E-Commerce

For many years, the recency/frequency/monetary value (RFM) formula has been the cornerstone of catalog circulation plan segmentation. But what if this is no longer true? What if recent customers actually respond to your catalog mailings at a lower rate than older customers, frequent customers at an even lower rate, and higher spending customers even lower? No, I’m not kidding. This is happening right now and you may not be aware of it. A brief review of the age-old formula is in order. First, recency. It’s been the most powerful predictor of the likelihood of a customer placing another order. For example, for one typical

An impromptu trip from Denmark to England started it all. It was the summer of 1973, and while traveling in Denmark, Grant Dowse and Pegge Kirschner decided to take a road trip to England. To make the car comfortable enough to camp in, they bought, among other things, a cotton flannel sheet. They eventually brought the sheet home with them, and later ordered a similar item from an American mail order company. But it wound up being a synthetic version of the English flannel sheet they’d purchased in Europe. That transaction inspired them to launch their own mail order business. Married three years

Throughout my years covering this business, I’ve often had to elaborate to friends or family members on just what market I cover — or for that matter, what I do for a living. I’d try to explain and it would take them a little while to understand both what the catalog market is and what I do. “Catalog what? What’s yer catalog?” “No, no. I’m with a magazine that follows the catalog business. Y’know, L.L. Bean or Lands’ End. Or, surely you’ve heard of the old Sears Wish Book?” “Ohhhh! You work for Sears. Nice! Are you in the appliance department?” “Ughhh …” In the past, it wasn’t always

“Customer 2.0” has revolutionized the way that companies are doing business. Customers are more in control of their transactions than ever before and can be in multiple places at multiple times, all thanks to the Internet. At a session I led during last week’s ACCM conference in Boston, the panel and I discussed ways multichannel marketers can get to know such customers better. For instance, when companies use online surveying methods to find out what their Web customers want, they should be aware that misinformation is often more dangerous than no information at all. It’s critical that companies gather “voice of customer” information that provides

During a session at last week’s ACCM conference in Boston, Anne Vargo, e-commerce supervisor for B-to-B computer products cataloger CDW, and I both concluded that many of the best practices for B-to-B search are the same as consumer. These include comprehensive term lists, smart bidding, focused copy and landing pages, strong tracking and ongoing testing. But we described several unique challenges specific to large scale paid search. We discussed the $6.8 billion CDW’s search program of more than 100,000 active search ads and the “long tail” of search terms, noting that the 100,000 active ads are the “survivors” after testing more than 500,000. Vargo noted

In a recent survey of 1,000 online shoppers of whom 68 percent shop online for personal reasons more than once a month, the e-tailing group found that the largest group of respondents, 43 percent, spend more than $1,000 online annually. Another large group of respondents, 38 percent, spend between $500 and $749 per year. Below are some other noteworthy findings of the survey, which was sponsored by Doubleclick Performics. * 70 percent of respondents shop multiple Web sites to find the best deal prior to making purchases * rewards customers who belong to two or more programs are less likely to focus on price; instead, they

E-commerce sales will hit $131 billion this year, according to an eMarketer estimate from earlier this month. What’s more, the online research firm estimates that annual compound growth for retail e-commerce sales will slow down to 17.5 percent annually for the years 2006 through 2011, compared to 24.7 percent growth from 2003-2005. Existing online buyers, however, will fuel growth by spending more online. The following compound annual growth rates from the eMarketer survey follow. * online shoppers: 3.2 percent (2006-2011); 7.9 percent (2003-2005) * online buyers: 3.5 percent (2006-2011); 11.8 percent (2003-2005) * Internet users: 2.7 percent (2006-2011); 6.7 percent (2003-2005). For more information, go to <a href="http://www.emarketer.com"

In the intensive session I led during the ACCM in Boston on May 21, the overriding theme was that search engines judge a site’s worth on its inbound links. Translation: No links = no rankings. Blogs, meanwhile, are great at attracting links from the blogosphere, because bloggers are rather cliquish and mostly tend to link to each other. So you’ll earn links as a blog that you wouldn’t normally earn otherwise. Nonetheless, intentionally work to boost your link popularity; don’t just expect links to your blog to come on their own. One of the best ways to do this is by building relationships with

This is my 21st go-round attending ACCM, the Annual Conference for Catalog and Multichannel Merchants (did I get that whole thing right?), being held May 21-23 in Boston. For my first 18, I was part of the assorted parent companies that co-sponsored the event with the DMA. But for the past two, as a press attendee and not a part-host, I’ve picked up a different perspective on this event as well as on some other conferences. Actually, I take that back: This year, I’m sort of a part-host again on the other side of the partnership since I was recently named chairman/editor of the

Although far from new, polls are a greater part of the American fabric than ever before. Consumers have become more comfortable with polls conducted via e-mail, on Web sites and via text messages (as much as I loathe the show, two quick words come to mind here: “American Idol”). In fact, it’s pretty rare these days when we’re not subjected to some sort of poll at least once a week, sometimes even once a day. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Polls aren’t like those delightful 6:30 p.m. telemarketing calls we often have to answer with a mouthful of pasta. They’re there; you