Ross-Simons

Speakers at The Direct Marketing Association's recent Catalog-on-the-Road conference offered some helpful hints for those engaged in e-mail marketing communications with their current customers: 1. Send order confirmations in html format, advises George Kiebala, vice president of sales, Experian Marketing Services. Most e-mailed order confirmations are in text-only format. But because more people are gaining access to html files, try sending customers pictures of the products they ordered — along with any appropriate cross-sell items — in your order confirmations. Caveat: Not everyone can access html, so periodically poll your customer base to determine availability. 2. Compel call center reps to gather

By Stephen Lett Alsto's. The Company Store. Garnet Hill. Martha By Mail. Williamsburg. Pottery Barn. Frontgate. Good Catalog. The Land of Nod. Linen & Lace. Restoration Hardware. Ross-Simons. Sundance. What do these catalogs have in common? They have all eliminated the use of a separate bind-in order form with envelope typically found in the center of a catalog. These catalog companies employ a lot of smart people, so why would they make the decision to discontinue using a bind-in order form with envelope? What was their thought process? What should you do? This month, we will review the order form in detail

Designers and marketers see both limitations and advantages in Web-site creative. The overarching limitation is a lack of control in the appearance of the end product because of differing technologies on consumers’ computers. On the flip side, Web sites can be altered “on the fly,” making them a more dynamic place for testing and learning about customer preferences. Deborah Kania is lead marketer at multichannel optical supplier Lens Express in Deerfield Beach, FL, co-author of “The Web Catalog Cookbook” and “The Internet World Guide to One-To-One Web Marketing,” and author of the upcoming book “Branding.com.” She observes, “Two of the biggest changes

Brides and catalogers turn to online registries National retail chains used to dominate the wedding gift registry market. Now the Web is cutting catalogers a bigger piece of the $35 billion wedding cake as online gift registries make registering and shopping for gifts easier for far-flung guests. Renowned gift catalogs, including Ross-Simons and Macys.com, have already put their popular real-world registries online. Now Web gift registry networks are making cross-catalog registrations possible so that a bride and groom with eclectic tastes can register for everything from fine china to outdoor recreation gear. These registries include Della & James (www.dellajames.com), which was

About this time nine years ago I was getting set to be married, so I registered my china and crystal patterns with a Big Department Store’s bridal registry. Then, a funny thing happened: I started receiving boxes at my home from someplace called Ross-Simons. “What store is this?” I asked my mother, for while it carried the precise gifts I had selected, I had neither been there nor heard of it. “It’s not a store. It’s a catalog,” she replied. More recently, in the fall of 1997 my sister was wed. For her bridal registry, she chose to skip the Big Department