Extra! Extra! Read all about it! (Littlewoodsextra.com)

Name: 1maryanne

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Product:	Littlewoodsextra.com
Date:	23/10/02 (476 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy competitive shopping from Home

Disadvantages: There's no great companionship when shopping on line

One doesn't seem to hear that shout anymore. When I was very young there seemed to be newspaper sellers everywhere shouting that they had the latest edition of a newspaper for sale. It is amazing how things slip away without notice. I expect instant TV news has made this shout redundant.

Anyway let us return to the subject of this opinion, 'Littlewoods' What does that word conjure up in your mind? Is it Littlewoods Pools, Littlewoods High Street Stores or the good old Littlewoods Mail Order Catalogue? Littlewoods Pools are obviously the odd one out, but are they? Littlewoods PLC was founded as a football pool business in 1923 by the late Sir John Moores.

That was just the beginning. Since then Littlewoods PLC has grown into one of the UK's largest and most successful private businesses.

The home shopping business was launched in 1932 with the first high street store being opened in 1937. The first Index store wasn't opened until really modern times, in 1985. The High Street Littlewoods, even though many have ceased trading, must be well known throughout the country. The goods are reasonably priced and of a quality one might expect for the price paid.

Littlewoods PLC is still based at its roots, in Liverpool. It was a private limited company which was wholly owned by members of the Moores family. This meant that you and I did not have the opportunity to buy shares in it on the Stock Market; Roughly 25,000 people are employed by this concern with over half of them being employed in the North West region of England.

On the 4th October 2002 this situation changed. The Press release stated that a Recommended Cash Offer of £750 million by PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance had been made on behalf of LW Investments Ltd. for Littlewoods PLC. LWIL is a company that has been recently formed for the purpose of making offers and it is ultimately controlled by Sir David Barclay and Sir Frederick Barclay. It w
ould appear that the company is to remain pretty much a family business! Actually there is a load of really interesting 'stuff' on the Internet about it all, but suffice it to say that things for the workers and probably us will remain pretty much the same!

Their retail home shopping business is second only to GUS, (Great Universal Stores), and operates through three major channels. These are Littlewoods Mail Order Catalogues, Littlewoods Index and the subject of this opinion Littlewoods Extra. Of course a further advantage for this conglomerate is that it owns outright the home delivery service Business Express, which is recognised as the UK's market leader. You have here a pretty neat package, eh?

The choice in their regular Mail Order catalogue is vast, much wider than most High Street Stores can offer. Of course we, the public, must pay a price for the convenience of shopping at home, with free delivery, free returns, a free 1,000 page colour catalogue delivered twice a year, at least three months interest free credit and 10% commission, (twelve and a half percent if you take it in goods). Most prices will be between 15% and 20% dearer than the price for the same goods in the High Street.

This form of shopping had its place. Credit was not always as easy to get as it is today and people were quite prepared to pay a little extra for this facility The service was originally run by agents who were responsible for showing the catalogue, collecting the orders and then collecting the weekly payments and despatching the monies to the Accounts department, and for this a 10% commission on all sales was earned. (In those days orders were sent by post and one would have no instant knowledge of the availability of stock!) Nowadays the 'books' are seldom run by traditional agents. Most catalogues are run purely for personal benefit and for the benefit of close family.

Littlewoods have not remained profitable by standing
still. In 1996 the Littlewoods Extra, (formerly Index Extra), a direct home shopping catalogue was launched. This is now Britain's largest direct home shopping catalogue. They still offer at least three months interest free credit and the lowest prices in home shopping.

They do not offer 10% commission when purchasing from Littlewoods Extra. They do; however appear to have reflected this in the prices they advertise. For example, the Hotpoint Washer/Dryer is priced at £399.99 in their ordinary large shiny catalogue but on line through Littlewoods Extra it will cost £349.99. The Servis is priced at £369.99 but Littlewoods Extra charge £329.99. There are similar price differences in lingerie. A Berlei sports bra will cost £22.99 but Extra advertise it for £20, A Maidenform corset will advertised as £29.99 in the first but can be purchased from the second for only £25 and so on..

Besides prices, what other differences are there? Although returns appear to be free there is a delivery charge of £2.95 for any orders under £100.

All purchases from Littlewoods can now be made online. The general mail order catalogue has about 40,000 good ideas for yourself, your family, your home or for gifts. You can have flexible credit terms and, of course, eventually 10% discount. Also available is an online catalogue called 'The Collection'. This contains a selection of quality brand names for yourself and your home and is advertised as being sold at down to earth prices with 28 days free home approval. Once again the cost can be spread over three months at no extra cost. The Index catalogue contains over 8,000 home and leisure ideas. They say these goods will be delivered to your door in 48 hours. You can still enjoy three months interest free credit and up to twelve months on some items.

The star ship of their fleet must be the Littlewoods Extra, though. This is one of the most famous outlets in the UK. Huge selections of products are
available. You can select from men's, women's and children's clothing, sports equipment, home products, electrical equipment, toys and gifts. The prices are similar to those which you would expect to pay on any High Street.

The site is really easy to use, it has been sympathetically designed. The main menu is near the top of the page but above these are payment options and a gift service. This gift service is excellent. You are able to specify sex, age, hobbies and maximum price etc, and up pop loads of pictures with the relevant information below. As I said they have an excellent service here.

Another good place is the bargains button. After you have pressed the button you must specify which category you are interested in. Once you are in the section which is of interest you will be presented with a page which lists all the current special offers in that category and also those which have already sold out.

There is also a new order form if you already have the catalogue numbers to hand. The facility button is located on the top navigation bar above the shopping zones. You can order up to twelve items on this page.

As you place your completed order you will be informed about the availability of stock. After you have pressed the confirm button you will still have the opportunity to amend or remove items from your basket before proceeding to the checkout. Should you want to get in touch with Littlewoods Extra for any reason there is a 'help' button displayed at the top of the menu bar and from there you can select 'contact us'. You will then be able to choose the appropriate e-mail format for your query, (and they do come back to you!).

You can pay by credit or debit card. If your choice is a debit card then payment will be taken at the time of ordering, but if you pay by credit card, payment will usually be taken when they expect the goods to be delivered. If you do not have a flexible account,
(i.e. an interest free time!) then you must click on the 'flexible account' logo on the right hand side of your payment options to apply.

For your own security, whatever payment method you choose it will pass through a secure server environment. You will receive an e-mail confirmation of your order and another will follow to confirm the availability of your order and when it will be delivered. Delivery is usually within 24 hours of you placing your order, fast or what?! Of course this may not always be the case; it CAN depend on what you have ordered.

A company statement says that Littlewoods is committed to being at the fore-front of online shopping and they intend to become one of the UK's leading online retailers in the next five years. Although there may be the odd hiccup they do appear to have the right formula.

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