Brian Dean

Below, our annual index of all stories that appeared in Catalog Success throughout 2006, including this issue. (For easy reference, use the print screen.) Cataloger Profiles Cover Stories United Receptacle: “B-to-B Goes ‘Plug and Play’” by Alicia Orr Suman, January Reiman Publications: “The Synergistic Approach” by Alicia Orr Suman, February Boston Proper: “Billion-Dollar Opportunity” by Donna Loyle, May Spiegel Brands: “How Spiegel Recovered” by Paul Miller, June Smarthome Direct: “Growth the Smart Way” by Matt Griffin, July J&L Industrial Supply: “Shaped Up, Shipped Out” by Paul Miller, August Northern Safety Co.: “Safely Ahead of the Game” by Matt Griffin, September AmeriMark Direct: “Steady

Three experts offer key pointers on Web site hosting, e-loyalty programs and advanced search engines. These days, catalogers reach more customers via the Web than ever before, and a growing number of them now receive a majority of their orders online. So in this technology focus, we've grouped together three articles to help marketers 1) better manage their e-commerce businesses, 2) use the Web and e-mail to keep customers loyal and 3) revamp their sites with advanced search capabilities. 1. Might it be wise to switch to a hosted software solution to better manage your e-commerce business? Some

When evaluating future technology acquisitions, make services-oriented architecture a key selection criteria. A new breed of software application has emerged over the last few years that has changed the dynamics of online product search within multichannel marketers' Web sites. Advanced search engines are becoming "must haves" on catalogers' lists of next-generation e-commerce features. Advanced search technologies differ from traditional, structured search approaches that rely on simple keywords and description indexes. Today's better Web sites allow for searches that automatically categorize results sets by navigable counts of relevant subsets of data. For example, a customer's search for "denim" may