Orphan mail

| Tim Parry

It sounds like something out of Alice in Wonderland. Merchants, so desperate for relief on the postal front, now have to stop mailing some good customers

CozyDays opens three online stores

| Tim Parry

CozyDays, a multichannel retailer of outdoor living products, launched three specialty online catalogs in late July to complement its CozyDays.com Website.

Catalog mail slows to a crawl

| Tim Parry

June is generally a slow month for catalogers, but this year Catalog Tracker saw it as even slower than usual. Perhaps it’s a sign of tighter mailings as a result of the May postal increase, but the service of Direct Media had just 234 catalogs in its mailbox, down from 265 in June 2006, and from 281 in June 2005.

AJ Prindle Sold to Private Investment Firm

| Tim Parry

AJ Prindle & Co., a multichannel business-to-consumer retailer of automotive accessories and a provider of incentive purchase programs to auto manufacturers and their dealer groups, was purchased Aug. 20 by Buffalo, NY-based private investment firm Banyan Enterprises.

Reactivate Old Customers With New Products

| Tim Parry

Speaking at the Direct Marketing Association’s List Day on Thursday, Janette Barret of International Masters Publishers Inc. said the secret to reactivating old expires is to offer them a new product within the same affinity.

Back-to-School Shoppers Studying Direct Channels

| Tim Parry

Good news for catalogers hoping for a hot back-to-school season. A survey conducted by customer loyalty research consultancy Brand Keys shows considerable increases in the percent of consumers who plan to use catalog and online channels for their back-to-school shopping.