May Catalogue Log

Having recently finished putting together the Multichannel Year Book commemorating the winners of the ECMOD Awards for business excellence in 2009, I noticed many trends among the winners. Most notably, those that were most successful had learned to do more with less. Amongst other tactics, it meant reducing circulation, frequency, or pagination of their catalogues and experimenting with different formats. This maxim has continued through to 2010; last month’s Catalogue Log recorded half the volume of catalogues compared with May 2009.

There could be a number of reasons to explain why we’ve received fewer catalogues last month compared with a year ago. It could be that cataloguers are simply mailing less this year, or that we’re not bringing as many copies into the office from home compared with last year. Or it could be that mailers see us as tyre-kickers, and are mailing smarter, choosing to omit our prospect names from their files.


This theory could also explain why most of the catalogues we received (61 percent) carried some sort of promotion on the cover: They were pulling out all the stops in order to get us to spend. The most popular offer was a sale or discount (32.5 percent) as used by Cath Kidston, which inserted its full catalogue into Easy Living’s May issue carrying a 15 percent discount for the magazine’s readers.

Sales and discounts were also highly prominent last May—42.6 percent of catalogues featured some sort of price-related promotion on their covers this time last year—but it’s come as quite a surprise that in 2010 free delivery and free gifts were more than twice as popular. This year, 24.1 percent of catalogues promoted free delivery on their covers compared with a mere 11 percent last year. Whilst a number of cataloguers, including apparel merchant Lands’ End and discount-fashion catalogue M and M Direct, set a threshold requiring customers to spend more than a certain amount on their order, less fussy was water gardening cataloguer PondKeeper, which offered all customers free next-day delivery.

Plus-size apparel retailer Evans sent us two catalogues in May. The catalogues had the same cover image but carried two different offers. One promoted free delivery on orders of £40 or more, the other gave us 20 percent off our next order. The free delivery offer was sent to an existing customer whilst the discount was aimed at the prospect.

May 2010 saw a record number of catalogues offering a free gift (20.5 percent). The highest percentage up until now was recorded in June 2009, when 17.8 of catalogue covers promised a free gift. In May 2009, the figure was just 11 percent. Freebies promoted in consumer catalogues ranged from a raincoat and reversible fleece gilet from Daxon, to a free LED reading lamp for Daily Mail readers from Clifford James.--MT

April Catalogue Log

In terms of sales, discounts, and free delivery offers, April 2010 panned out much the same as April 2009. Of the 96 catalogues we received and logged last month, 29.2 percent (28 catalogues) promoted a sale or discount on the front cover compared with 30 percent in April last year. Free delivery was just marginally less popular in 2010, with 18.8 percent of covers promoting it, compared with one in five of all catalogues logged in April 2009.



Curiously, free gifts were much more popular in April 2010, and were promoted by 16.7 percent of all catalogues, compared with 12.5 percent the previous year. And it wasn’t just the usual—business-to-business—suspects touting a freebie: Organic cosmetics brand LoveLula offered free samples with every purchase; environmentally friendly goods purveyor Ethical Superstore sent customers who spent £40 or more a free bar of soap and apparel and homewares cataloguers Clifford James offered a free reading lamp to anyone placing an order of £40 or more.

One growing catalogue trend we’ve noticed in recent months is the shift to a more editorial style. We’ve written about the rise of the customer magazine—now known also as a magalogue—back in September (Getting engaged: The rise of the customer magazine), and noted that while editorial pages may not be selling product, they are still promoting the brand. We also featured two launches not so long ago: Loungewear cataloguer Hush and tech specialist Jigsaw both recently unveiled customer magazines with the aim of further engaging customers with their brand. During the Catalogue Log tracking in April, we came across at least three more catalogues that seemed to be heading in the same direction.

The first was MacSolutions from Cancom. On first impressions this could easily pass for a magazine—it is laid out with a title, issue number, and copy pointing to special features within. Once inside, the magazine theme continues—for example, on page 59, the Final Cut Studio software is given a full page and each of its functions broken down and explained in great detail. However, it’s also worth noting that nearly every one of MacSolutions’ 68 pages is a selling page. So it’s more buyer’s guide than magazine.

On the consumer side, April’s Catalogue Log recorded a mailing from catalogue group JD Williams. Together with its main catalogue we received JD Williams’ Summer 2010 Style Book. The Style Book was back for its second season, having debuted in autumn/winter 09. Its aim is to help JD Williams customers make fashion choices based on their body shape and the latest trends. For this edition it picked four “real people”, each with a different body type, to model clothes in the style that best suited them. There is also a fashion Q&A (with questions like “I have chunky upper arms, so hate the summer season when strappy tops come into fashion. I’ve tried short sleeves but always find these too tight. Can you solve this?”) and a centre-spread dedicated to building a capsule wardrobe on a budget. All the items featured are available to buy in the main summer catalogue.

Finally, the Little Book of Pests from Harrod Horticultural caught our attention. The name conjures up images of kids eating worms, but it’s actually a handy gardener’s companion helping Harrod’s customers to identify which pests have damaged their plants. The book is a veritable A-Z of nasty critters from ants to whitefly. What we like best is that Harrod Horticultural is using its knowledge of plants and their predators not only to help customers, but to advise them of the best remedies available, naturally, via the Harrod Horticultural catalogue. Although sadly I didn’t inherit my grandfather’s green thumbs, I can see this book having real staying power with customers; most likely lifting sales of pest-control products at the same time.

Through editorially led features, these cataloguers are establishing themselves as go-to sources for information, thereby increasing customer engagement. Home shopping businesses know it costs less to keep an existing customer than recruit a new one, and that lifetime value matters more than a quick win. So whereas a sale or discount may capture that bargain hunter, what April's Catalogue Log shows is that building customer loyalty is higher on the agenda.--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