The Editor's Take: Let’s All Survive, Then Thrive

Now that each of these 200 catalogs gained more new customers over the past year, the trick will be finding ways to keep them active this year. For each company listed, their files grew through a combination of adding names via the print catalog and online.

A final word to the 200 from the chart, as well as all readers: Consider how valuable any and every new customer is this year, and nurture each one appropriately. Distinguish the differences between Web shoppers, catalog shoppers and retail shoppers. Over time, those differences will diminish. But for now, they’re quite diverse. That’s at least a good starting point.