Shannon Oberndorf

Mattel’s new game

| Shannon Oberndorf

Spurred by declining retail toy sales and the growth of e-commerce, 4.78 billion toy manufacturer Mattel has aggressively entered the direct marketing

Sweetening the deal

| Shannon Oberndorf

Offering incentives such as discounts, free shipping, and gifts with purchases has been part of catalog marketing for decades. And now that the Internet

Privacy clampdown

| Shannon Oberndorf

According to the Data Protection Directive of the European Union (EU), which went into effect Oct. 25, nations belonging to the EU are forbidden to transmit

Apparel in peril

| Shannon Oberndorf

Casual apparel catalogers Lands’ End and L.L. Bean reported near-flat sales over the past year. Multititle clothing mailer Brylane suffered a 4.7% drop

See you in court!

| Shannon Oberndorf

Sharper Image Corp. is keeping its corporate counsel busy. In late November, the San Francisco-based high-tech gadgets cataloger/retailer sued several

Ready or not . . .

| Shannon Oberndorf

Sure, you’ve got your hands full ensuring that your internal computer systems are Y2K-compliant, but what about the systems of your suppliers? Can your

View from The Hill

| Shannon Oberndorf

Newt may be gone, but as far as catalogers are concerned, little else has changed on Capitol Hill. “There wasn’t much turnover in terms of faces in Congress,”