The Multichannel Merchant 100 was compiled by the Multichannel Merchant editorial staff and freelancer Michael DiMarco through public records, data card analysis, and input from financial analysts and sources within the industry. To ensure the accuracy of all statistics, Multichannel Merchant tried to contact executives at each company. Some companies declined to confirm sales totals; others did not return messages.
In those cases, or when companies would provide only approximate sales, an asterisk indicates that the figure is an estimate.
Sales are for calendar years 2008 and 2007. When a company’s fiscal year varied from the calendar year by more than one month, Multichannel Merchant backed out the data to obtain calendar-year sales.
Whenever possible, sales figures are net of sales taxes and shipping and handling revenue. In some cases, the figures for 2007 differ from those reported last year, reflecting updated information.
For parent companies and cataloger/retailers such as Patterson Cos. and J.C. Penney Co., sales figures are for their direct divisions only, unless otherwise indicated. When companies broke out their telemarketing or field sales revenue from their print and Web catalog sales, we did as well.
To be considered for the Multichannel Merchant 100, a company’s print catalog had to account for a significant portion of the business’s direct sales, which is why major direct marketers such as eBay and Insight are not on the list.