Next battles for credit customers

Next, once the stalwart of the British high street with a catalogue business many companies aspired to, is this week to reveal a decline in customers purchasing goods with its high-interest credit option.

Despite a tripling of the company's share value in the past three years, Next will likely report a 3 percent fall in the number of shoppers use its financing option from its catalogue Directory.

Dubbed by the Times as Super-Customers - who purchase goods with credit - are several times more valuable than “cash” customers due to their interest payments and more frequent shopping habits.

In 2015 Next saw its credit customers bring in 166.4 million pounds of interest revenue, however it also saw a loss of 74,000 credit customers, 2.6 percent of the total.

In a bid to keep its customers Next cut interest rates, but the figures aren't all bleak, the company is expected to forecast a 4.4 percent growth in pre-tax profits to 817 million pounds, including an increase in sales of 3 percent.