December 1, 2008
Cover Story
What matters most, now
With the price of postage, paper and raw goods, plus the recessionary economy, multichannel merchants should be very worried about pricing. They are:...
Editor's Note
A Paragon of decency
It's certainly been quite a year. As business conditions went from bad to worse, the size and scope of the multichannel merchant firms running into serious...
News
Gardens Alive! Says No Paragon Catalog til 2009
Although horticultural mailer Gardens Alive! last month bought gifts cataloger The Paragon and restarted its Website, it’s in no rush to bring back the brand’s print catalog...
Talbots to Sell J.Jill
Just Two and a Half Years after buying the women's apparel cataloger/retailer, Talbots announced last month it is putting J. Jill up for sale. The retailer...
DHL Pulls Plug on Domestic Service
In an announcement surprising few logistics industry watchers, Deutsche Post, parent company of DHL, said this morning it is shutting down its DHL Express business in the U.S. as of Jan. 30, 2009...
A Holiday Shortfall Could Bring Catalog Carnage
Two Weeks Before Thanksgiving, some industry financial experts were already declaring the holiday season a bust. Part of that was the November announcements...
Boudin Bakery Slicing Off Print Catalog Channel
Boudin Bakery catalog customers are going to go hungry this fall. Instead of dropping its usual 300,000 catalogs this month, the company is sending customers a flier to tell them it will no longer be producing print catalogs...
PRC Chairman Predicts 5% Rate Hike for 2009
Although the 2006 Postal Reform law restored a semblance of normalcy to annual postal rate increases, many catalogers are wondering what they can expect in terms of a rate hike in May 2009...
Catalogers Confused About Intelligent Mail Barcodes
The U.S. Postal Service has Long Been Touting the Intelligent Mail barcode (IMB) as a revolutionary change one that will expand catalogers' ability to...
The Children's Catalog Universe Fails To Grow
The Children's Merchandise and Apparel Category targeting parents of babies to teens with everything from toys and educational games to cribs, clothes...
Third-Quarter Deals Hold Steady
The Third Quarter was a Busy One with 16 deals, compared to 13 last year. Many transactions were strategic in nature, including Harry & David Holdings...
Catalog
The zen of pagination
Are you enlightened about pagination? Do your pages flow like a beautiful winding river, or are they as choppy as a stormy sea? Pagination is a mixture...
Generate the desire to buy
Twenty years ago, if you asked any successful cataloger to explain the creative difference between catalog copy and direct response copy, you'd quickly...
E-Commerce
Entry pages with SEO appeal
When a client asks me about how to optimize his or her site, I often reply that it's a lot like eating an elephant: Tear off one bite a time. For most...
Making transactional e-mails sell
Transactional e-mails represent a vast and mostly untapped selling opportunity. Messages such as order and shipping confirmations and account updates...
Marketing
Gimme a V!
As a merchant, you know it can be easy to slip into neutral and follow last year's patterns and processes of product creation, trade show travel, and...
Lists & Data Strategies
Segmenting for Catalog 2.0
In the Internet marketing world, Web 2.0 is about moving beyond the so-called nuts and bolts of technology and e-commerce and creating a more robust experience...
Operations & Fullfillment
Prioritizing your tech spend
Most catalog/Internet companies are looking for opportunities to reduce expenses across the enterprise given the current economy, they'd be crazy not...
Think inside the green box
Going green isn't just about printing your catalog on recycled paper. Multichannel merchants today have many opportunities to reduce their carbon footprints...
Back Work
The Historic H. O'Neill & Co.
A Lifelong New Yorker, I often admired the large, cast-iron building on Sixth Ave. and 20th St. But I never had a clue as to its origin, or to what the...
