August Catalogue Log

Last year, the fact that we received just 71 catalogues in August seemed unusual to us. But this year, receiving just 61 catalogues in August came as no surprise. We have been tracking a steady decline in catalogue volume during the last few months—the only anomaly being July, when sale activity boosted the number of catalogues to land on the Catalogue Log desk.

Comparing the catalogues received in August 2009 with those logged in August 2010, some titles that appear in both columns, such as Books Direct, House of Bruar and Scotts of Stow. There also seemed to be an almost equal number of new names this year to compensate for lists we have been dropped from. This further cements the theory that cataloguers are mailing smarter, removing unprofitable names from their files.

Cataloguers are also becoming smarter with their covers. We have been tracking how many catalogues highlight a sale or discount, free shipping, or a free gift on their covers since January 2009 and have noted an increasing trend of using the cover to promote some sort of offer. A staggering 65.6 percent of all the catalogues we received in August featured some sort of offer on the front cover—in July that figure was 64 percent and in June it was 60 percent. Among the minority of catalogues without a special offer were Brora, the Dolls House Emporium, and Lakeland.


The most popular offer in August was a sale or discount, promoted on 41 percent of the catalogue covers we logged. This is appreciably lower than July’s record high of 49.5 percent. Gaining favour with cataloguers in August was free delivery—the number of catalogues touting free shipping almost doubled from 12.1 percent in July to 23 percent in August. Catalogues offering free delivery included Bon Prix, Joules and Boden, which repeated its Sunday Times offer of last year—a 15 percent discount, free delivery, and free returns. We thought it made Boden look needy last year, but it obviously works or Boden wouldn’t have used it again.

The number of catalogues offering a free gift with purchase was 11.5 percent, down from 12.1 percent in July and from 14.1 percent in August 2009. Free gifts were mainly promoted by the b-to-b catalogues in the pack including Viking Direct and Neat Ideas.

Our favourite offer of the month is from gardening catalogue Sarah Raven’s Kitchen & Garden. Among the messages on the cover was this: “Offers What’s yours? See page 49”. I thought it was a fun way to encourage customers to flick through the catalogue. It also had a sense of personalisation—did my catalogue have a different offer to my friend or neighbour’s? I’d like to think there was some sort of segmentation that went into deciding which offer to send to which tranche of the database. Let's put it to the test, I got 15 percent off. What did you get?--MT

The July Catalogue Log

For the third consecutive month, the percentage of catalogues promoting sales and discounts continued to decline, according to the Catalogue e-business Catalogue Log.

In July we logged in 149 catalogues. Of those, 46, or 30.9 percent, touted a sale or discount on their front cover. That’s down from 34.1 percent of the catalogues tallied in June and a whopping 42.6 percent of those logged in May.

At 16.1 percent, the percentage promoting free postage and packing was down somewhat from June’s 17.8 percent but still up significantly on May’s 11 percent. The percentage of catalogues offering a gift with purchase, meanwhile, soared, from 8.5 percent in June to 15.4 percent in July. Among the freebies in July: a Snap N Slice kitchen tool that sells for £29.99 free with orders of more than £60 from homewares merchant JML; a free “deluxe wicker picnic basket” with orders of more than £39 from office supplies mailer Neat Ideas; and a free DVD player for new customers with orders of more than £30 from another office products mailer, Viking Direct.

Viking and Neat Ideas were among the catalogues with the busiest covers in terms of offers—not surprising given how competitive and price-conscious the office supplies sector is. For instance, in addition to the free DVD player, the Viking catalogue cited above promised “fast free delivery” and two Nectar points for every £1 spent. Another b-to-b catalogue, packaging materials merchant Rajapack, offered on its front cover discounts of up to 35 percent PLUS a free barbecue apron set with purchase PLUS free next-day delivery.

On the b-to-c front, home goods and apparel mailer Clifford James gave away a “solar light twinpack worth £14.99” plus promoted a buy-one-get-one-free deal on travel bags and a five-piece knife set “for just £24.99”. Not to be outdone, Home Essentials promised a free gift with order, the ability to “spread the cost with your personal account”, and a half-price quilt and throw set.

The percentage of catalogues that did not include any special offers on the front cover was down slightly from June: 43.6 percent versus 46.5 percent. Which is not to say that these catalogues didn’t put their covers to work. Homecraft’s Chester-care book, which sells living aids for the elderly and infirm, pointed out that the current edition included more than 80 new products. Housewares cataloguer/retailer Lakeland promised “over 530 exciting ideas for your home”. Direct Golf reminded customers that if they ordered by 2pm they could receive their goods the next day, while Teknomek, a provider of stainless-steel equipment, let readers know that it could create merchandise to customers’ specs.

A cover line on the Jigsaw IT catalogue is as informative but less enticing than the ones above: “Due to current fluctuations in international exchange rates prices printed may be incorrect. For our latest updated prices please see jigsaw24.com”. Granted, that’s important information. But by putting it on the front cover, Jigsaw seems to be saying, “Before you open this catalogue, bear in mind that some items will cost more than the prices listed here. Are you really sure you even want to open this catalogue and start shopping?”--SC

Introducing the Catalogue Log

What percentage of catalogues would you say promoted some sort of sale or discount on their covers? If you guessed slightly more than one-third, you’re correct. Of the 520 consumer and business catalogues logged by Catalogue e-business during the first five months of the year, 191 of them—36.7 percent—touted price cuts loud and clear. A subset of these limited their discounts to first-time customers (for instance, promotional products merchant 4imprint).

Not surprisingly, sales and discounts were the most popular promotions offered by mailers—but not the only ones. Fifty-eight of the catalogues, or 11.2 percent, promised some sort of free delivery. Sometimes this was a blanket offer, though just as frequently it was tied to a spending threshold or restricted to online orders (or in the case of crafts merchant Baker Ross’s summer catalogue, both).

Nearly as popular among the catalogues tracked was a free gift with purchase; 57 catalogues, or 11 percent, offered this. Comparatively few (2.1 percent) had a prize draw of some sort, and even fewer (1.3 percent) tried a buy-one-get-one-free promotion.

And some cataloguers figured that if one promotion was good, two (or more) would be even better. Cotton Traders, for instance, frequently promoted a price cut on a particular product (such as £19.99 sweats for just £9.99 in its summer catalogue) as well as a prize draw for £25,000. Another apparel catalogue, Kaleidoscope, promoted on its April cover discounts of up to 20 percent, plus a free cutlery set for those placing their first order. A premier customer edition of office supplies cataloguer Neat Ideas promised savings of up to 60 percent plus buy-one-get-one-free on certain items plus free gifts with purchase. And computer company Dell consistently promised discounts and free P&P.

Contrary to our expectations, January was not the month with the most price promotions. (See chart above; click on image to enlarge.) Although 35.4 percent of the catalogues logged in January advertised price cuts and discounts, in May that rose to 42.6 percent. Perhaps merchants had cut back their inventories prior to Christmas and therefore had less to liquidate, though that wouldn’t explain the increase in price reductions in May. Meanwhile, the percentage of catalogues offering free P&P peaked in April, at a full 20 percent, compared with just 7.3 percent in February and 9 percent in March.

As you can imagine, there are a number of ways to slice and dice the copious data we've collected. That's why we'll be analysing on a monthly basis, beginning with the June catalogues, the offers that make their way through our mail slot. We're calling it the Catalogue e-business Catalogue Log, for lack of anything catchier. But I suspect that the trends the data will reveal will be catchy enough.--SC