our channels. Although we may see close to 30 per cent of our sales coming via the web, the main stimulus for those sales is, in fact, the catalogues.

“We have a situation where around 75 per cent of our Internet sales are generated by customers who choosing to order on-line instead of picking up the telephone, as they would have previously done, but we are seeing about 25 per cent of internet sales being incremental,” he says.
Everything that N Brown produces in printed form is available on-line, but one of the attractions of the Internet service, says White, is that the company can get the product to market much more quickly. “This means that we now have our own version of ‘fast fashion’,” continues White. “Inevitably, when you put a new catalogue together you will miss some of the latest trends. We are in the position now where we can source, design and have the product on-line in six weeks.”

What we are seeing then is an offer being turned on its head, where previously the product appeared in the catalogue and was then shown on-line, the trend now is that the product is posted on-line and then appears in the catalogue later. “This is where the Internet creates a whole host of opportunities,”
says White.

Clearly the Internet is an increasingly more vital element of the group’s business, but does the success of e-commerce come at the cost of other channels?

“No, we see the catalogues and the Internet as working in tandem,” White explains. “Our three-year plan is focused on driving on-line sales; there are so many opportunities in terms of the flexibility of the on-line offer and that is why we will see more and more of our business going that way. I used to think that 50 per cent was the ceiling, but given that some of our younger titles are already at 50 per cent, I believe that it could easily reach 70 per cent or more of the business over the
next decade.”

But the N Brown offer has changed in other ways, says White. “What we saw around the turn of the millennium was a number of fairly significant changes, in particular on the high street, and we have also seen a number of attitudinal changes; changes that are certainly reflected in our business.”
The group has a strong, well-established presence in the UK and Ireland, but does White have aspirations towards
other markets?

For the full article please see the RLI February 08 issue