On the Web: The New World of Direct Marketing

There are many similarities between this new type of direct marketer and classic catalogers.

1. The couple I met found an underserved audience and developed a product line to match it. These two figured out how to buy and price product, when to use sales and offers, when to add something new, and how to know what to add. They developed great graphics and wrote compelling copy to get customers to reach for their credit cards.
2. The couple had what I call "the skill of merchandising," the most common and fundamental skill of cataloging.

Going-Out-of-Biz Model
This new world is beginning to spread out to reach the old. ChannelAdvisor, the software that many eBay stores use to post ads and products, and the host of this particular conference, has been adding channels to its offerings. Companies on this platform now can advertise on comparison shopping engines, such as Shop.com, and manage paid search.