Views > fi nal thoughts
S Cuttlebutt
A month since ECMOD already—doesn’t seem starved boondocks like this or that the couriers
possible. There we were, virtually ambushed working to deliver N Brown Group’s stable of
by the TV crews as the postal-strike news catalogue/web brand orders make a killing with
Advertising
broke. Talk about a baptism of fi re for new the mature population.
t: +44 (0)1271 866112
CatEx recruit Naomi! But hey, there was some And as it is being proven by an increasing
great footage of the exhibition hall as well number of studies that buying via catalogues
f: +44 (0)1271 866040
as interviews with many of our readers and and online is the greenest option, the more
e:
sales@catalog-biz.com
advertisers. Lots of talk too of some seriously brands selling direct the better. There will be
w:
www.catalog-biz.com plum jobs up for grabs as more retailers race to fewer road miles involved getting stock out to
bite the multichannel bullet. stores, fewer road miles travelled by shoppers,
Editorial and
And does that make sense? Of course it does, less energy used heating and lighting all those
because for every consumer out there with easy stores, etc etc etc. And with direct despatch
subscriptions
access to a good choice of well-stocked shops, taking off, a lot of the product needs simply to
t: +44 (0)1271 866221
there are another half-dozen who have to travel be landed, warehoused, and shipped to its fi nal
e:
info@catalog-biz.com miles to fi nd anything halfway decent. Take our destination rather than pass through multiple
w:
www.catalog-biz.com
own team here: Travel 12 miles and you get to hands/premises.
Barnstaple, or head to Exeter a full 65 miles So where to next in this fascinating world we
each way. There’s no sensible public transport live in? Well, on most wish lists it is a reliable
151 High St, Ilfracombe,
to cover the Exeter journey unless you like the and affordable shipping service—whether from
Devon EX34 9EZ, UK
idea of taking a bus to Barnstaple to pick up the Royal Mail or from one of the number of other
scenic snail-pace railway line and to then make carriers. We simply need the assurance that we
Publisher
the return journey in the hope that the buses can distribute our catalogues, magazines, and
Jane Revell-Higgins will be running on time. So it is little wonder regular mail as well as our customer orders! Not
that Asos does so well in the fashion-outlet- too much to ask… is it?
Editorial director
Sherry Chiger
Letter to the editor
Editor
letters@catalog-biz.com
Miri Thomas
Don’
t go postal
Design and production
Tim Munnelly
For catalogue marketers and other mail or
der subsequent volume backlog, it also incr
eases
Subscriptions
professionals, “going postal” is the phrase of
mail order margins. Our estimates calculate
Jill Sweet
the moment. Why? The £9 billion industr
y is that an online digital edition can shave up to
taking a big hit. The Communication W
orkers 90 per
cent off the costs of a printed har
d copy.
Sales manager
Union strikes against Royal Mail af
fected Marketers can use the savings to br
oaden a
Jill Thorne
everybody: Printers ar
e being put on standby;
campaign’
s reach or to invest in an alter
native
mailing house contracts ar
e being postponed;
product deliver
y method.
Account managers
product impor
ts are being shelved; war
ehouses Sceptical marketers feel that page-tur
ning
Clair Crippin
are being put on thr
ee-day weeks. The list is
digital editions ar
e not as popular as printed
Stuart Martin
endless.
catalogues. That’
s hard to see on the evidence,
Karen Williams
With Christmas on the horizon, the dispute
with one major client telling us dir
ectly that
became extremely serious. For most mail or
der the average e-catalogue basket value per
companies the festive season is vital to their
customer is considerably higher than that of its
Catalogue e-business is wholly owned
well-being, and with the industr
y working on
ecommerce site.
by Catalogue Development Centre
Ltd and is published 12 times a year.
pretax margins of, on average, 2 per
cent…
Even more sceptical marketers have told
Every effort is made to ensure that the well, you can guess the r
est.
us that it’s all ver
y well getting a digital
content is accurate and provides honest
So how can mail or
der brands extricate
edition to a consumer
, but how do you then
representation of the facts. As publishers
we can accept no responsibility for errors
themselves from this mess?
get the product to them during a postal strike?
or misleading claims made by our editorial
One solution staring marketers in the face
Our response: Use the money saved on print
staff, contributors or advertisers. The
copyright for all content of Catalogue
is e-publishing and digital deliver
y. Rather
and distribution towar
d using a nonpostal-
e-business is held by Catalogue than or in addition to mailing the printed
dependent deliver
y supplier. Sur
ely it’s better
Development Centre Ltd and no material
catalogue, marketers can simply upload their
to spend a bit mor
e on delivery and achieve
may be reproduced without our express
prior consent.
PDFs and transfor
m them into an online
serious sales than to get no sales at all?
digital edition, which can then be emailed in
Robert Elding
©2009
an instant as a simple embedded URL.
Catalogue Development Centre Ltd.
Not only does this beat the postal strike and
Marketing director
, Yudu Media
42
Catalogue e-business
www.catalog-biz.com
ceb175.indd 42 7/11/09 13:11:11
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