News

Retail catalogs surviving the Internet Age

May 29, 2012

Many may think that the catalog is on its way out as online spending continues to increase, but in fact, the opposite is true.

"It's basically a marketing tool," retail analyst Eric Beder, a managing director at Brean Murray, Carret & Co, told the USA Today. "The beauty of a catalog is that you don't have to go online to see it, so you can use it anywhere."

More than 12.5 billion catalogs were mailed to U.S. homes last year, according to the Direct Marketing Association. And more than 89.6 million Americans bought an item from a catalog last year.

However, retailers also use the books for brand awareness. Take J.Crew, for example, which began as a mail-order business. It now has more than 300 stores but still mails 40 million catalogs per year.

"Most of our business goes from catalog to online," J.Crew CEO Mickey Drexler said in the story. "I'm always looking at the turn-on item or category or outfit that will drive them to want to shop at J.Crew instead of the millions of choices out there."

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