Pumping up the volume

| Paul Miller

The practice of giving volume discounts, in which catalogers offer price breaks to customers for placing large-volume orders, is a popular one among a

Hanover do-over

| Shannon Oberndorf

Hanover Direct spent the last year shrinking-consolidating warehouses, cutting staff, and trimming circulation. In doing so, the multititle consumer cataloger

Firing up TransAmerica

| Paul Miller

Having bought multititle cataloger TransAmerica Holdings in April, former Arizona Mail Order executive vice president Gary Giesler is busy with plans

FULFILLMENT Brylane’s big operation

| Yvonne Moran

Brylane, the $1.3 billion catalog powerhouse, is not only a leader in specialty-size apparel, but it also claims to be a master in high-volume, low-cost

Staffing Issues Seasonal help scare?

| Yvonne Moran

Considering that unemployment hit a record nationwide low (4.3%) this past April, some catalogers are already having trouble hiring operations personnel

Holiday prospects

| Sophia Burke

Patricia Woodruff is the mail order director of Thanksgiving Coffee Co., a Fort Bragg, CA-based catalog of organic and gourmet coffee and tea. Annual

The future of parcel shipping

| Paul Miller

For years, speculation regarding the future of parcel shipping focused on who would succeed United Parcel Service as the dominant carrier. By 2001, it

Mergers and Acquisitions: No Big Spenders

| Mark Del Franco

First-quarter merger and acquisition (M&A) activity among catalogers slowed 26% this year, as companies concentrated on absorbing earlier transactions

SOHO, so good

| MCM staff

By 2001, many more business-to-business catalogers are expected to target the small office/home office (SOHO) market. “It’s clear the home has become

Forecasts and forethoughts

| Sophia Burke

We will be moving toward customization and personalization in our catalog offerings. People will be able to pick and choose from the items in the catalog