About Home Shopping

Origins of Home Shopping

Modern Home Shopping has its origins in the "credit clubs" developed during the nineteenth century, where groups of customers banded together to purchase goods. Each member would subscribe a weekly amount and each week a member would be chosen by lot to be entitled to the goods purchased by the club with the subscriptions for that week.

Members who were drawn early in the cycle in effect obtained approximately twenty weeks credit. Purchases were often made from catalogues provided by the then very small Home Shopping houses. These clubs were gradually disbanded and their role taken over by credit unions, which were mutual societies offering twenty weeks credit to all their members.

Mainly because of the growing ranges of goods ordered, these credit unions were themselves succeeded by the agency home shopping companies themselves, who took over responsibility for granting twenty weeks credit direct and appointed agents to handle all dealings with customers in relation to the sale of goods.

Home Shopping Today

Today, the major catalogue companies offer a wide range of goods and services, with a substantial proportion of their business now involving direct home shopping (without the involvement of an agent.) Where agency business is undertaken the agent is typically a married woman running a family and home and ordering merchandise on behalf of herself and members of her immediate family or for close friends working colleagues and neighbours.

A very important feature of the business of members of the Association is the "right of return". This means that customers may return items within not less than fourteen days of obtaining them for a full refund for any reason whatsoever. This results in large volumes of returned goods but is an integral part of the trust and goodwill developed in trading relationships between member companies and their customers.

Catalogue Home Shopping

The catalogue home shopping market of members of the Association has been characterised through trading with several particular features, as follow:-

• ongoing relationships with known customers and/or agents
• a large book catalogue often in association with more focused niche catalogues
• regular purchasing of consumer goods
• significant trading through in-house credit facilities
• large volume processing

The members of the Association adhere to a Code of Practice. Each member company must display prominently in their catalogue the Code of Practice statement for the information of agents and customers. The Code of Practice itself covers a number of important matters including:

• advertising
• prices
• non-optional extras, postage and packing and delivery of goods
• sales promotion
• supply of goods (on approval)
• servicing and repair facilities
• assembly of goods, where appropriate and necessary
• information for the customer
• safety

Most business is conducted via the telephone with increasing internet trade although mail is still widely used. The home shopping catalogues represent a convenient and respected way of shopping from home, with many millions of customers using this method of shopping each year.

Retail Sales

UK compared to Germany and France

Traditional Mail Order sales of goods (including online) in billion £

Per Capita in £