Analyze Your Profit Contribution

See the chart “Proforma Contribution Statement” on page 36. The example is based on printing 1.2 million catalogs for a holiday mailing (a consumer gift catalog). The overall revenue per catalog is $2.10 per book, and the average order size is $60.

We used a 3.79-percent returns ratio, and a cost-of-goods percentage of 47. Direct selling expenses are $740,780, or $0.617 per catalog. This produces a 30.5 percent selling expense to sales ratio, typical for a consumer catalog.