Five Ways to Bring Your Catalog/Multichannel Business in Tune With 2008

Consider the facts: In our Latest Trends Report on Key Issues that ran in our January issue (and that you can find on our Web site right on the home page, above the fold), we have two survey questions on matchbacks. The results show that catalogers’ learning curve on matchbacks remains steep.

In response to our simple question, “Do you have a matchback program in place?” more than 47 percent of respondents said they don’t have one at all. Need I say anymore? Yes, I must: Among those who said they do have a matchback program, while 40.9 percent said theirs is “very accurate and reliable,” 59.1 percent called theirs only “somewhat accurate and reliable.”