More than half of the fashion catalogue's sales now come from the internet

Sixty per cent of sales from the Next Directory catalogue are now made on the internet, according to the retailer’s latest annual results.

Over the next year, the fashion chain plans to improve its web site functionality to take advantage of customers searching for purchasing ideas.

“The internet continues to be very important to the development of the Directory,” said Next chief executive Simon Wolfson in his financial statement.

“We believe we have yet to fully exploit the potential for linked sales and search driven stock selection,”

But the company has warned that future performance of the Directory is difficult to forecast due to contradictory market trends – specifically the balance between the general growth in internet shopping and general pressure on consumer spending.

“We can see no reason why there should be any recovery in consumer spending during the year ahead,” said Wolfson.