April 1, 2009
Cover Story
Getting Your Site Up to Speed With PA-DSS Compliance
How to Get Your Site Up to Speed With PA-DSS Compliance Before the July 1, 2010 Deadline...
Editor's Note
Uproar over the Country Store
ABOUT SIX MONTHS AGO, our copy editor pointed out to me that the venerable Vermont Country Store catalog had started selling sexual aids like intimate...
News
Small Parcel Shippers Shocked by USPS Rate Hike
Small Parcel Shippers Shocked by USPS Rate Hike AmeriMark and Movies Unlimited and Miles Kimble...
Lane Bryant Back in Catalog Biz
Charming Shoppes Puts Lane Bryant Back in the Mail Gayle Coolick Lane Bryant...
Toys 'R' Us Buys eToys.com
Toys R Us buys eToys The Parent Company Baby Universe...
Movers and Shakers
The Vitamin Shoppe has promoted Lou Weiss to the new position of chief marketing officer. Weiss had been president of Gaiam Direct. Charming Shoppes hired...
Touchstone Owner Blames USPS for Catalog's Demise
Gifts and Home Decor Catalog Touchstone Announced in Early March it was closing. And owner/president Sarah Luce, who says shuttering the 20-year-old company...
Lenox Group Sold to Clarion Capital
Clarion Capital buys Lenox Group. Department 56 Dansk Gorham Chapter 11...
2009 Finalists
After weeks of poring over print catalogs and evaluating Websites, the judges have selected the finalists in MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT'S MCM AWARDS. The judges...
A Bad Fourth Quarter for B-to-B
Bad Fourth Quarter for B-to-B sellers except Transcat and Black Box...
Catalog
Smart copy can prevent returns
The What if factor can be a barrier to an order. But it has a secondary cutting edge: It can be the cause of returned merchandise. That double edge cuts...
Paper prices fall again
If there's a bright side to the global recession for print catalogers, it's that paper prices are down. After six straight quarters of increases, paper...
Recycling Choices For the Greener Good
Recycling Choices For the Greener Good How to choose the right mix of recycled paper for your catalog...
E-Commerce
Chefscatalog.com Gets Critiqued
Chefscatalog.com Gets Critiqued by Amy Africa and Brian R. Brown...
How to balance usability with SEO
Finding the balance between search engine optimization and a successful user experience can be a challenge. The two strategies can conflict, and companies...
Marketing
Eight metrics to acquire and retain customers
Sure, you want to or need to do more with less these days. Every marketer does. The challenge is how to significantly cut spending without significantly...
Lists & Data Strategies
Making the most of matchbacks
How's your keycode capture rate these days? When every order counts, you need to know where they're coming from. Matchbacks can give you better visibility...
Gifts Universe on the Decline
The Gifts and Collectibles Catalog Market Segment is losing names. The universe shrank about 11%, or about 2.3 million names, from the fourth quarter...
Operations & Fullfillment
Surveying the software landscape
Multichannel merchants shopping for direct and retail systems have long complained that there were few choices in terms of vendors and their offerings....
Is Now a Good Time to Invest in Systems?
Provided Your Company is in relatively good financial health, this is an excellent time to invest in the e-commerce, order management and warehouse management...
An Operations Rebel with a Cause
If you're going to give advice on breaking the rules of fulfillment, it helps to be intimately familiar with those rules to be one of the people who helped...
From OMS to IPR
As the direct marketing industry has evolved into multichannel selling, its system requirements have evolved as well...
Vera Bradley bags a new automated DC
If you’ve ever outgrown your distribution center and technology, you know what Vera Bradley was going through a few years ago...
Parceling Out the Tricks of the Trade
With sales not coming in the way they used to, most multichannel merchants today have to cut costs. Negotiating parcel contracts can yield serious savings, but it helps to have an expert with inside knowledge on your side...
Backword
Letters/Opinion
THANK YOU IS WELCOME Thank You for Mentioning the American Catalog Mailers Association contribution in the postal wars in your Editor's Note (Help is...
Jackson & Perkins has Correction Covered
We were Captivated By the Cover Photo on Jackson Perkins' Spring Rose Catalog. But we were not quite so taken with the ugly correction box to the lower...
Bean Brings on the Value
Everybody's on a Budget These Days, but L.L. Bean wants you to know you don't have to choose between price and quality. That's why the outdoor apparel,...
Demand all but disappears
If You Thought the 18% drop in paper demand in the fourth quarter of 2008 was bad, the 26% decline in January beat all records, says John Maine, vice...
