News

Importance of casual web surfers on sales 'exaggerated'

December 16, 2007

In a private poll conducted at an annual conference of the catalog and multi-channel retail industry, key industry players revealed that a surprisingly low percentage of their online orders actually originate from casual Web surfers. The poll was conducted among members of The Catalogue Exchange, a trade consortium that represents both catalog retailers and online retailers.

The report notes that for true multi-channel retailers, between two-thirds and three-quarters of all Web orders have been triggered by receipt of a catalog in the mail. So although Web orders might account for 30 percent of a company's sales in total, the number of customers the company has actually acquired online is probably less than 10 percent. The rest are simply using the Web as a convenient method of placing an order.