Case Study: Sundance Catalog

Based on sales it was apparent early on that certain merchandise would soon begin eclipsing other product lines, such as apparel, if the catalog did not increase pages to accommodate customers’ growing interests. In particular, jewelry and home furnishings emerged. But in the early 1990s, shipping large home furnishings was not widely done in the catalog industry. So what has since become one of the strongest selling lines for Sundance was suppressed until it became feasible within the mail order industry. The response to the core book has been favorable since, with sharp increases in initial response that caused Sundance to move three times in its first four years of business to larger facilities. In 11 years of business the staff has increased 200 percent to 230 employees, created three new titles and pushed circulation of the core book to 16 million annually.