E-Commerce

Catalog Success recently took two of its longest-standing columnists to task. Strategy scribe Stephen R. Lett and Catalog Doctor Susan J. McIntyre have spent the better part of their careers producing or helping clients produce print catalogs. But do catalogs have a future in this integrated selling environment?

As e-commerce sales continue to climb, many catalog/multichannel marketers find themselves evaluating their current platforms to determine if it’s time to consider upgrading their Web sites. No doubt, it’s a large task. So proper planning is a crucial first step toward handling the project the right way.

Like most, I’ve seen my family wealth shrink. I’ve seen friends and colleagues get laid off. I’ve seen the stock market continue to be eaten up by the bears. I’m seeing the catalog/multichannel business, as we know it, dwindle, while the overall retail business is in tatters. I’ve seen the size of our magazine diminish as the vendor community is hurting big-time. And I’ve seen some of our competitors all but disappear.

The Catalog Success 200 presents a keen way of showing which catalog/multichannel marketers have been on the fast track. It tracks those that have rented out their housefiles in the past two years. There may be others out there, but without the numbers for the market to view, they can’t be charted. Companies highlighted in red are either B-to-B or hybrids.

eBags has been using Gomez Inc.’s Reality View XF since August to test more than 50 browser and operating system combinations. Mike Frazzini, VP of technology,estimates that the outsourced , automated tool is saving it more than 50% in staff and fees versus reproducing the combinations manually.

Selecting software for order management or warehouse management systems, e-commerce solutions, or other applications is a challenging task. The process begins by documenting a set of requirements, constructing a request for proposal (RFP), identifying vendors, viewing Web demos, and conducting site visits and reference checks. But a trend is emerging to select vendors based on word-of-mouth recommendations and two-hour Web demos. The question is, is that really the right approach?

As I mentioned in my most recent column — a recap of the National Center for Database Marketing conference last month — it’s not good enough to just serve your customers anymore. You must cement them emotionally to your brand, your products and your customer service.

A client recently called me in a panic. The company often personalizes its e-mails, but this time the send button got pushed too fast. Instead of the recipients’ first names being nicely displayed, the e-mail showed “[FIRST_NAME].” This company prides itself on its e-mail program and customer relationships, and felt this would tarnish its image. That client decided to immediately send a second e-mail with an apology, which went out about three hours after the error occurred.

When it launched a digital version of its catalog 18 months ago, natural nutritional goods cataloger/wholesaler Shaklee was pursuing cost savings and the chance to target a new customer segment. And last week during a Catalog Success webinar called “Digital Catalogs: Expand your audience while slashing your costs,” which was sponsored by digital publishing services provider Nxtbook Media, John Cortez, e-commerce manager at Shaklee, chronicled his company's experience with its digital book.

Online fraud will account for more lost revenue than ever before in the decade-plus history of e-commerce. Online merchants expect to lose a record $4 billion to fraud in 2008, up from $3.7 billion last year, according to a recent survey from CyberSource, a provider of electronic payment and risk management solutions. The survey of 400 online retailers was conducted from Oct. 21 to Nov. 11. Here are some more findings of the survey: