July 1, 2009
Cover Story
MCM 100 2009: Here They Are
The Big Did Get Bigger in 2008, but solid growth or any growth was hardly a sure thing. Many companies on the Multichannel Merchant 100 list this year...
MCM 100: Methodology
The Multichannel Merchant 100 was compiled by the Multichannel Merchant editorial staff and freelancer Michael DiMarco through public records, data card...
Notable deals of the past 12 months
JUNE 2008 Provide Commerce acquired gifts cataloger Red Envelope in a bankruptcy auction. Staples acquired fellow office supplies distributor Corporate...
Who owns what
Many of the MCM 100 are Multititle Mailers. Here's a Guide to Who Owns What: 1-800-FLOWERS.COM includes 1-800-Flowers.com, Ambrosia, Cheryl & Co., Fannie...
Editor's Note
Paying the price for J. Jill
When Talbots Bought J. Jill Three Years Ago, it was no secret that industry watchers felt the women's apparel merchant had way overpaid. Financial experts...
News
Golden Gate Gets J. Jill
Private equity firm Golden Gate Capital announced today that, through an affiliate called Jill Acquisition, it has acquired all of the J. Jill assets from women’s apparel merchant The Talbots for $75 million....
Toys ’R’ Us Buys FAO Schwarz
Toy and baby products retailer Toys ’R’ Us announced yesterday it has acquired upscale toy merchant FAO Schwarz. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. ...
Eddie Bauer Files Chapter 11, Plans Sale to Private Equity Firm
After a few weeks of rumors swirling about its fate, apparel cataloger/retailer Eddie Bauer Holdings today filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware....
Systemax Wins Bid for Circuit City
Computers manufacturer/marketer Systemax has won a bankruptcy auction for the e-commerce business and intellectual property of Circuit City Stores....
Systemax Shutting Down PCS Software Unit
Computers manufacturer/marketer Systemax announced yesterday it’s getting out of the ProfitCenter Software (PCS) hosted software business....
Bare Necessities Launches Wacoal Spin-off
A year after launched its first-ever print catalog, intimate apparel merchant Bare Necessities has dropped a spin-off title of Wacoal bras and lingerie....
Live From the ACMA Forum: Where Are All The Catalogers?
The Wednesday morning opening session at the second annual National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum drew about 60 people....
Live From the ACMA Forum: Potter Predicts Five-day Mail Delivery Will Be Reality
U.S. Postmaster General John E. Potter told attendees at the National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum that he is convinced his proposal for five-day mail delivery will become a reality....
Live From the ACMA Forum: Death Knell for Slim-Jims?
It looks like the slim-catalog might be dead. Or at least, near death....
Postal Officials Vow to Help Mailers
The catalog industry is broken, according to Robert Bernstock, president of shipping and mailing services for the U.S. Postal Service. Huge postage rate...
First Quarter is a Bloodbath for B-to-B
What a Difference a Year Makes. Unlike last year when nearly all of the business-to-business and computer catalog/Web marketers tracked by Multichannel...
Catalog
New vs. nu?
This shouldn't be an iconoclastic suggestion: Catalogs that lean on the same old clichs not only don't reflect the most aggressive and most competitive...
Paper Prices Leveling Off
It's been a crazy couple of years in the world of paper pricing. After six straight quarters of increases, paper prices fell during the first half of...
Paper Makers Reaping Rewards of “Black Liquor” Tax Credit
Thanks to the Alternative Fuels Provision tax credit, North American pulp and paper makers are turning their “black liquor” wood-pulping byproduct into black gold. But with Congress expecting to pay out more than $6 billion a year in credits, the provision for paper companies is likely to be killed by Oct. 1....
E-Commerce
The ways and means of widgets
What makes a good widget? Like the creations from the 1980s TV series hero MacGyver, the best widgets are compelling inventions strung together ingeniously...
What is a Widget?
Single-Panel Brand Badges are the Most Straightforward Widgets from a Usability Perspective and are Frequently Copied and Pasted by Bloggers to Promote...
Promoting Your Widget
The Promotion of Your Widget is Just as Important as its Design and Development. If You're Releasing a Widget to the Wild, Be Sure To: Create a dedicated...
Making web widgets accessible
To Provide Rich Interaction Within a Small Footprint, Web widgets are Frequently Driven By Ajax, the coding language that makes the advanced, highly responsive...
Marketing
Developing concepts that stick
No doubt you've seen the business book Made To Stick by the Heath brothers, thanks largely to its can't-miss bright orange cover and duct tape. Or you...
Lists & Data Strategies
Data cards come to life with video
It's lights, camera, action for data cards, now that direct marketing tool provider NextMark is giving its list firm clients the option to add video to...
Food Catalog Buyers Level Off
The Food Catalog Market Totals 8.7 Million Active Names, according to New York-based list brokerage services firm ParadyszMatera. That amount is down...
Operations & Fullfillment
Time to automate your DC?
Most multichannel operations these days are under pressure to reduce labor and improve efficiency and overall accuracy while spending less money. The...
Inside real-life carrier negotiations
Really? If only I had a dollar for every time a carrier rep fed me that line As a parcel consultant for the past 10 years, I help volume shippers negotiate...
The role of the customer: Asset or partner?
Retailers have long viewed customers as hard assets a valuable commodity we smugly thought we owned. For decades, we used our customer files as a means...
Don't overwhelm with e-mail
When not Shopping at a Store, I regularly shop by catalog and almost never purchase online. Once e-mail took off, every catalog mailer asked me for my...
Backword
Letters/Opinion
WHERE ARE THE DATABASE ANALYSTS? Direct marketing executive recruitment firm Crandall Associates has a problem: There's a shortage of talent in the area...
Spring Hill Applies SPF
A Multichannel Merchant Staffer Recently Ordered Some Plants from Spring Hill Nursery. When the order arrived, her husband unpacked the plants and found...
Godiva Turns a Postal Snafu into Sweet Service
Here's a Story from a Multichannel Merchant Reader Who Recently Received a Catalog from Godiva Chocolatier. For some reason the catalog arrived with postage...
