Principles of Catalog Shopping for Retailers, Part 1 of 2

5. Assess the effectiveness of catalog contacts by using matchbacks. Understanding the difference between the channel of origin and the channel of order is a key to success. Even large and sophisticated retailers who mail catalogs get this wrong. There are several points of confusion among many.

• They believe sales coming via the phone are driven by the catalog;
• they think store traffic is a result of general marketing media; and
• they believe Internet sales come from Internet marketing efforts such as keyword buys and banner ads.