UK Catalogue Shopping

Shopping online is definitely easier than taking a trip into the nearest town or city - and often cheaper too. Stay-at-home mail-order catalogue shopping is also fun and easy as well; however, combine the benefits of home catalogue shopping with online shopping, and we have a winning combination.

These days most major department stores, and many smaller ones as well, have an online store of one description or another. However, although some of the catalogue companies were slow to get in on the Internet action, most mail-order catalogue companies now have an online presence too, and have quickly caught up to their high-street rivals in terms of their Internet shopping abilities.

However, although there are thousands of great stores we could list, the stores which are listed here are pre-dominantly UK and Irish mail-order catalogue companies which also have an online store. There are a few exceptions, notably Argos, which is a well known high-street name, best-known for its catalogue-style stores, although it’s true that Argos has no mail-order operation per se.

Many of the brands we list here are also related. For instance, JD Williams Catalogue Company operates close to 30 different mail-order and online brands, while Littlewoods also operates several different brands, including Littlewoods Direct, Littlewoods Home Shopping, Littlewoods Ireland, Kays Catalogue, Additions Direct … and several more! We also include catalogues from the Redcats Group, which includes Empire Stores (to be taken over by Littlewoods in 2008), Daxon Catalogue, Vertbaudet and several others. Redcats is particularly strong in the USA. In turn, Freemans catalogue, Grattan catalogue and Kaleidoscope are each operated by the Otto Group.

While our family-tree of catalogues above is far from complete, it’s easy to see that many catalogues are in fact related, although it’s also true to say that there is an even bigger number of un-related independent catalogue stores as well!

For the savvy catalogue shopper, then knowing the relationships between some of the catalogue operators can be quite a boon; for instance, the exact same product, at the same moment in time, can often be found at several of the Littlewoods catalogue stores for different prices; so, for example, you could find yourself a nice deal on Kays catalogue website (operated by Littlewoods) only to find it even cheaper on the Marshall Ward website (also operated by Littlewoods)… the bottom line being that you should shop around a little, especially if you know that the catalogue operator manages several different brands.