David Solomon

Tired of reading about what a tough year it’s been for so many businesses across the board? Frustrated with your own results? Scared about the economy? Whether or not you’re struggling as much as others, here’s a little tonic: our annual best-of feature, in which we’ve pulled what we believe to be the 50 best and most implementable tips of the year from Catalog Success magazine as well as our weekly e-newsletter, Tactics & Tips. There’s nothing fancy here. Each paragraph is taken from a particular story that’s referenced, so you can turn or click back to reread the full story or act on

During a session at the Annual Conference for Catalog & Multichannel Merchants held May 19-22 in Kissimmee, Fla., David Solomon, co-CEO of Goldsmith Agio, pointed to several reasons — both general and directly related to the catalog/multichannel business — why mergers and acquisitions have continued to increase over the past few years. 1. Value creation for strategic buyers. He cited multititle cataloger Redcats USA’s $198.9 million acquisition of United Retail Group last year. The deal not only catapulted Redcats into retail with 500 Avenue stores, but it also gave Redcats’ Woman Within plus-size woman’s apparel catalog and some of its other women’s catalogs

The virtually simultaenous bankruptcies of The Sharper Image and Lillian Vernon shouldn’t have surprised anyone. The rules of the game have changed. It started with merchandising. Once the merchandise in these catalogs went stale, both companies entered a dangerous spiral, losing demand per book while driving up marketing cost as a percent of sales. Once demand started to decline, the only lever left was price and reduced marketing costs, both of which lowered gross margins. Starving Margins Gross margins are more important this year than in the past because the Internet has flattened competition among retailers, making the marketplace more efficient every

The virtually simultaneous bankruptcies of The Sharper Image and Lillian Vernon shouldn’t have surprised anyone. The rules of the game have changed. It started with merchandising. Once the merchandise in these catalogs went stale, both companies entered a dangerous spiral, losing demand per book while driving up marketing costs as a percent of sales. Once demand started to decline, the only lever left was price and reduced marketing costs, both of which lowered gross margins. Starving Margins Gross margins are more important this year than in the past because the Internet has flattened competition among retailers, making the marketplace more efficient every