The Post Office should have both a plan and the leadership to carry out the new administration’s agenda. The first order of business is to appoint a new Postmaster General. In the past, the Postmaster General was a nonpartisan, nonpolitical job. However, the current Postmaster General was the first political appointee in recent memory. As…
Jim Coogan
Many catalog mailers are seeing large increases in revenue and growth in their new-to-file buyers because of the surge in pandemic-driven online purchases. However, with the growth in the number of buyers comes lots of uncertainty. Are these new buyers different than buyers pre-pandemic? The business issue with the significant influx of pandemic buyers is…
The holiday season is ramping up with a bang. And it will be a holiday season like no other. People will shop more because they're at home. People will give more gifts because they won’t be able to travel to see family and friends as the pandemic drags on without an end in sight. People…
Catalogers are rightly concerned about managing their catalog deliveries through the mail during the election season. Issues include: Will catalogs get delivered? Will catalogs get delivered on time given the turmoil surrounding the Post Office and the election? Will customers respond like a normal holiday season or will response rates be affected by the shadow…
In his Catalog Spotlight column, circulation expert Jim Coogan offers a list of tips to help catalogers squeeze the most sales and profit from their circulation this holiday shopping season.
Catalog marketers are overwhelmed with data. They need to measure what’s important and keep track of the data that’s critical to the health of their catalog’s circulation, and do away with the rest. Here are tips on how to do just that:
Catalogers rely on matchbacks to compare catalogs mailed against the response rates from their various housefile and prospecting list segments. However, matchback attribution rates, which are the percentage of orders that can be allocated back to a catalog mailing, are decaying. It’s important that the attribution of orders can be as high a percentage possible.…
This year’s IRCE had everything — the big picture overview of where the industry is evolving, specific strategies and tactics for the Q4 selling season, and a wealth of marketing and operational opportunities in an exhibit hall filled with vendors detailing how their products can build your business. The big picture story from this year’s…
To compare the economics of mailing a catalog vs. mailing a postcard or direct mail piece, you need to compare the cost of mailing, the different response rates, the breakeven and the profitability of the different formats. Catalogs would cost between 50 cents and 80 cents in the mail with the cost of printing, paper,…
The postage rate changes proposed by the U.S. Postal Service on Oct. 12 are to go into effect on Jan. 22, 2017, pending approval by the Postal Regulatory Commission. The good news? This isn’t a flat-out rate hike; in fact, some catalog postage rates may actually decline. The changes include the following: Standard mail flats will…
As you’re all well aware, we’re closing in on the election of the 45th president of the United States of America. (I’ll keep my thoughts on the two candidates to myself.) And though you might not have thought to connect the two, elections impact catalogers’ circulation plans. Presidential election years cause high anxiety for catalogers.…
The Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE) held in Chicago this June was a snapshot of the big trends that are driving the retail industry. How do these trends reflect the shifting landscape for internet retailers? Here are my takeaways from the event: “Retailers see double the growth in mobile share of transactions … and mobile…
Catalogers are finally seeing some cost relief with the expiration of the exigent postage increase on April 10, as well as softening paper prices. Aggressive work over the past two years by the American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA) in challenging the ceiling of the exigency rate before the postal regulator and in a U.S. Court…
The question is as old as the internet itself: Can’t internet marketing simply replace the expense of printed catalogs? The answer remains an emphatic no. Here are some reasons why internet markting can’t replace the expense of printed catalogs:
Here are some ways to look at your holiday catalog results to understand how your business responded to its catalog circulation: Compare your housefile and prospecting results vs. the previous year and your break-even point. Are results stronger, weaker or comparable to the 2014 holiday season? Compare your daily sales flash to the previous holiday…
