Index Limited

Index Limited

Founded	1985
Defunct	2005
Industry	Retailer
Products	Consumer goods

Index was a catalogue retailer in the United Kingdom, closed in 2005.

Index was formerly owned by retailer Littlewoods from 1985 until 2004, and then Littlewoods Shop Direct Group from 2004 until 2005. Many Index stores attached to Littlewoods stores as well as several (around 60) stand-alone Index branches. It was a well-known retail outlet in the 1980s and 1990s but after sales began to decline in the early 2000s, its popularity became disputable and it was losing many of its customers in favour of its rival, Argos.

During their 20-year history, Index lost £100 million, eventually causing parent company Littlewoods Shop Direct Group to sell the stores. A number of sites were purchased by rival Argos.

Similarities to Argos

Both Argos and Index issued catalogues containing very similar items, although Argos had more appeal to the UK market than Index in the later years.^{[citation needed]} They both had jewellery counters, stock checkers, the same basis of catalogue slips and the same type of organisation, with the customer having to state catalogue numbers when ordering products from the tills.

Originally "The Catalogue Shop" was a way for Littlewoods Stores to sell items from their mail order catalogue business and take on Argos at its own game. As such the first outlets were in larger cities inside the normal Littlewoods chain stores. As the outlets spread round the country the name was changed to "Index - The Catalogue Shop" with many of the goods having both a 6-digit Index product code and a 2-letter + 4-number Catalogue product code. By the time the outlets were stand alone the name had been shortened to "Index" and the products were more often than not not available through the mail order catalogue.

Differences from Argos

Index had slight differences from its stronger rival. Some Index stores were situated inside Littlewoods stores, either upstairs or below ground level. This proved inaccessible compared to Argos stores, which have ground-level shop floors. Also, Index stores were usually smaller than Argos stores as there was a smaller product range. However a large number of Index stores were independent of Littlewoods Stores. In most cases the independent store were able to carry more stock than the Argos equivalent.

Index also offered a free home delivery option for any item not available in stock on that day, instead of customers having to come back into store. Since the close of Index, Argos has now implemented a similar system; however, customers still have to return to store to collect items.

Closure

Contrary to popular belief Argos never took over the business. Littlewoods closed all of the stores, and sold off a proportion of the properties (30 Stores) to Argos. Index employees at these stores transferred to Argos. Argos also acquired the rights to the Index brand and index.co.uk.