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HOME · Friday, July 4, 2008
Ecommerce: A Day in the Life
The Red Hats By You Catalog
I received a request for an update on a blog from a few years ago on our catalog. We had designed and printed a catalog a few years ago and we circulated a fairly small amount of them.. no more than 1500, I think. We had also put a request for the catalog on our home page, and were swamped with requests, sending out stacks every day. It was really exciting.
Despite the response, we chose not to reprint. And that was a really frustrating reality for us. We were hoping that our audience of older.. senior women, would be more comfortable ordering from a catalog instead of online…figuring that they’d trust it more if they could send a check. And when the request for catalogs went through the roof, we were sure we were onto something fantastic.
However… I don’t think so. We still did 98% of our business online. It’s not often that we have an order come in by mail. And when they do come by mail, it was through a process we had already had put in motion BEFORE the catalog. We have a note on our checkout page that says “If you want to order by mail… stop, and print this page, and send your order to…..” That has been very well received by our customers and that printout screen accompanies more mail orders than catalog order forms .
The most frustrating part of a catalog for a small ecomm like ours was that our product line changed too fast. So if we did get an order, chances are that we’d be out of stock. And we’d either lose the order, or try to sell them on something else.
I would say that the catalog barely paid for itself. But that’s a hard thing to quantify. Who’s to say that reprinting or not reprinting was the right decision. If we do ever reprint, I may not throw it up on the home page like I did before, and save the catalogs for those who call to request it. Anyone will take a free catalog, right? why not?
So that’s sort of the long and short of it. I know other companies provide their catalog in pdf form online. I’ve considered doing that too… actually, I’d forgotten about it. That allows you to update your content as it changes, and still gives a person something tangible to pass around at their Red Hat Meetings. I guess I’ll have to add that to my long list of TO DO’s. I just never personally download those things, so I get frustrated thinking about maintaining it…. another thing to worry about. But I guess it’s worth a shot if it turns out more business.
I appreciate your ideas here…
Comments:
Sue Kirchner Says:
April 17th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Michelle,
We have been battling this same issue for a year now. We have been trying to decide whether to print a catalog, since a lot of our merchandise is unique so people don’t search for it. We need to show them somehow that there are some great parenting tools and gifts out there that they have never seen. A catalog would help educate or expose them to new products. We target the busy working Mom and Grandmas and they don’t have the time to just browse around our site. However, they might take a catalog with them and read it on the train, while they are at lunch, or waiting for soccer practice to end. I do feel that people like to “shop” with a catalog but then they will come to the site to make their final purchase.
However, I think we are going to go the pdf route for all of the reasons you mentioned above to see how many people really are interested in having something tangible in their hands. It is too expensive to print a catalog and then not have the money to print the second one.
I’d love to see what experience others have had with this issue.
Greg Says:
April 17th, 2008 at 8:05 am
thanks for sharing your past experience.
from the online requests, do you capture the email along with their mailing info? Maybe your customers will share more personal data for a free catalog and newsletter conversions from visitors will increase and you can market to them over and over. Postcards, emails and mini-catalog insert type things.
re: updating content - can the catalog reflect “repackaged” items from your website that are “catalog only” items? Thinking that a small catalog filled with Red Hat ideas and stories that solidify your position as the one stop shop for Red Hat merchandise might be something that customers pass around at meetings but directs them back to the site for commerce. Something that you only have to update 2x a year or so. . .
I’m walking down this same path and asking the same questions. . .I’ll be interested to see what kind of a solution you come up with. Good luck!
aw Says:
April 17th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
You are going about this backwards. You touched on this yourself. You have catalog signup on the website. They are already AT the website. They already probably know how to use internet and are comfortable ordering on the internet. Why are you giving the catalog to these customers? its fine that you do but this is not the catalogs main purpose
A catalog is a prospecting tool, sent to prospective customers who have NOT found your website. It is a tool used to drive traffic TO your website, not something you provide for people already there. This involves purchasing lists that target your customer demographic. Ecommerce is only a very small part of the direct marketing multi channel merchant equation.
A secondary use is a re-introduction tool to your best customers. I’m sure you keep a database and tabs of your best and most frequent customers. A lapse in activity may mean a catalog is needed to remind them that you still exist and they haven’t bought in while.
If you pursue catalogs seriously you have to think long and hard about a methods to separate catalog traffic/conversions from web traffic/conversions. This can be done with different skus in the catalog, a different website URL in the catalog that redirects to your normal site (so analytics can track it). be creative!
That should be enough to get your you started…of course to save money, a lot of this can be accomplished with email also…
Byron Says:
April 17th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Appreciate your thoughts on this subject.
Haralee Weintraub Says:
April 21st, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I just printed a form of a brochure. A few pictures that lead people to my web site. In the past I even had an order form and no one used it. I feel for people who don’t have a computer, but all libraries have internet access, so I printed a more broad, informative, eye catching brochure, not a catalog.
Tenten71 Says:
April 28th, 2008 at 8:02 am
If you know your visitors are going to order online, then provide the PDF catalog for new visitors and start an email newsletter to send new product info and promotions to existing customers. As far as printing goes, you could print inserts of new products to include in orders.
Personally, I’ve never found an online store yet that was better to search than a thorough catalog. And I hate the flash-based flip books. I thought they were cool at first, but not when it’s a 30+ page catalog. Give me a PDF any day.
Leave a Comment:
Michelle Lambert is co-owner of an online business called Red Hats By You. Lambert handles all of the internet responsibilities related to designing and maintaining their ecommerce presence.
Michelle has been an Art Director at McCabe, Duval & Associates in Portland, Maine where she specialized in multimedia and print design. Currently, Michelle works from her home in Michigan where she lives with her husband Chris and two children, Maddie and Grady.
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S Farace Says:
April 17th, 2008 at 5:51 am
Funny you bring this topic up. I was just getting ready to work on a print catalog. You bring up a good point about PDF’s, your right I don’t download them either.
However, I do like to flip through a print catalogs. It feels different then sitting in front of a computer. I don’t ever mail or fax orders. But I often order online from the print catalog that I looked at the night before.
So, I guess to judge the success rate you would need to put a coupon code or some other incentive. Any other ideas?
Sue