Clothing maker Country Road will shut its online store this week, after choosing not to renew its contract with e-commerce provider Wishlist.com.au.

Country Road's chief executive, Ian Moir, told ZDNet Australia  the company is not planning to re-build an online store. "I think like many other retailers we've decided to use our Web site as a means of communicating with our customers, rather than for direct sales," he said.

Describing the decision not to renew the Wishlist contract as a "natural conclusion of a partnership", Moir said online sales just haven't taken off.

"I don't think we're unique in what we're doing," he said. "The deal we entered into with Wishlist worked for us at the time... if Web retailing had taken off then we would have both made good money out of the deal. As it was, people haven't really taken to purchasing from the web -- particularly for upmarket apparel".

Wishlist director Jardin Truong told ZDNet Australia  there's no hard feelings -- the split was mutual. "In terms of Wishlist holdings... we're moving much more into corporate performance incentives and rewards," she said.

While Truong had enjoyed working with Country Road, she says Wishlist is looking to change the company's direction. "There's a need within companies for rewarding staff and customers," she said. "The technology that we've built for our online store is very appropriate for providing corporations with [price, incentives, and rewards schemes]."

Customers of the online store received an e-mail this afternoon from the two companies informing them the online store would close effective Wednesday.

"Country Road will resume full management of www.countryroad.com.au. The online store will close at midnight on Wednesday 13th August," it read.

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