Can Database Marketing Work for Catalogers? (1,457 words)

The Web is best as an ordering device, not a selling device. A typical sale taken by a telemarketer costs $6.50. The same sale over the Web costs less than $0.10. Forget about Web surfers, and concentrate on catalog shoppers. Get them to use the catalog and order on the Web.

Arthur Middleton Hughes is vice president for strategic planning of msdbm (www.msdbm.com), which maintains databases and Web sites. E-mail him at ahughes@msdbm.com.