Next is a British brand which serves worldwide. They sell clothing, footwear, accessories, beauty and grooming products, and home appliances. They also have a gift center option on their website where one can select different kinds of gifts according to their loved one’s needs. This brand is very prominent, especially in the United Kingdom, and has overtaken many powerful clothing brands back in the years. Its headquarters are located in Enderby, England. It has a website and also can be found in various shopping apps. Let’s know ‘Does Next Do Alterations?’.
Does Next Do Alterations?
They provide a very satisfactory service both in clothing and in case of any inquiry. Next does not provide alteration service in case of online shopping from the website, also they do not provide this facility in stores.
History
The founder of the company was Joseph Hepworth and was founded in 1864. He started the company as a tailor and later it expanded on a high scale. Initially, he focuses more on suit making, or can be said that he dominated the suit market for a while. Later, the company offered the high-class designer Hardy Amies to join in to help grow the company that used to be known as the Hepworth store at that time. The company get around 600 shops in high streets when they decided to buy Kendall and Sons in 1981.
Kendall used to retail in womenswear and also produced umbrellas of very high quality. Though Hepworth bought Kendall, they still retail in menswear and womenswear separately respectively. George Davies, the chief executive at that time decided to convert all Kendall and Hepworth stores into one and named the new company Next to form one store having both menswear and womenswear. The first Next store was opened in February 1982. Later on, the name changed to Next plc.
Period of descendant
As the path of success always passes through a lot of downs and failures. The same happened with Next, after more than six years of continuous growth, the company went bankrupt as many stores were not making enough money to handle expenses. The company had to sell its shares and many jewelry shops.
There were many wrong steps taken by the company itself to earn more profit but as they say ‘karma’, you will get the taste of your own medicine. In 2010, BBC found out that Next was billing its customers for the delivery costs for three years and thus breaking Consumer Protection law. Further in 2014, Next was accused by a journalist in The Times of not paying living wages to the employees.
Achievements
Next has more than three million active users and 180 international stores. It operates stores for Victoria’s Secret. In September 2018, Next was established in Germany. When in 2021, Gap announced that it will close all its stores in the UK, it allowed Next to manage its UK website and also grant some concessions in Next stores for its clothing. It is currently the second-largest clothing brand in the UK.
Marketing strategy
Besides producing good quality clothes, every company should have a proper strategic plan to launch their product by taking care of the targeted area’s demand and habitat. There is no worth in making good quality clothes if one could not implement it smartly in the market. Marketing strategy has four tools: product, price, place, and promotion.
Product:
The first step towards the success of a brand is the quality of the product. Customers do not prefer buying the product again if they did not receive a good quality the first time. Next target all the gender clothing between 10-50 years of age and such that each of them gets the desired quality of the product. Next has a proper surveillance system which ensures no compromisation in the quality of the product.
Price:
The price of the product should be according to its quality and type. It should be according to the convenience of the customers. Next’s pricing strategy is more of a neutral zone, that is it provides quality with quantity at an affordable rate and maintains the expectations of the customers. They do not follow penetration that is followed by the startups to gain sales or skimming strategy which is used by the companies to remove competition by increasing prices.
Place:
Next has over 500 stores in the United Kingdom, and such a large number makes it easy for the customers to buy the product within the country. Buying directly from the store is worth doing as customers can try and touch the item, checking the stuff there only and can decide whether to buy it or not. Also, it will be a great help for the customer if altering service provided in the store. Stores also have assistance in the form of humans to guide you with your problems. The Next like other brands has websites and apps for shopping in case anyone could not go to the store, not in the U.K but the other countries also and providing online customer care service also.
Promotion:
To make people know about the company, promotion is the utmost step. Next does not hold promotions on a large scale, rather it prefers to put offers and sales on the website, and with the help of social media like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, it promotes ads so that they can easily reach the customers. Also, they take the help of celebrities in promoting their products through television and by putting pictures on their pages.
Conclusion
Next is one of the well-known brands for shopping with good quality and customer care service. It is more famous in the U.K and Ireland than in any other country. Though it has suffered from a lot of criticism, in the end, it still managed to be a trustworthy brand in terms of quality.
