Littlewoods Direct is to rebrand as ‘Very’ from Sunday 5 July with the aim of attracting younger online shoppers in the 25 to 45 age range.
“Our customers have been telling us they would like a different kind of online shopping experience,” Shop Direct trading director David Inglis has told Retail Week. “They miss the social aspect of shopping on the high street and with Very they will be able to influence what we do. It will be more of a shared shopping experience.”
According to Retail Week:
Inglis said this would be achieved through a network of customer, buyer and celebrity insiders who would interact with customers on the site and discuss and review products on sale. Inglis declined to name the celebrities lined up for the launch.
He emphasised that Littlewoods, which remains Shop Direct’s biggest brand, remains key to the group. Its main difference from Littlewoods Direct is that it retains the company’s traditional “all-in” weekly payment method, as opposed to the Direct business’s more typical payment model.
While the benefits of using the same brand in, for example, advertising, will be lost, Inglis said it was time to split the brands due to the emergence of a new breed of online customer in the Direct business.
“A year ago would have been too soon but if we’d left it a year hence we’d have missed the boat.”
