Catalog Tracker has finally logged in the last of the consumer catalogs received for 2006 — no small task, given that the service of Greenwich, CT-based marketing services provider Direct Media had received 4,585 books for the year. Yet that total is down 2.7% from the 4,712 b-to-c catalogs received in 2005 — which was itself down slightly from 4,737 catalogs in 2004.
Indeed, there were only three months in 2006 in which year-over-year catalog volume rose: February, November, and December. The end-of-year boost — Catalog Tracker received 880 books in November and December 2006, a 2.4% increase from the 859 received in November and December 2005 — indicates that marketers continue to push back their holiday mailings to capture sales from procrastinators, whose last-minute tendencies have been encouraged by the immediacy of the Web and the promise of overnight delivery.
The percentage of December catalogs that offered deferred billing declined from 7% in 2005 to 5%. Likewise, the percentage of free shipping offers fell as well, from 15% in December 2005 to 13% in December 2006. That 13% was also a decrease from 15% in November 2006. Catalogers may figure that anyone who’s still ordering Christmas gifts in December isn’t going to waste precious time shopping around for promotions such as free shipping; they’re probably more concerned about getting it shipped in time for Christmas delivery.
Speaking of which, nearly 22% of the December 2006 catalogs promoted their deadlines for guaranteed Christmas delivery on their cover, up slightly from nearly 21% the previous December but up markedly from 11% the previous month. A variety of merchants — women’s apparel cataloger/retailers Appleseed’s and Victoria’s Secret, collectibles title Danbury Mint, auto accessories mailer Mid America Motorworks, and outdoor sporting gear cataloger/retailer Cabela’s, to name just a few — promised Christmas delivery for in-stock items ordered as late as Dec. 22. But they were trumped by apparel cataloger/retailer Eddie Bauer and apparel and home goods merchant Lands’ End, both of which guaranteed delivery for items ordered up until Dec. 23, the Saturday before the holiday.
| No. of catalogs received in 2006 | No. of catalogs received in 2005 | % change 2006 vs. 2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 390 | 400 | (2.5) |
| February | 376 | 322 | 16.8 |
| March | 392 | 418 | (6.2) |
| April | 353 | 398 | (11.3) |
| May | 357 | 358 | — |
| June | 265 | 281 | (5.7) |
| July | 286 | 301 | (5.0) |
| August | 349 | 357 | (2.2) |
| September | 415 | 453 | (8.4) |
| October | 522 | 565 | (7.6) |
| November | 569 | 559 | 1.8 |
| December | 311 | 300 | 3.7 |
| Total | 4,585 | 4,712 | (2.7) |
| Source: Direct Media’s Catalog Tracker | |||