Rackhams sales more than double a year after the Birmingham store name returned online

Rackhams, the Birmingham department store name that vanished from the high street a quarter of a century ago, says its online revival has more than doubled its sales in a year.

The Sutton Coldfield-based business reported that its October sales were up 113% on the same month last year. Its catalogue has grown to more than 350,000 products from over 1,000 sellers, covering fashion, beauty, home, garden and lifestyle.

It is a welcome bit of good news for a name with deep roots in the city, and a sign that a Birmingham retail brand can find a new life online.

A famous name, reimagined

For generations of Brummies, Rackhams meant the grand department store in the city centre. The name left the high street in the early 2000s, when the Birmingham store was rebranded as House of Fraser. That store has since closed, and the building between Corporation Street and Temple Row is earmarked for a major redevelopment.

New owners relaunched Rackhams in 2025 as an online department store with no physical shops. The idea was to bring hundreds of suppliers together in one place, much as the old store did under one roof for decades.

The business describes the year since the relaunch as one of "exceptional growth".

AI search ahead of Christmas

Ahead of the busy Christmas trading period, Rackhams has introduced a new AI-powered search on its website, developed with the specialist firm Luigi's Box. It uses personalisation and data on how the site performs to take shoppers straight to the most relevant products, and it highlights popular items and buying guides.

The early figures are encouraging. Since the new search went live in October, Rackhams says its daily revenue is up 8% on September, and the number of orders it takes each day is up 11%. Bosses expect the tool to drive further growth through November and December.

Mike Hart, head of marketing at Rackhams, said: "We're always striving to make our website a better experience for our customers, and search is at the heart of that. With over 350,000 products on site, we want shoppers to find what they're looking for quickly and to discover things they didn't know they needed."

He added: "A better experience for customers means a more thriving marketplace for our sellers."

What it means for Birmingham

The revival keeps a piece of Birmingham's shopping history alive, and it is run from within the city's boundaries, in Sutton Coldfield. For the independent businesses selling through the marketplace, a busier Christmas on Rackhams could mean more orders at the most important time of the year.

The story is one of change rather than a straight return to the past. Rackhams has no shop for customers to walk into, and its former home in the city centre is moving on too: the building is set for a regeneration that would bring hundreds of new homes and new office space to the heart of Birmingham.

Shoppers who remember the store's Christmas windows can still browse under the old name this year, just from the sofa rather than on Corporation Street.