June Catalogue Log

Talk about extremes. The June Catalogue Log recorded the highest ever percentage of catalogues offering a sale or discount on the cover, while also logging one of the lowest numbers of covers promising free delivery.

The summer sales started in earnest in June. Out of 81 catalogues received last month, 59.3 percent, or 48 catalogues, offered a sale or discount on the front cover. Further, only 29 catalogues had no offer on the cover at all—and of those, at least two had a special offer flyer inserted, or promoted a deal on the back cover. Clearly, cataloguers are being more aggressive in their promotional mail in order to boost revenues and shift stock in time for autumn.  But, this tactic comes at a price; at multititle group N Brown, which operates Simply Be, Jacamo, The Shoe Tailor and Marisota, for example, margin in the 18 weeks ended 2nd July declined by 0.2 percent due to discounting. Indeed, of 11 N Brown catalogues and inserts we’ve logged in just the past two months, all had promotional cover lines.
Up until now, July 2010 had been the most sales-dominated month, with 49.5 percent of covers promoting a discount--significantly lower than 2011’s 59.3 percent. For June 2010, 40 percent of covers featured a sale. The year before, discounting was even less popular, with only 34.1 percent of covers promising special prices in June. Does this signal that the sale season is starting earlier every year? Seems so; Marks & Spencer reportedly brought forward its sale by a fortnight this year, fuelling speculation that it was doing it to avoid losing business to other retailers, who were already discounting.

Evidently though, one offer is enough for June’s cataloguers. In a distant second place, the next most popular offer was free delivery, offered by a mere 10 catalogues, or 12.3 percent. This is broadly in line with last year (14.7 percent) and more than June 2009 (8.5 percent). I can only assume that as margins are taking such a hit due to slashed prices, retailers cannot afford to send the goods for free too. Of the catalogues that did offer free shipping, most did so conditionally, for example, free delivery for orders of £100 or more at audio-visual cabling cataloguer Russ Andrews, or free p&p when you shop online at Simply Supplements. Among the more generous offers we noted was a Wiggly Wigglers insert with our order from childrenswear brand Frugi—it featured a 15 percent discount and free delivery to encourage me to place my first order there.
The third most popular offer in June was a free gift with purchase, promoted by 9.8 percent of catalogue covers. This is lower than last year’s 12.8 percent, and significantly lower than June 2009 when we logged 17.8 percent of covers offering a freebie as a thank-you for buying in June.

Our first Catalogue Log blog post was published in June 2009, since then we've learned that:

• To date, 2011 has had the highest percentage of catalogues promoting a sale or discount, with an average of 46.1 percent of catalogues doing so every month.
  
• Free delivery was most popular in 2010, offered on average by 1 in 5 catalogues per month.
  
• Offering a free gift with purchase is normally a staple promotion on b-to-b catalogue covers. So far in 2011, an average 13.8 percent of catalogues a month feature a freebie on their front cover.
  
• Free shipping is not a popular offer in June.
  
• The most promotional month to date, offering a combination of sales, free p&p or free gifts, was February 2011, when more than two-thirds of catalogues featured some sort of special offer on the cover.
  
• We received an average of 125 catalogues a month in 2009 and 111 catalogues a month in 2010.
  
• In the first six months of 2011 we logged a monthly average of 108 catalogues.
  
• Overall, in terms of volume, we tracked 81 catalogues in June 2010, that’s 8 percent more than last year (75 catalogues), but 42 percent less than June 2009 (140 catalogues).--MT

Snow chance to get creative

In January this year, we chided direct marketers for failing to make the most of the cold snap to boost sales. So with temperatures plummeting again, and much of the UK hit by blizzards and ice, have marketers learnt their lesson?

As we pointed out last year, consumers are well aware of the difficult driving conditions, and expect that deliveries may take longer. Most retailers, for their part, are reassuring customers with up-to-date delivery information. Ethical Superstore, for example, suspended its next-day delivery option on 29^th November until further notice due to adverse weather conditions in the north-east of England. Whilst John Lewis, Mark & Spencer, and Argos amongst others, all display notices of possible delays on their home pages. But, just as we said last year, inevitable delays will not deter people from shopping online. Indeed, as Alison Quill, managing director of toys and games cataloguer BrightMinds, posted on Twitter, rainy weather contributed to a significant rise in sales last month, “Will snow gave same effect as rain on mail order, or will customers be nervous about deliveries? Time will tell”.

So how exactly are direct sellers attracting those who are snowed in to visit their website? An email from Hotel Chocolat received this morning urged recipients to “Avoid the snow and order Christmas gifts online TODAY + Free Gifts Offer‏”. This, however, was the only mention of snow in the entire email. It was as though Hotel Chocolat had planned a Christmas-themed email and added snow to the subject line as an afterthought.

An email from the Fish Society, with the jolly subject line “Let it snow”, was actually rather brusque: “We will NOT despatch your order if delivery is threatened by snow”. Of course it makes perfect sense not to despatch perishable goods if they are unlikely to reach their destination before they spoil, but I feel the email could have had a more reassuring and sympathetic tone.

Another email, this time from gifts and gadgets etailer I Want One of Those, buried the snow theme halfway down its email titled “Give better gifts with IWOOT & 10% off Photogifts”. Another rather bland example is Crew Clothing which sent an email titled “Snowed in? Buy your Crew Winter warmers online!”. Exclamation point aside, there wasn’t much to get excited about.

So far, I haven’t received a snow-related email that was truly engaging. Perhaps retailers are all too busy trying to work around the snow in the run-up to Christmas to really get creative.

However, I did get an email from the dedicated folks at Derbyshire-based Dolls House Emporium. Most of them had been out in the car park this morning with shovels and makeshift snowploughs to clear and grit the way for the delivery vans. They even sent me a photo to prove it.--MT

Daddy or chips

Remember that advert for oven chips where Big Sister asks Little Sister which she loves most: “Daddy or chips?” Little sister thinks long and hard about the question and in the evening, as Daddy pinches a chip from Little Sister’s plate she concludes “chips…” Poor Daddy, he always gets a raw deal. So how are retailers combating it this Father’s Day?

As it’s predicted that we’ll spend more on Father’s Day this year—Verdict estimates that Brits will spend £771 million preparing for 20th June this year—I wanted to analyse what sort of offers retailers were promoting in order to get us to part with our cash and treat our dads. In a rather unscientific (and random) way I picked 12 emails that landed in my inbox with reference to Father’s Day.

Only one of those emails, sent on 16th June from gifts cataloguer Lily & Lime, promoted a free gift-wrapping service. It was also in the minority of emails that promoted free shipping. Of those that did offer free delivery, Direct Golf set a £10 threshold, whilst vitamins and supplements marketer Trust William wanted me to spend £30 to qualify for free delivery. Considering that Trust Williams’ main Father’s Day offer was a £15 shaving pack, I thought it was a bit mean that I had to spend twice as much to enjoy free shipping. What’s more, when I visited the website I couldn’t find any information about how much delivery would cost. That’s something Trust William should probably look to rectify.

Out of 12 emails, only three were overtly price-driven. Direct Golf had the biggest price-related promotion. It featured a variety or price points: From golf balls for £19.99 to a putter that was reduced by £109 to £60. Personally I feel more could have been made of the high-end gifts, for example, a GPS golf device worth £329 and premium golf shoes at £90 were subtitled “Luxury Gifts - For That Extra Special Dad!”, but the images were much smaller than the main offer. Why?

Gifts and gadgets etailer I Want One of Those is another that went straight for my wallet. Its email on 2nd June promoted a 50 percent off sale, though its “IWOOT Top Six for Father’s Day” were not in the sale. This email was choc-full of offers and promotions. There was a competition to win a mini helicopter if email subscribers wrote in with tales of their embarrassing dads; there were videos to watch, and 25 percent off photo gifts.

Speaking of videos, that’s the tactic Marks & Spencer went for. Its robust email directed customers to its Father’s Day video featuring former footballer Jamie Redknapp, it also set up a dedicated Father’s Day shop on its website where all the items featured in the email could be found. The email itself promoted wine, strawberries, gifts in all price points, personalised cards… but no discount or free delivery. M&S is obviously hoping we love Daddy more than chips.

Of the other emails I looked at, Joules stood out with the most eye-catching email. It proudly promoted the “Father’s Day Gift of a Lifetime”. Indeed the offer looks great--a day’s sailing for Dad and eight family members or friends on a 60ft yacht. I was least impressed with Natural Collection, which in addition to making Dad share the email with The Fat Bird (a type of bird feeder before you ask), got the day wrong! It had the date as Sunday 21st June—as one famous Dad would say, “D’oh!”--MT

Tempest in a D cup

So the Facebook group Busts 4 Justice has renewed its campaign against Marks & Spencer, claiming that by charging £2 more for bras sized DD cup and larger, the retailer is guilty of "blatant discrimination".

Discrimination is charging a black woman £2 more for the exact same bra as a white woman. Discrimination is allowing Christians but not Muslims into your store to purchase said bra. Discrimination is paying a woman £2 an hour less than a man for designing bras. Charging £2 more for what M&S, in a statement issued last July, said is "the specialist work to ensure the suitable level of support, innovation, and technology that goes into the [larger] bras" is not discrimination.

In the States it's common for retailers to charge a few dollars more for plus-size versions of regular-size apparel, ostensibly to cover the extra materials. I used to think that it was a bit ingenuous not to charge a few bucks less for petite versions (back when I still fitted into petite versions), but hardly discriminatary.

If Busts 4 Justice wants to boycott M&S, that's fine. But to call this "blatant discrimination" makes a mockery of the concept of discrimination and diminishes examples of true, and truly harmful, discrimination.

Lingerie cataloguer Simply Yours has the right idea, however: If you search for Busts 4 Justice in Google, you see a sponsored link on the top right column from Simply Yours with the header "We Love Busts 4 Justice!" The copy underneath reads, "Get 10% Off All Our Great FittingGorgeous Lingerie For Curvy Girls!" What a great way to quickly take advantage of a competitor's weakness.--SC