International sales at cataloguer/retailer Next doubled during
the last fiscal year to £10.1 million ($16.2 million).
Profits in the year ending January 2011 also rose-up 41 percent
to £2.4 million ($3.84 million).
At year end, Next was trading in 38 countries outside of the UK,
with the Republic of Ireland, USA, Australia, Germany, and Poland
its biggest overseas markets. During the year, Next says it made
an “important breakthrough” in two of its overseas
markets. According to a company statement, Next had suffered
“many failed experiments” in new customer acquisition
overseas. A spokesperson for Next said the company had tried a
combination of online and email marketing, but found that sending
printed catalogues to its international customers had proved the
most effective recruitment method. It is understood that
catalogues are particularly popular with Next’s US and German
customers and that the business has successfully driven customers
to its website through the mailing of mini
“look-book-style” catalogues featuring a collection
of best-selling lines. This will now allow Next to accelerate
overseas growth and it expects to hit revenues of £20
million by January 2012.
During 2011, Next also plans to extend its online reach into
Pakistan and India within the first half, and later in the year
in Russia, China and Japan. Currently the only
non-English-language website Next operates is for the German
market, but there are plans to cater for other languages
“once we have developed our systems to cope with the
complexities of dealing with non-Roman scripts,” said a
company statement.
Share