Crisis Drives Innovation for Catalog Mailers

Abacus recommended digging deep into individual prospecting lists; measuring their profitability over time; and looking at variables such as season of purchase, dollar value of purchase and merchandise categories purchased to find “preselects” that help co-ops find better customers.

* Catalogers were discussing how best to know if the fall in response rates has bottomed out. One quick and clear metric that emerged was comparing monthly sales for this year vs. last year to see how sales are trending. Catalogers are tracking month-by-month sales, comparing this year to last year on a monthly and quarterly basis.