Freemans, a century-old British retail institution, is continuing its comprehensive evolution from a traditional mail-order catalogue business into a modern digital department store. Having officially retired its weighty print catalogue three years ago after producing one billion copies across 118 years, the company has focused its recent efforts on scaling a digital marketplace. The platform, which launched 18 months ago, currently features approximately 150 partner brands spanning categories such as fashion, footwear, beauty, technology, home, and garden.
Expanding Marketplace Reach
According to Steven Harrison, Head of Marketplace at Freemans, the platform experienced a deliberate start before accelerating significantly in the final quarter of last year. This momentum has persisted through the current year, prompting management to double its growth targets. The organization aims for marketplace transactions to represent 30 percent of its total business mix within the next year to 18 months. Unlike standard marketplace models, Harrison notes that the company evaluates partner additions carefully to ensure clear customer demand, balancing structured range planning with the flexibility to explore entirely new product categories without assuming traditional inventory risks.
Leveraging Data and Artificial Intelligence
To guide its commercial strategy, Freemans utilizes artificial intelligence tools fed with internal data to identify emerging product opportunities. Gross Merchandise Value remains a central metric, alongside deeper analyses of customer acquisition drivers and conversion improvements. While automated reporting helps track performance, identifying weekly inventory velocity anomalies often still relies on manual oversight from internal teams. When selecting new marketplace partners, the retailer evaluates key performance indicators including conversion rates, fulfillment speed, cancellation metrics, and the ability to attract repeat buyers.
Streamlining Customer Returns
Integrating diverse third-party partners has introduced complexities to the customer returns journey. Because shoppers frequently send returned merchandise directly to Freemans rather than individual vendors—sometimes even using outdated labels found at home—the company has developed an updated returns platform. The new system allows customers to initiate returns through their online accounts with a simplified interface, while giving the business the backend capability to route items directly back to the appropriate vendor.
- Transitioned from print catalogues to a fully digital department store model
- Targeting marketplace transactions to comprise 30 percent of total business operations
- Deploying updated digital returns infrastructure to route products directly to third-party vendors