10 Statements a Catalog President May Not Want to Hear

9. Don’t reduce your print quantity because of an increase in Web orders. Here’s a typical scenario. Catalog circulation was increased by 20 percent. Traceable catalog sales are reduced 5 percent, while Internet demand appears to be up 10 to 15 percent.

The conclusion you might draw: Your catalog was ineffective. The catalog is the biggest driver of traffic to the Web. For one of my clients, we recently attributed about $2 million of demand from $3 million of Internet revenue back to a specific catalog source code. Mr. Catalog President, how do you think those buyers got to the Web? It was the catalog that drove them there.