Motivate with Money

| Rama Ramaswami

Operational Area Paid to Employees Hours Saved Dollars Saved REPLENISHMENT $760.00 174 $2,976.40 SHIPPING $1,400.00 316 $5,403.60 RECEIVING $1,300.00

Training Day

| Karen Berman

EDITOR’S NOTE This is the second installment of a three-part series on picking technologies and strategies. Part I was published in the April 2005 issue

Returns Engagement

| Margery Weinstein

Catalogers know that a customer making a return isn’t happy with the product. But if you can quickly and efficiently process the return, you may be able

Analyze this

| Dina Santorelli

Imagine a 24/7, real-time focus group one that gives you access to a customer’s every move. Imagine sitting upon the shopper’s shoulders as he views your

TALES FROM THE FRONT

| MCM staff

Gratuitous pic of the month We wish we had some newsworthy reason to refer to Independent Journeys, a recent spin-off catalog from Wilderness Travel we

Paragon Gifts sold

| Mark Del Franco

Another day, another acquisition: Private equity firm Reliant Equity Investors in March bought Westerly, RI-based Paragon Gifts Holdings, parent of gifts

Negotiating a better parcel carrier contract

| Sherry Chiger

Now that postal rates are likely to be going up next year (see cover story), it’s more important than ever to negotiate or renegotiatiate your parcel-carrier

Sales gains come at a cost

| Mark Del Franco

The fourth quarter has always been considered the make-or-break quarter for catalogers. Happily, 77% of the publicly traded consumer merchants tracked

Heirs Put Tog Shop, A.B. Lambdin Up for Sale

| Mark Del Franco

The heirs of Tog Shop founder Emory Rylander, who started the catalog in 1950, have put the family business up for sale. And according to Carl Tott, president of the Americus, GA-based cataloger/retailer, a party is already working on an agreement to acquire the Tog Shop catalog.

Sales Up Slightly at Office Depot

| MCM staff

Delray Beach, FL-based office products Office Depot (NYSE:ODP), the parent of the Viking Office Products, reported that its strong retail performance in the U.S. and Canada was offset slightly by its business services and overseas operations.