Garden.com and other online retailers are changing direct marketing—including the look and function of the mail order catalog

By Melissa Sepos

“[We try to pull them online so they] wouldn’t be looking at 25 perennials but at 75,” says Sharples about the continual drive to the site. “A lot of traditional catalogers don’t understand why we take the first two pages not to maximize sales on the catalog, but trying to maximize the number of customers —we are trying to sell them on why [to go to the site].”