Prepare for the Upcoming Postage Rate Increase

Web buyers are very strong responders. They get a catalog, order on the Web, and there’s no way to trace them. The bottom line: We know Web buyers respond to the catalog, and we know the catalog is a big driver of traffic to the Web.

Early this year we did a split test and created a hold-out panel. We found it absolutely paid to mail Web buyers a catalog. We created two panels of roughly 25,000 names. One panel was mailed seven times, the other only once. The net contribution for the seven-time group was $169,089 compared with the one-time group of $109,318. The Web buyers who were mailed all seven times generated a contribution to profit and overhead (after all selling expenses) of $169,089.