Transformations of Retailing in Europe after 1945 by Lydia Langer Ralph Jessen

Author:Lydia Langer, Ralph Jessen [Lydia Langer, Ralph Jessen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Modern, 20th Century
ISBN: 9781409483656
Google: 8aZFgY-HMr0C
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2012-10-28T16:12:57+00:00

Chapter 7

Mail Order Retailing in Britain Since 1945: Credit, Community and Technology

Richard Coopey

The mail order sector in British retailing has recently undergone somewhat of a renaissance. There is no escaping the conclusion that this change in fortunes has been primarily driven by developments in information and communications technology. On the supply side new technologies have radically changed enterprises’ ability to deliver through the post – ordering processes, stock control systems, delivery systems, credit referencing and so on have all been transformed in recent years. For customers the change has also been dramatic – the location and choice of goods, price comparisons, methods of payment, delivery prediction and tracking have all been dramatically altered. A new world of shopping has been created, and continues to expand. This new retail world is embedded in a wider social and cultural environment which is changing at the same pace, as information and communication technology (ICT) transforms the way people work and play, communicate and interact.

But mail order is not new of course. While it is tempting to view the mail order industry as leaping de novo out of the world of ICT, there is a more subtle history to be explored. Almost since the development of the postal system, goods have been advertised, ordered and delivered through the mail. A myriad of enterprises have sold goods by mail in addition to conventional retailing, or sold exclusively through the post. In most developed economies dedicated general mail order stores emerged around the beginning of the twentieth century, some of which went on to become very large and influential enterprises indeed. Sears Roebuck, for example, which became one of the largest corporations in the world, established a presence in millions of households in the USA, and led the way in rationalizing stock control and work flow in American industry, famously influencing Henry Ford in flow-line production techniques.1 This chapter will examine the British case, particularly the rise of the large mail order houses, and will pose the question – to what extent did the new world of mail order grow out of older forms? And, indeed, to what extent are the new mail order retail systems, with their attendant social and cultural embeddedness, a reflection of a previous connectivity between mail order shopping and the social and cultural?

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