February 1, 2009
Cover Story
Sales from holiday 2008
Steep discounts. Cheap shipping. Free shipping. Multichannel merchants pulled out the stops to try to get consumers to spend money this past holiday season....
Editor's Note
Grab ahold of your bootstraps
The bloodbath that was holiday retail 2008 confirms that the consumer-spending spree is officially over. We the people are finally being forced to learn...
News
Consumer quarterly sales reports
There Were More Losers Than Winners among the consumer companies tracked by Multichannel Merchant. Five of the nine merchants followed posted third-quarter...
Catalog
Best and worst in catalog copy
ANNUAL CHOICES: THE BEST AND WORST CATALOG COPY To adapt a clich When times get tough, catalogs become more similar to other catalogs. That's because...
E-Commerce
The new natural search spam
I needed a backyard fire pit, so I revved up the Home Depot Website. The retailer's navigation saved me time by presorting and filtering the hundreds...
Behaviorally triggered e-mails
One of the truly great mysteries of online marketing is why so few merchants use behaviorally triggered e-mails to boost customers' recency, frequency,...
Marketing
Circulation techniques
When you should change your catalog circulation plan and more important how to change it is often determined by necessity. And multichannel marketers...
Lists & Data Strategies
Marketing to giftees
The holiday season is over (thank heaven). It's time to barrage gift recipients with catalogs and e-mail messages, right? Not so fast. You may be trying...
These came close
Healthy Living Nothing nothing about this catalog is a salute to artistry. It's the way catalogs used to look, with four to six items on each page. What...
Operations & Fullfillment
Trends in S&H offers
If you looked at all the catalogs and promotions out there this past holiday season, there's one phrase they have in common: free shipping. My company,...
A Database Marketer’s Perspective on Free Shipping
Most of the promotions this past holiday season contained a common phrase: “Free Shipping." ...
Handling employee references
No matter how great a candidate seems, how appealing, how experienced, how perfect a fit, you're looking for trouble if you don't check references before...
Store
Retail marketing strategies
It's been more than 20 years since the customer information revolution began, most visibly in retail loyalty programs Neiman Marcus InCircle and American...
Backwork
Got Recession? Go Mobile
Mobile Marketing is No Longer a Niche or Trend. The pervasiveness of mobile phones means that the mobile channel will become more than a vehicle for sending...
Uno Alla Volta Gets Personal
The Spouse of a Multichannel Merchant Staffer in Late 2007 placed a holiday order with Uno Alla Volta, a catalog of fine gifts and collectibles whose...
Candy-Scented Paper Makes for Wrapper's Delight
When you Unwrap a Gift, Do you Sniff the Wrapping Paper? Neither do we usually but then printer Concord Litho sent a few sheets of its candy-cane imprinted,...
Corrections
In the January cover story Senior manager, we stated that Tom McIntyre was still president of Dr. Leonard's Healthcare Corp.; McIntyre left the company...
