Strategy: Decipher Web vs. Catalog Customers

That Web initiative is great, but over-allocating these results to the Web will lead to the wrong conclusion. If you reduce catalog circulation, you also reduce the number of e-mail addresses you can add to the file.

Contribution Margins
Today, 40 percent to 50 percent of all orders come through the Web — not necessarily from the Web. For customers ordering online, the Web provides another, more convenient way for them to obtain merchandise. Approximately 15 percent to 20 percent of that business comes directly from the Internet, via paid and organic search engines and affiliate programs. The catalog is still responsible for 80 percent to 85 percent of all sales.