Catalogs continue to outpull e-mail messages as the impetus to visit an Internet site, according to a survey by Peterborough, NH-based list firm Millard Group.
Eighty-eight percent of respondents said that they were “very likely” or “fairly likely” to visit the Website after receiving a catalog, compared with 83% who felt the same after receiving an e-mail message.
The study also showed that online customers were much more satisfied with merchandise and value this year than last year. Among this year’s respondents, 56% rated the merchandise they received from shopping online as “excellent,” compared with 48% last year. And 53% of this year’s respondents said they received excellent value for their money shopping online, up from 38% of last year’s participants.
But while 52% of respondents to the October survey said that unique merchandise was the primary reason they shopped from a catalog or its Website, only 44% said they got what they wanted.
And in a finding that may further puzzle merchants coping with shopping-cart abandonment, 42% of the respondents who abandoned a site after placing an item in a shopping cart said they’d returned at a later time to purchase the item after all.