Shipping

Really… I mean it!

If you’re not already in the catalog business, don’t start one. In fact, you can stop reading here.

Don’t even waste your time…

O.K., you got me. I’m being ironic.

In fact, a few paragraphs down, I’ll tell you why now is the best time to start a catalog business. But, only as long as you’re willing to follow the few simple rules of the catalog business. Rules that run counterintuitive to your current business model.

To me, this is a fitting way to start my first weekly blog (silly word blog, but less silly than saying the word “spam”

What’s out: All automation-related discounts for UFSM 1000-sortable flats (catalogs). What’s in: Automations-rate eligibility discounts to only those flats that can be processed by AFSM 100 sorters. Action needed: Reconfigure catalog dimensions to conform to tighter postal discount eligibility.

Despite a postal rate increase and natural disasters in the United States, direct marketing revenue was up 10 percent from 2004 to 2005, according to a recent report from co-op database provider Abacus obtained exclusively by Catalog Success. Sales increased an average of 15 percent for 2005, with a peak increase of 21 percent over 2004 in August. Sales rose by 13 percent in September, despite Hurricane Katrina’s late August impact. In data revealed exclusively to Catalog Success, Abacus shows the effects Hurricanes Katrina and Rita had on direct sales on the Gulf Coast in Q2 and Q3 2005. Alabama Mobile: Q2 sales up

With the holiday season around the corner, and a double-digit postal increase on the horizon, consider where you can gain incremental value out of your housefile. Mike Yapuncich, vice president, solution support for data services provider Experian, offers a few tips on how to do just that: 1. Mail to the correct address. “The most important thing that catalogers should be doing to get incremental value out of their housefiles is [to use] NCOALink,” Yapuncich says. This process updates your housefile based on new mover information registered with the USPS. Yapuncich notes that while some catalogers try to save money by using NCOALink quarterly, the

When postage rates increase, catalogers really feel the pinch. For example, in January of this year, we experienced a 5.4 percent rate hike. This was the first rate increase since June 2002 (which, at the time, was the third increase in two years). Brace yourself for yet another increase in 2007. What’s more, rumor has it the U.S. Postal Service wants to increase rates again in 2008, which would make three rate hikes in three years. These increases could be steep enough to push some smaller catalogers over the edge. They could mean the difference between profit and loss on an income statement.

Although it’s one of cataloging’s oldest circulation planning practices, recency/frequency/monetary value (RFM) segmentation is under-used by many smaller catalogers, pointed out John Lenser, president of circulation planning consulting firm Lenser during his session, “Circulation and Merge Strategies in a Multichannel World,” at last week’s ACCM. “RFM’s been the buzzword of direct marketing for as long as I can remember,” Lenser said. “The reality is, you want to segment by RFM even if you have two names in a cell.” He offered several RFM segmentation tips: *Create appropriate segments irrespective of segment size. *There’s no need for statistical significance in segment size. *Don’t be afraid to segment house files

Long gone are the days of relying solely on United Parcel Service (UPS) or the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for all your small package ground delivery needs. Nowadays, most mailers are not only turning to a mixture of different carriers, but they’re also better able to negotiate carrier contracts than ever before. Rick Collins and Tim Geiken, both managing directors at transportation and shipping consultancy AFMS Inc., offered during a session at NCOF several negotiation pointers to catalog shippers when working out small parcel shipping contracts with carriers. Among these, -Understand your business better than your carrier does. -Look at your previous contracts and how well

You may think you have a great fill rate, but are you looking at all of the metrics necessary to determine how many customers are getting perfect packages? Kate Vitasek, managing partner of consulting firm Supply Chain Visions, cited a number of reasons why a seemingly “good” fill rate of 99 percent is nevertheless far from perfect in her “Perfecting the Perfect Order” session during last week’s National Conference on Operations& Fulfillment. “Say you have a 99 percent fill rate from your distribution center,” she said. “Is that good? If one person missed out, out of 100, you could have a fallout in your company because

How your operations and marketing efforts can benefit from statistical analysis and modeling. Forgive me if I generalize for a minute. There are two approaches to marketing analysis: the arithmetic and the statistical. The Arithmetic Approach Sometimes called “descriptive analytics,” this is relatively straightforward and inexpensive, depending on a spreadsheet and the sweat of your brow. Extracting a season’s sales from your transaction system to your spreadsheet, you can determine the following: - percent response, by dividing your number of orders by your mail quantity per segment; - average order value, by dividing your gross sales by your number of orders per segment; -

Your relationship with your print suppliers should be strong and cohesive. After all, your printer may be your largest vendor in terms of dollars spent annually. Your printer is important to your business, and you should view it as your company’s business partner. When deciding on a printer, price certainly is important. No direct marketer should pay a large premium for the privilege of dealing with a particular printing company. But there are other factors, such as service, lead times and technology, that should be taken into consideration. In this article, I’ll offer tips for maximizing your relationship with your printer.