COMING AROUND
U.S. companies spend about $43 billion a year or 4.5 % of all logistics costs on handling returned merchandise, reports AMR Research Inc.
MCM staff
Pet supply catalogers groomed for growth
Sixty-two percent of the nation’s 111 million households include at least one pet, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturing Association. Yet
PC Connection, Red Envelope Warn on Resultss
Merrimack, NH-based computer reseller PC Connection (Nasdaq: PCCC) and San Francisco-based gifts cataloger Red Envelope (Nasdaq: REDE) downgraded their fiscal guidance this week.
Quick Hits
* Last week, Richardson, TX-based KnowledgeBase Marketing acquired Boston-based analytics firm Fortelligent, Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
The acquisition will provide KnowledgeBase customers with automated analytic functions. It will also allow KnowledgeBase to link Fortelligent’s technology with KnowledgeBase’s AmeriLink national compiled database, enabling clients to run models and select prospect names.
Segment and Conquer
Many catalogers segment their lists into one-time, two-time, and three-time-plus buyers. But another way to segment your multibuyers is by source.
?The definition of ?multibuyers? is becoming less clear,? says Jim Coogan, president of Santa Fe, NM-based Catalog Marketing Economics. ?There is the problem of ?exchange exuberance,? where catalogers are putting lots of low-value exchange names into the merge because they are almost free. This creates some low-value rental list multis.? According to Coogan, mailers are putting old house file names into the merge with the intent of creating as many multibuyer names as possible.
Setting Your Priorities
List priorities in the merge/purge are a standard topic of debate among database pros, says Scarsdale, NY-based database consultant Michael Grant. Do I put all lists into the merge/purge at an equal priority, or do I give a higher priority to one group of lists, since those lists are my core lists?
Lands’ End Not for Sale for After All
Now that shareholders have approved the Sears-Kmart merger, the chairman of the merged company, Edward Lampert, put another piece of business to rest.
Valentine’s Day and Catalogers: Better Late Than Never
Christmas isn
Airgas to Acquire Kanox
Radnor, PA-based medical and industrial welding metals conglomerate Airgas signed a letter of intent to acquire Hutchinson, KS-based Kanox, a distributor of packaged gases and welding hard goods.