Final thoughts S. Cuttlebutt
To the 9,500 readers who weren’t at the ECMOD Direct Commerce Awards in March—actually make that 27,000 readers who will pick up this issue at some point over the next four weeks—you probably don’t know that yours truly had her ECMOD Awards event hijacked by certain cunning folk.
That’s the cat out of the bag to those who
didn’t already know that S Cuttlebutt is the pen name of the founder and publisher of Direct Commerce, Jane RH. Anyway, International Dance Supplies’ Anne Walker in collaboration with certain other parties roped Martin Harvey (of Marshalls) into springing a lifetime achievement award on me; something I knew nothing about until Martin took to the stage.
I am flattered, of course, but was mortified to be singled out, as anyone who knows me will tell you. I don’t do front of stage. I simply create the platform from which others can share their expertise and I have been doing it for quite some time. Long enough, that is, to recall the time Nigel Swabey was managing director of Innovations, and a time when Inmac was that amazing “new” source for computer supplies. When reaching 1,000 names on my database of “mail order businesses” was a major milestone, when Viking Direct was still considered to be a minor threat to the stationery trade, and when we only just started to hear about this amazing new data storage medium—the CD-ROM.
When I started my business, I did so with a single PC; one of Alan Sugar’s Amstrads, a simple word-processing programme, a telephone and
a fax machine. It was together with Michael Balmforth that we launched our first conference which, within its tiny attendance, boasted Nigel Swabey, Judi Fox, Henry Heavisides, John Wright, Lynn Lewis, as well as a smattering of folk from Sanderson, Polestar and RR Donnelley. The joy is that most remain clients and/or associates after all this time.
In truth, it is 22 years since I set out with Mike
to try and create this forum for catalogue and mail order businesses, initially with ECMOD (then Catalogue & Mail Order Day) back in 1990. Mike moved back to his roots, as general manager for major b-to-b brands in various countries, but has remained a loyal and helpful ally. The small newsletter I published, Mail Order Marketer, was followed by Catalogue & Mail Order Business (the forerunner of the magazine you have in your hands) in 1995.
One and one made three when Nigel Swabey decided that it really was time for the sector, which had by then burgeoned and evolved to embrace ecommerce, to have its own trade group. Eight years down the line CatEx DCA is flourishing and sits neatly within my businesses’ offices where it benefits from my 20-plus years’ worth of contacts, the input of an expert team and the combined energy of us all to deliver the very best services for everyone engaged in direct commerce, whether client-side or from specialist supplier organisations. Do I deserve this award? I’d say not, so I accept it on behalf of those who have helped me to develop this publication, ECMOD and CatEx DCA
services. I deserve it no more than anyone else who has invested heart and soul into a business, worked to develop it and remains as driven and motivated to continually improve upon it. I am the sad one writing this at 6.30am on a Sunday morning before heading up to London for a series of meetings that start at 7am on Monday, having worked all day Saturday to compensate for being out of the office for two days… I know many of you are doing just the same. It is what we do when we are driven by the need to continuously refine and develop our businesses. But we don’t do it alone.
Over time I have had the joy of working with some truly great people who have grown with the business. I have also, as many of you will empathise, felt the pain upon finding my trust and faith has been sorely misplaced at times. But overall, what a privilege it has been to be able to earn a living doing what I do and for that I must thank all of you, whether Direct Commerce readers, website users or advertisers, ECMOD speakers, exhibitors, delegates, awards sponsors, entrants, winners, CatEx DCA board, client-side members, associate members, sponsors, event speakers and delegates—plus readers of our weekly enewsletters, clients of our Expert Register recruitment service and friends, which many of you have become over the years. Thank you all.
PS: I am not about to hang up my boots just yet, in case you are wondering. My “to do” list remains as long as it always has.
S-cuttlebutt@catalog-biz.com The March Catalogue Log
With the start of spring comes an influx of spring catalogues; we counted 157 catalogues crossing the editorial desk in March. What’s more, for the first time in 2012, we actually received more catalogues than last year.
March was also a super-promotional month; just 59 catalogues didn’t have a special offer on the cover, which means that almost two-thirds of the catalogues we tracked did—featuring a discount, free delivery or free gift offer as the cover lines. Consistent with previous Catalogue Log data, a sale or discount was the most popular promotion, offered on 45 percent of covers. As the chart below shows, discounts on catalogue covers are becoming more and more prevalent.
March is consistently a high-volume month; in March 2010 we logged 141 catalogues, which dipped to 140 in March 2011. This year’s figure of 157 catalogues represents a 12 percent rise on last year and the highest figure since November’s haul of 178 catalogues.
cover. More than a quarter, 26.1 percent, of all the catalogues we received carried a free p&p offer, making it the highest rate since the Catalogue Log began. We have to go back to September 2010 for the second highest percentage, 24.3 percent. The offer of a free gift with purchase also saw a renaissance in March. One in 10 catalogues offered a freebie—double the figure from February and roughly in line with March 2011. As with previous months, I believe many more offers are being kept off the cover. In March I noted that the Bon’A Parte catalogue offered 25 percent off using a loose insert included within. Long Tall Sally did the same offering 10 percent off, free delivery and free returns, while furniture retailer Myakka offered me 12 percent off my next order. I still suspect this is in order to be able to tailor offers to specific segments of the database. At least I hope it is, because otherwise it’s a missed opportunity to market directly from the cover and to get the catalogue noticed.
In keeping with previous years, March saw a peak in the number of catalogues offering free delivery—conditional or otherwise—on the front
www.catalog-biz.com
Miri Thomas, editorial director
miri@catalog-biz.com
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