Since 1982, Next has been a fixture on the UK high street. After launching its Next Directory in 1988, it was early to launch an ecommerce website in 1999.

Since Next launched its ecommerce website in 1999, its growth has been impressive, and the Directory division now accounts for more than one-third of its total revenue and is driving overall growth.

The site has always sat with the catalogue division of the business, initially under Mark Newton-Jones, who went on to run Shop Direct Group, and more recently Mothercare.

This heritage gave it some early advantages, not least the sophistication of its home delivery proposition and the fact that its web designers and merchandisers had access to high quality editorial style product imagery from the printed catalogue, at a time when competitors were using simple product shots.

Next's website in 2002 site was basic, but the relationship with the catalogue was very clear

Next 2002

Next’s website in 2002 was basic, but the relationship with the catalogue was very clear

2002

While the 2002 site is basic, and has no content below the fold, the relationship with the catalogue is very clear through the simple structure and catalogue-friendly quickshop link.

2004

By 2004 the relationship had become even more prominent, with the account sign-in box highlighted on the homepage, and a catalogue request banner.

2007

The 2007 site shows a much more substantial change with a completely revised look and feel (and a temporary departure from the black header that came before, and was then later reinstated by 2009).

2007 was the first time in a decade that Next advertised on TV, and we can see an early example of multichannel marketing, with the advert available to view online.

Other noteworthy developments on the 2007 site are the introduction of third party brands for sale (a strategy which remains important to the retailer’s online growth today), and promotion of Next’s famous Sale online.

However, the Quickshop links and printed catalogue request remain prominent.

2009

By 2009, the homepage lengthened again, with more visual merchandising of specific categories and third party brands sold.

However, the main navigation structure has changed little.

“Next will need to rely less on the printed Directory and its long-term customers and focus even more on its digital experiences to keep its overall revenues on the right track”

2011

Looking at the 2011 homepage, tweaks again look relatively small in scope, with an almost identical template.

Next did however, move to a wider site design to reflect new wider desktop screens. 

These small changes do belie the huge amount of optimisation work that has taken place.

In fact, throughout 2009 Next worked behind the scenes to improve the conversion rate on its site with Google, increasing the landing pages from the search engine and its on-site search.

2013

The 2013 site design again feels very familiar, even though the black background has been abandoned and navigation has become capitalised.

In 2011, Next moved to a wider site design to reflect larger desktops being used

Next 2011

In 2011, Next moved to a wider site design to reflect larger desktops being used

Next was heavily promoting its leading fulfilment proposition, accepting orders up until 10pm for next day delivery to home (and 8pm to store).

2016

By 2016 the company’s leveraged its relationship with Hermes and pushed its cut off order deadline even later to midnight, forcing its competitors to up their game too.

Next has also delivered to customers in Europe since first trialling the service in early 2008, and now delivers to more than 700,000 active international customers in more than 70 countries.

The 2015 and 2016 site designs use larger and bolder lifestyle images on its homepage.

The navigation has changed slightly since it dropped the electrical and lingerie categories, and renamed ‘brands’ to ‘label’.

Present day

Today, Next has turned its attention to specific online platforms for its growing mobile user base.

In 2015 Next’s site conversion rate – the percentage of site visitors that go on to buy something – stood at 8.5% in 2015, while conversion from mobile phones was only at 4.2%.

Since then it has launched a dedicated mobile site, and reported that conversions from smart phones had quickly risen to 5.8% as a result.

This mobile experience will be crucial for maintaining online sales growth as the proportion of orders placed on desktop have fallen from 95% in 2010, to just 37% in 2015.

The versions of the homepage from 2013 onwards have also dropped the prominent catalogue call to action.

However, in its last annual report Next declared that it had no plans to ditch the catalogue element, with 53% of its registered customers still receiving the printed Directory.

Over the years the catalogue has clearly helped to drive loyalty among Next’s online customer base.

The retailer said that a surprisingly high 84% of its Directory orders by value are still made using the credit facility on accounts.

As this figure reduces in line with market trends, Next will need to rely less on the printed Directory and its long-term customers and focus even more on its digital experiences to keep its overall revenues on the right track.