Shop Direct Home Shopping Limited (trading as Very and Littlewoods.com) is a British online retailer, originally founded in the 1990s as Littlewoods Direct. In July 2009, Littlewoods Direct was rebranded to Very, with Littlewoods.com continuing as its sister website. The company is based in Speke, Liverpool. From June 2009 to June 2015, the company also operated the Woolworths.co.uk sister website. After its closure, all Woolworths.co.uk traffic was re-directed to Very.

History

The original Littlewoods brand was a shopping catalogue and retail business headquartered in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, and was bought by the

Barclay brothers Sir David Rowat Barclay (27 October 1934 – 10 January 2021) and Sir Frederick Hugh Barclay (born 27 October 1934), commonly referred to as the "Barclay Brothers" or "Barclay Twins", were British billionaire brothers, of whom Frederick Barclay ...

in 2002. The website launched in the 1990s and in 2005, the physical stores were sold, leaving Littlewoods as a pure play online retailer. In 2009, Littlewoods Direct was rebranded as Very.co.uk, shifting its focus to online retailing and a younger market. The website launched officially in July 2009. In 2010 a mobile enabled version of the site was launched, upgrading to include video and images in 2011. In the first quarter of 2013/14, mobile sales accounted for over a third of total online sales.

Woolworths.co.uk

In February 2009, it was announced that Shop Direct Group had purchased the Woolworths intellectual property from the administrators, and would re-launch Woolworths.co.uk at a later date. In June 2009, the company launched the Woolworths.co.uk website. After its closure in June 2015, all Woolworths.co.uk traffic was re-directed to Very.co.uk. In July 2021, the now-called Very Group sold all of the Woolworths intellectual property to Woolworth in Germany.

Partnerships and promotion

Very makes extensive use of both celebrity endorsements and product placement on television and other media. Holly Willoughby and Fearne Cotton have acted as faces of the site, creating branded fashion collections and appearing in adverts. Other names who have worked with the brand include

Jameela Jamil Jameela Alia Jamil (born 25 February 1986) is an English actress, activist and presenter. She began her career on Channel 4, where she hosted a pop culture series in the ''T4 (Channel 4), T4'' strand from 2009 until 2012. She then became the ra ...

and

Diana Vickers Diana Vickers (born 30 July 1991) is an English singer, songwriter and actress. She was a semi-finalist on ''The X Factor (British series 5), The X Factor'' in 2008, finishing in fourth place. Vickers signed a record deal with RCA Records and, ...

. In December 2013, former Girls Aloud member Kimberley Walsh became a celebrity designer for the brand. Michelle Keegan launched a fashion and homeware partnership with Very in October 2017. Very has sponsored V music festival, also offering a delivery service to the festival sites in 2012. It has also sponsored ''

Celebrity Big Brother ''Celebrity Big Brother'' or ''Big Brother VIP'' is an adaptation of the '' Big Brother'' reality television series. It is the celebrity version of its parent franchise ''Big Brother'', the celebrity version airs in several countries, however, t ...

'' on Channel 5, with branded, 'click-to-buy' product placement.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.Very.co.uk/ 2009 establishments in the United Kingdom British companies established in 2009 Clothing retailers of England Companies based in Liverpool Internet properties established in 2009 Online retailers of the United Kingdom Retail companies established in 2009