Omnichannel

Today’s multichannel merchants continually are searching for viable channel-integration solutions — a seamless blend across the key points of customer interaction, including catalogs, Web sites, retail stores and kiosks. “Providing seamless integration communicates a consistent message to consumers and results in higher transaction values,” note the authors of the LakeWest Group’s Fifth Annual POS Benchmarking Survey 2004. But as most catalogers will tell you, achieving that seamless blend across all sales channels is more difficult than it appears to be. Following are a few tactics that can help you make the most of all of your channel-integration intiatives. 1. Take advantage

Catalog Success and Marketing INFORMATION Network® present the Top 200 Catalogs: The Greatest Housefile-Growth Rates Among Catalogers The charts reflect our second-annual ranking of the top 200 North America-based catalogs as measured by recent housefile-growth rates. You’ll notice that catalogers selling apparel/shoes, home furnishings and food fared particularly well. But other consumer categories also had strong showings, most notably athletic and sporting goods and apparel (14 catalogs in the Top 200), children’s products (14) and gardening-related items (13). Moreover, 16 business-to-business catalogs made the list. Comparing and ranking catalogs based only on raw numbers is never a fool-proof methodology. For example,

Free Shipping! 50% Off! Free Gift with Order. These are all common catalog offers that inspire customers to order. Obviously, promotional offers work. They boost orders and gross revenue. But which offers work best, and when and how can you use them most effectively? Should you make the same offers to both customers and prospects? To be effective, you need to know what to avoid when making promotional offers. Avoid Conditioning First, don’t condition your customers to look for offers every time they buy. Over-promoting an offer may result in a decline in your response rates. Also be careful how you use

Someone asked me recently why I like covering the catalog industry. I told him because it’s ever-evolving. He exclaimed with some incredulity: “Ever-evolving?! A catalog is a catalog. It’s a traditional medium. How is it evolving?” I gave him my quick rendition on how new software and management techniques, as well as e-commerce tactics, make the industry quite dynamic. He seemed mildly convinced. Afterwards I thought more about his original question: What is it about cataloging that I find so fascinating? On the surface, it’s a fairly simple proposition: You buy products, market them and sell them for more than what you paid

In the old days of cataloging, a two-step acquisition was defined as a prospect converting to a customer after he or she responded to two different marketing efforts — thus taking two steps. Step one was to respond to a compelling advertisement to get a catalog. Step two was to respond to the catalog by placing an order. With two-step acquisition, the broad advertising net usually was cast in a trade magazine, and prospective customers replied by phone. Tracking costs for such acquisitions was simple, as the choices for the first step seemed finite, and the conversion meant loyal, long-term customers. In

A full two-thirds of all consumers embrace multiple channels, according to Forrester Research. No doubt, you also know from your own experience that your best customers are those shopping in all of your available channels. But how do you expertly manage and optimize these sales? Kevin Green, president and chief marketing officer at Lillian Vernon, and Bill Miller, president of Eziba, offered the following trade secrets for multichannel marketing during their session: “Web, Catalog and Sales: Managing a Three-way Relationship,” held during The Direct Marketing Association’s Annual Conference in Orlando in October. • Establish consistent policies across all of your channels.

I want to share with you here, an example of how not to do multichannel marketing. Here’s what happened: I received at home a catalog from the premiere merchant of personal organizers, and I decided to buy two units of one of its sale items. But the catalog’s call center is open only Monday through Friday, and it was a Sunday when I decided to buy. So I fired up my home computer, logged on to the merchant’s Web site and plugged in the SKU. As I was working, I thought this little shopping spree probably would take only a few minutes. Up popped

“Our goal for next year is to have a goal.” The national food cataloger had flown me to its planning meeting for next year’s program. As the company’s CEO called the meeting to order, I was concerned about making a good impression. Could I measure up to this high-level cataloger’s expectations? I opened the meeting crisply: “Let’s start by discussing the basic goals and strategies you’ve used in the past.” The CEO gave a slow, deep sigh and said, “We have no goals; we have no strategies.” A little strategic thinking about your goals can put you ahead of your competitors. And

What if you could achieve double the response rate you currently earn with your catalog mailing? What if you could mail for much less than the cost of the catalog? And what if you could do all this and make a profit? You can. Highly targeted, lower-cost marketing communications vehicles such as mini catalogs, solo direct mail pieces and flyers complement your catalog mailings. An advantage business-to-business (b-to-b) catalogers have over consumer catalogers is their knowledge of purchasing motivators, industry-wide purchasing patterns and product life cycles. Think about it: Customers in certain industries buy during specific times of the year, while others buy

Many metrics are used to run a profitable catalog business. For example, an apparel company may set a goal for its overall return rate of 22 percent, while a gift mailer may strive for less than 6 percent. But one thing is universal among catalogers: The ideal metrics or ratios are those that lead to profitable income statements. After all, if you manage by the ratios, the dollars will take care of themselves. Remember, dollars go into the bank, not percentages. Key metrics to calculate and watch include service levels (e.g., how long customers wait in your contact center’s queue), response levels (e.g.,