Industry Eye: New! Exclusive Abacus Consumer Co-op Data
Below is the first in a quarterly series of charts featuring purchase data compiled from Abacus Consumer Co-op members. Abacus is making this data available exclusively to Catalog Success. The first one contains data from Sept. 1, 2006, through Aug. 31, 2008.
This analysis is limited to co-op members who were active through the entire time frame and includes only catalog, online and retail transactions. Consumer sales growth was solid for the first two months of 2008, before falling off at the end of the first quarter, according to a subset of Abacus Consumer Cooperative members with catalog, online or retail transactions from Sept. 1, 2006, through Aug. 31, 2008.
The first half of the second quarter of 2008 saw a rebound, which may be attributed in part to one-time tax rebate checks from the economic stimulus plan and annual tax returns. The momentum quickly dissipated in June, however, and after a slight upturn in July, it continued to steadily decline through August as high prices for gas and food put a pinch on consumer spending.
Cataloger Updates
Boudin’s Discontinues Catalog: The multichannel marketer of baked goods has discontinued its 35-year-old print catalog. The bakery’s products will now be offered exclusively on its Web site as part of its ongoing efforts to reduce paper consumption and the overall environmental impact of its operations. Boudin typically printed 450,000 catalogs annually, with the majority distributed throughout the holiday season.
Layoffs at Cabela’s: The catalog/multichannel retailer of hunting, fishing, camping and related outdoor merchandise has laid off nearly 10 percent of its workforce. To reduce costs and improve efficiencies, Cabela’s expects approximately two-thirds of the reduction to come from not filling open positions and one-third from job eliminations.
Hires at Eddie Bauer: The outerwear, apparel and accessories catalog/multichannel retailer has hired Scott Hutsenpiller as vice president, outerwear design. Hutsenpiller comes to the Bellevue, Wash.-based company from Spyder Active Sports, where he was responsible for the design of two alpine ski collections. The company also announced the hiring of Jean Park as its new divisional vice president of men’s merchandising. She most recently served as the director of men’s and boy’s merchandising for the Levi Strauss & Co. brand.
On the Move
Sears: The general merchandise catalog/multichannel retailer has named Michael Collins senior vice president of finance. Plans call for Collins to succeed J. Miles Reidy as Sears Holdings’ CFO prior to the end of the 2008 fiscal year.
Charming Shoppes: The parent company of the Lane Bryant, ShoeTrader and Figi’s catalogs has named Carol Williams president of the company’s Catherines Plus Sizes brand and Jeffrey Elliott president of Charming Outlets.
