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

By Melissa Sepos

In February 2000, Garden.com purchased Earthmade, a gardening tool and furniture catalog, and has since produced two more catalogs. Garden.com’s catalog is simply part of an equation that drives online sales.

“We were a small company going for the lowest fruit—people online that gardened,” says Sharples about acquiring customers five years ago. “With the evolution of our brand, our model is about just sucking people online.