Omnichannel

For this very special report, we chose what we believe to be the three most crucial and timely and important topics in operations and fulfillment for multichannel merchants today.

A client recently called me in a panic. The company often personalizes its e-mails, but this time the send button got pushed too fast. Instead of the recipients’ first names being nicely displayed, the e-mail showed “[FIRST_NAME].” This company prides itself on its e-mail program and customer relationships, and felt this would tarnish its image. That client decided to immediately send a second e-mail with an apology, which went out about three hours after the error occurred.

As in our October 2008 issue, this month’s Catalog Success Latest Trends Report on Key Issues gives you a good apples-to-apples comparison to the results we received from this same report a year ago. Simply look for the percentages in parenthesis that follow each new result.

I’ve put part 3 of my online networking series on hold until next week so I can bring you some timely, post-Thanksgiving tips for increasing holiday sales right now.
Want to add some revenue before we say goodbye to 2008? Try the following:
1. Add an extra mailing before the end of the year. Try it this way: After your last mailing is complete, mail one more catalog just to your hotline buyers, those who just responded to your last mailings of the year. If it’s too late to get your printer involved, grab some of your bounceback and office copy catalogs, and mail

Catalog circulation planning has changed forever, and knowing how to use your marketing database across all channels is the key to success. In today’s multichannel marketing world, contact strategy is the way to the promised land, while planning channels in isolation is the wrong approach. So how can you adapt to changing multichannel tactics efficiently and affordably? Your Challenges Significant changes have occurred that make planning circ now more difficult than ever, and many once-proven methods are no longer effective: 1. Tracing source codes. Catalog nontraceable factors have increased 20 percent to 60 percent or more, creating the need for regular matchbacks. 2. Internet

With the holiday shopping season upon us, many multichannel retailers are scrambling to find a new marketing approach to salvage something positive out of this troublesome year. Enter customer-centric retailing, the enterprise-wide use of customer data to establish a comprehensive understanding of customer behavior as a foundation for maximizing the relevance of cross-functional retail strategies. In a webinar from the Direct Marketing Association last week, Customer Centric Retailing — Making the Shift to a New Paradigm, presenters Miguel Pereira, director of consulting and analytical services at the customer retail strategies firm Precima, and Nicolle Scavuzzo, director of client services at Precima, outlined how customer-centric

As more retailers turn to the Web, direct mail and catalogs to offer customers alternatives to burning gas traveling to malls, many are taking a crash course in direct marketing, seeking ways to make the direct channel work for them. Last month, we laid out the first five of 10 key principles retailers should follow to make the most of catalogs and the Web to augment their retail/multichannel programs. Here are principles six to 10. 6. Use effective segmentation to select names for catalog contact. While very sophisticated segmentation and scoring models have proven successful at larger companies, it’s best to first exploit the

I’ve always believed you put dollars in the bank, not percentages. For example, it’s not the percent of net income that’s important, but the total dollars of profit achieved. To maximize dollars, manage the income statement by the ratios as a percentage of net sales — the dollars will take care of themselves. This month, I’ll review the key ratios of a typical profit and loss (P&L) statement for a B-to-B and a B-to-C catalog company and discuss how these ratios are different today than just a few short years ago. If your company’s experience has been similar to others, sales are

Today’s publishers are using technology like never before. Click to view the Best of Nxtbook, our signature portfolio piece, showcasing our customers’ greatest projects.

The past few years have seen rapid growth in digital magazine adoption. Data from the 2007 Gilbane research group shows where publishers are seeing the greatest adoption and where the market is poised to grow further.