Freemans says farewell to printed catalogue after 118 years as digital sales soar

Freemans is to drop the famous printed catalogue upon which its original business was built as online sales and customer numbers have soared.

The digital department store says that customer numbers are up by 34% (to more than one million) while sales are up 13% and its much-loved catalogue was only able to showcase a fraction of the 55,000 products now available on its website.

Today the business is officially reinventing itself as a digital pureplay with a refreshed website, a new digital and TV campaign (to launch later this month) and a new curve offer in fashion.

Freemans AW23

The move to drop the printed catalogue comes after the business successfully trialled a reduced print run, which Freemans said was driven by consumer behaviour. This showed that customers now prefer to take their home and fashion inspiration from their phone, tablet and social media.

Around 8 million Freemans catalogues were produced with each print run with the move to close it saving 650,000 tonnes of paper per year. However its closure is a poignant moment given the catalogue's place in British retail history.

Freemans CEO Ann Steer said: “The Freemans catalogue was a national institution and one of the most successful retail sales tool the UK has ever seen.

“It was the UK's biggest and the best store catalogues and has served generations of families.

Womenswear from 1989

“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."

The history of the Freemans catalogue

Over the last century the catalogue, staggeringly one of the ten oldest in the world, is among the UK’s best-read printed material reaching millions of homes each year with the last print run dropping on eight million doorsteps. More than one billion copies have been produced since it was launched.

1905

The Freemans business began in 1905 in a terraced house Clapham. It was named after H.A Freeman, one of its four founding partners and began producing a black & white catalogue.

1920s-1930s

The move to include colour photographs came in the 1920s and by the 1930s he business dominated the mail order shopping market.

Catalogue agents drove the business and the majority of these were men, since women at the time were not allowed to negotiate credit agreements.

Fit advice 1950s-style

1950s-1960s

By the 1950s Freemans was despatching more than 7,000 parcels a day and by the 1960s the agent workforce was dominated by women and the term ‘catalogue lady’ was born. These agents visited households weekly to collect orders and weekly payment instalments.

1969

In this year Freemans opened one of the UK’s first automated distribution centres in Peterborough, which at the time was Europe’s largest. Working at the warehouse even became the focus, many years later, of a musical documentary called ‘Delivered by Freemans’.

1970s

Freemans introduces a telephone ordering service.

1997

Freemans pioneers online shopping with the launch of Freemans.com.

100th anniversary catalogue 2005

2020

As sales declined the business brought in a fresh management team, overhauled its web presence and began the turnaround process that led to the sales growth witnessed today.

2023

Printing of the catalogue will cease with the final copies rolled of the press to be donate to the British Museum, Cambridge University Library and Oxford University's Bodleian Library, to be displayed as a crucial document detailing British retail history.

Freemans and celebrities

Lulu models for Freemans in 1970

Lulu, Yasmin Le Bon, Nick Kamen (the late model and singer who shot to fame in the Levi's ads of the 1980s), footballing legend George Best as well as 80s singer Kim Wilde are just some of the famous faces to have graced the pages of the Freemans catalogue. More recently the online site has featured faces such as broadcaster Lisa Snowdon and a whole host of ‘Strictly’ stars including Janette Manrara and Aljaz Skorjanec.

Main image: Catalogue cover from spring 1955