Three merchants offer their insights on establishing virtual catalogs.

By Noelle Buoncristiano

Clay Lingo

vice president, direct to consumer, Illuminations

Merchandise: candles and home decor

www.illuminations.com

Catalog Success: Why did you implement a virtual catalog?

Lingo: Like every retailer, we have budgetary limitations that preclude us from printing and mailing a catalog to every customer in our database. By creating a digital version of our print catalog, we knew we easily could leverage our e-mail database, as well as the traffic to our Web site, thereby expanding distribution on a very substantial and low-cost basis.