More business-to-business catalogers are embracing the service features that the Web has to offer, judging by the results of Catalog Age’s most recent exclusive Electronic Marketing Survey (see June issue). For instance, whereas fewer than 72% of b-to-b respondents to last year’s survey said they offered secure socket ordering for credit-card transactions, more than 84% of respondents to this year’s survey do.
Along the same lines, 78.4% of last year’s respondents sent e-mail order confirmations, compared with nearly 90% of this year’s; nearly 59% of last year’s participants provided automatic calculation of sales tax and shipping and handling, compared with nearly 65% of this year’s.
One feature that hasn’t grown much in popularity: connections to live service reps (also known as real-time customer service). Last year 21.6% of respondents offered it; 23.9% of this year’s respondents do.