Merchandising

Your service bureau plays an important role in your company’s operations. But dealing with it effectively requires a great deal of trust. No doubt you wonder, for example, if your service bureau selected appropriate names, or if a high percentage of duplicate names were found. Files sent from a catalog company to a service bureau never are completely clean. For instance, there may be duplicates, NCOA changes may not have been applied back to the housefile, or some records may contain invalid addresses. One of the main reasons catalogers use service bureaus is to identify and fix such problems, and to get their

More than 45 percent of consumers cite color as an important factor in purchase decision-making for attire, home furnishings and appliances, according to a recent joint survey conducted by Pantone and BuzzBack Market Research. Other findings revealed by the survey of a palette of 44 colors by 2,769 respondents include: ¥ Only four colors received more than 5 percent of consumers’ votes as favorite color: palace blue (15 percent), fiery red (9 percent), little boy blue (7 percent) and sailor blue (7 percent). ¥ Bright chartreuse (12 percent) and plush moss (10 percent) are consumers’ least-favorite colors. ¥ Clothing is the one category in

On the following pages you’ll meet the winners of the fourth annual Catalogers of the Year awards. We’re honored to recognize the contributions these three professionals have made to the catalog and e-commerce industries. This year’s winners exemplify the astounding level of quality in branding, customer service and merchandising this industry enjoys. The winners include: 1. a former museum director who now sells museum shop-quality educational toys to a national audience via her catalog; 2. a transplanted Briton who has built a thriving company selling telephony equipment; and 3. an industry veteran whose reputation as a maverick in branding, direct marketing and channel-integration

When one of my clients, Lollia, a merchant of luxury bath products, was featured on both Oprah Winfrey’s “O List” (a monthly magazine column of her favorite products) and on her Christmas Special show, I got an inside glimpse of what can happen when the media mogul waves her magic merchandising wand and endorses someone’s products. Winfrey made Christmas come early and extravagantly for Lollia. Lately I’ve been mindfully observing how Winfrey operates. And I’ve discovered some merchandising lessons that catalogers could borrow from her. 1. Winfrey has Passion with a capital “P.” Winfrey’s life is a dream come true story, and she looks to make

Problem: Multititle cataloger Shindigz/Stumps wanted to reduce overall transportation expenses, while retaining flexibility in its product shipping options offered to customers. Solution: The multichannel merchant put its parcel shipping business up for bid. Results: A switch in carriers enabled Shindigz/Stumps to reduce its overall transportation costs by 27 percent. Brad Grimsley knew he needed to make some changes. The vice president of service and fulfillment at Shindigz/Stumps, a South Whitley, Ind.-based party and prom supplies merchant, says he noticed soon after arriving at the company in 2003 that he had an opportunity to reduce shipping expenses. Meanwhile, the company’s overall order volume

Adding targeted product groupings that give your business customers more for less, or that present solutions to their needs, certainly will boost your catalog’s revenue base. Product bundles and kits easily fit that bill. An example of a bundle offer for a consumer catalog: A cookware catalog that sells kitchen knives could sell a paring knife and a filet knife but offer both together at a modest discount. A kit differs from a product bundle in that it ultimately marries products that will complement one another under one SKU and gets the customer to an end goal of some sort. Keeping with the

Problem: Seta Corp., a jewelry syndicator and the parent company of Palm Beach Jewelry catalog, continually looks to reduce labor fulfillment costs. Solution: Instituted employee incentive programs, improved automation, realigned scheduling and staffing, and streamlined distribution center operations. Result: Between 1999 and 2004, the cataloger reduced its labor fulfillment costs by 45 percent; at the same time, it increased employees’ average hourly wages. * The following functions are included in Seta’s labor fulfillment costs: receiving; quality control; stock putaway; picking/packing; shipping; engraving; returns processing and putaway; production maintenance; and all hourly and salaried payroll costs, including payroll taxes. If you’re of the

E-mail personalization is a lost opportunity, says David Daniels, research director at JupiterResearch, a Darien, Conn.-based business research firm. Such a lost opportunity is particularly troublesome, he says, in an era when the technology to do personalization is readily available. E-commerce merchants who responded to the e-tailing group’s fourth annual Merchant Survey, released last month, admit they still have a way to go in this arena. Following is how they answered the question: How do you define personalization relative to your Web site and e-mails? ¥ 7% said their sites dynamically show products based on customers’ past purchases. ¥ 14% offer tools that allow

The name Brylane traditionally has been synonymous with deliberate sales growth and budget-priced, conservative clothing primarily for middle-aged, large-sized women. But when the Paris-based Redcats, the home-shopping division of French company PPR, bought the multititle cataloger in 1998, it set out to apply a broader, more aggressive — call it “worldlier” — merchandising and marketing formula to Brylane. Fast forward seven years, and although the sales growth has yet to take off, notable transformations in the merchandising and marketing approach, corporate structure and company culture all have kicked in. Two of the New York-based company’s top executives — Chairman/CEO Eric Faintreny

If sales are dipping and your internal expenses are based on a plan you aren’t meeting, you need to get back on track. The questions to ask yourself: How do you react to less-than-desirable sales results? And how soon should you take action? While there may not be quick fixes, I’ve identified some strategies that can help you avoid a disastrous year. This month I’ll discuss generating additional demand revenue — not cutting expenses. It’s difficult to slash your way into profitability, and the long-term effect of that type of quick-fix can be devastating to business. Following are 12 ideas to take for