Product Quality Assurance (466 words)

"One of my mentors in the catalog business once told me, 'Don't believe everything your supplier tells you,'" says Easly, who once worked as a merchandising manager at a large business-to-business catalog. "Make vendors show you exactly how something was resolved, not just promise a resolution."

- Devise a sound returns policy. Before your next catalog drops, have in place a plan for what to do with products if they come back to you. Such a plan may include sending the goods to a refurbishing company that will fix the items and return them to you. Or you could earmark them for sale to an inventory liquidator.