SkyMall: The Ultimate Catalog Business Model

Although it warehouses and ships very little, SkyMall is the merchant of record on all transactions. When an order comes into SkyMall, it is electronically conveyed to Order Trust—a clearing house that automatically translates orders into the precise format of each cataloger. The order is forwarded to each cataloger, fulfilled and shipped in its standard packaging. On confirmation of the shipment, SkyMall charges the customer’s credit card for the merchandise and the shipping. Multiple orders from different catalogs are shipped separately with the charges split among the participating merchants.