The postal price increases for marketing mail are driving down volume and, more importantly for the USPS, driving down profits. The postal price increases need to be rolled back. Basic economic principles apply to the pricing decisions for catalogs and direct mail: Catalogs (and direct mail) are very sensitive to the cost of mailing. More…
Jim Coogan
The postal price increases in the near term have proven to be a failure. The USPS modeling predicted that revenue would increase and demand wouldn't fall. However, the data tells a different story. In 2023, revenue of “marketing mail” decreased by $920 million and volume decreased by 7.7 billion pieces. The USPS produced and relied…
My experience with postcard programs is that they're profitable. Their potential scale is set by the size of the profitable universe of website abandons that a company’s website traffic generates each month. Therefore, the good news is that sending a postcard to a website abandon is profitable; the bad news is that these programs are…
The catalog printing world is in crisis. Paper prices continue to increase. Paper supplies are limited and catalogers often aren’t getting enough paper shipped to their printer to meet their press run requirements. Printers are “sold out” for the holiday 2022 season. Costs continue to increase for paper, postage, ink, and freight and fuel. Bindery…
As the pandemic has eased, catalogers are having to pivot to the new reality of the post-pandemic world. Most catalogers saw significant changes to their businesses with the onset of the pandemic. Now, most catalogers are seeing another shift as demand, response rates, and the basic business models shift again. How can catalogers understand the…
Prices for catalog paper increased again on August 1. Paper price increases have continued over the past several months. Printers are now being allocated paper by the mills, which means printers aren't able to get all the paper they've ordered. As a result of this supply chain backlog, printers are sold out of press time…
The pandemic is fading. How can catalogers predict sales for the second half of the year? Here are some points to keep in mind: Catalogers are finding that their sales are decreasing or remaining steady depending on their merchandise category. Some categories were still white-hot this spring, with gardening being a prime example of a…
The USPS’s announcement of new, higher postage rates for catalogers and all other mail is a mistake and should be rolled back. The attempt to boost revenue by raising rates may very well have the exact opposite effect: catalogers will drastically scale back on the number of books they put into the mail, suppressing USPS…
Postmaster General DeJoy should see the handwriting on the wall and gracefully step aside. Why? He had no plan to insure delivery of ballots during an election season. He whiffed on holiday deliveries and allowed UPS and FedEx to shift a backlog of packages over to the USPS. His plans to improve the Post Office…
The Post Office should have both a plan and the leadership to carry out the new administration’s agenda. The first order of business is to appoint a new Postmaster General. In the past, the Postmaster General was a nonpartisan, nonpolitical job. However, the current Postmaster General was the first political appointee in recent memory. As…
Many catalog mailers are seeing large increases in revenue and growth in their new-to-file buyers because of the surge in pandemic-driven online purchases. However, with the growth in the number of buyers comes lots of uncertainty. Are these new buyers different than buyers pre-pandemic? The business issue with the significant influx of pandemic buyers is…
The holiday season is ramping up with a bang. And it will be a holiday season like no other. People will shop more because they're at home. People will give more gifts because they won’t be able to travel to see family and friends as the pandemic drags on without an end in sight. People…
Catalogers are rightly concerned about managing their catalog deliveries through the mail during the election season. Issues include: Will catalogs get delivered? Will catalogs get delivered on time given the turmoil surrounding the Post Office and the election? Will customers respond like a normal holiday season or will response rates be affected by the shadow…
In his Catalog Spotlight column, circulation expert Jim Coogan offers a list of tips to help catalogers squeeze the most sales and profit from their circulation this holiday shopping season.
Catalog marketers are overwhelmed with data. They need to measure what’s important and keep track of the data that’s critical to the health of their catalog’s circulation, and do away with the rest. Here are tips on how to do just that:
