Shipping

I’ve been in direct marketing for 40 years. I got into the business when direct mail was king and off-the-page advertising was queen. Little telemarketing was done. Certainly there was no DRTV. And e-mail was just a gleam in the eyes of a select few. Today, direct mail is still the workhorse of direct marketing — the most efficient way for a marketer to reach those potential customers with the right demographic and behavioral patterns. As a result of our starting the newsletter WHO’S MAILING WHAT! (now Inside Direct Mail) and running it for 15 years, I’d estimate that more than 200,000 mail packages

No doubt you, too, gave a sigh of relief when you heard the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) won’t raise its rates until fiscal 2006. Last month, Congress passed — by a stunning margin of 420-0 — a bill that allows the USPS to restructure its payments to employees’ pension plans. You may remember that last year, USPS officials determined they had overpaid the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) by more than $70 billion. To make the correction, the agency needed congressional approval, which it got in April in an impressive example of bi-partisan support. Without the legislative change,

About Cuddledown Catalog Established: 1973; Bradley bought the company in 1988. Headquarters: Portland, ME Merchandise sold: down products and other high-quality home textiles Annual circulation: about 2 million Number of SKUs: about 3,000 Sales channels: catalog, retail store, wholesale and Internet Why he helped to start a grass-roots campaign among mailers calling for a restructuring of the U.S. Postal Service: Bradley attended a conference in January 2002, and during a presentation given by an executive of a large catalog, it became clear to him that the bigger companies weren’t getting anywhere significant on postal reform. “I have a hard time not doing something about

The following is a checklist to help you develop cost-effective and customer service-oriented shipping plans. The direct-to-consumer in-dustry finds itself at a crossroads in terms of shipping and handling (S&H) policies and charges. Specifically, some studies show consumers are refusing to place orders if the S&H charges are perceived to be out of line with those charged by competitors. But S&H is a necessity for most catalogers. It often represents 8 percent to 10 percent of a catalog’s average order and net sales, and it offsets some of the pick-and-pack labor, outbound freight charges, and packing materials needed to ship consumers their orders.

One of the aspects of cataloging that I’ve found useful is that everything you do from a circulation and marketing standpoint can be tracked to a specific source, or key, code. When a marketer runs an image ad (non-direct-response) in a general interest magazine, for example, it’s difficult to know the effect the ad has on sales. But when you, as a cataloger, run a direct response ad or mail a catalog, most of the orders can be traced to a source, so your marketing and circulation efforts can be measured. This month, I’ll offer examples of the common list results you

Niche cataloger Shari’s Berries International guarantees that its chocolate-covered strawberries reach recipients a mere day after they’re dipped—a business plan that puts a heavy emphasis on reliable address data. Indeed, according to Lowell Feil, vice president of operations, until May 2002 his department experienced delivery address problems with about 10 percent of its orders. Though the company’s FedEx shipping system caught nearly all of these during the package-scanning process, catalog call center reps then had to call and re-verify the addresses. This not only strained call center resources, it often resulted in delayed product shipments and ruined customer surprises. Company executives

“I pay $3 million a year to the U.S. Postal Service, and I wasn’t going to just say ‘OK’ to their continuous rate increases,” said Chris Bradley, president and CEO of Cuddledown catalog, during a jam-packed session on postal reform held at the New England Mail Order Association’s (NEMOA) conference in New Hampshire in September. Bradley and a group of other Maine-based mailers, including catalogers, printers and direct marketers, banded together earlier this year in an effort to educate their legislators on the impact that three postal increases in 18 months has wrought on their companies. Their efforts are instructive for other mailers

Want to raise productivity levels in your mail and call centers? Who doesn’t—especially in the wake of the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) latest round of rate increases. To be sure, postal/mailing solutions encompass a vast array of products and services. Here we offer a small sampling of the numerous technology applications designed to save your company’s mail and call centers time and money. This list, while far from exhaustive, includes software that you can purchase, free applications available to customers of some outsource providers and Web-based application service providers. When known, we’ve included some cost estimates for these solutions and services.

Challenge: How to ship low-cost, high-weight items from the U.S. Northeast to customers all over the country without having customers balk at spending more on shipping than they did on the products themselves. Solution: Charge customers only what you pay for the actual shipping and handling charges, and make the ordering process transparent enough so customers know it. The Baker’s Catalogue, based in Norwich, VT, sells flour, yeast, baking utensils, cookbooks, salts, sugars and other baking essentials. Many of its products are in lower price points, such as five-pound bags of bread flour for $3.50 each. Undoubtedly, telling a customer who

Postage, printing, presentation: There’s a lot to consider when choosing a paper type for your catalog. Catalog Success asked some leading catalogers how they decide which type of paper to use, and how they think it impacts their sales. Michele Rick, director of customer acquisition, Crutchfield catalog Product: Consumer electronics Circulation: About 35 million catalogs mailed per year Catalog Success: What type of paper are you using now? Rick: We have two types of books. Our big book has a 144-page body with a four-page cover that prints on gravure. That uses a totally different paper than the supplements, which have a 48-page body