|
It’s
catalog season, the time of year when our mailboxes sag
with accumulated paper and retailers nationwide cross
their fingers. But even though print continues to
dominate the world of presentation, the digital
revolution promises to transform the shopping
experience.
More than
20 billion catalogs were mailed in the U.S. last year,
about a quarter of which were devoted to fashion.
Apparel brands mail more catalogs than any other class
of retailer — usually between 12 and 24 catalogs each
year because as fashionable as, say, maxi skirts are
this season, next year no one will want to be wearing
them.
Shoppers
who strive to stay in vogue have an increasing array of
options for keeping up with the Kardashians, whether
it’s perusing the Internet or their mobile devices.
Still, according to Neil O’Keefe, a vice president
with the Direct Marketing Association in New York, print
catalogs remain dominant.
“Customers
are on social media, using mobile phones, shopping
online, but they’re still inspired by the print
catalog,” O’Keefe said. “Particularly with
fashion, the catalog still provides an opportunity to
convey your brand. The merchants and their creative
teams work extremely hard on the photography for the
garment to look as it would in the store.”
And that
presentation pays off. Roughly $270 billion in retail
sales are generated in some way, shape or form by
catalogs, according to Paul Miller, vice president of
the American Catalog Mailers Assn.
Alluring
as print catalogs may be, an increasing number of
retailers — Bloomingdales, Nordstrom and J. Crew among
them — aren’t just mailing them to their customers.
They’re going digital, showing off this season’s
lace-trimmed dresses and faux-fur vests in free
downloadable apps that mimic the traditional catalog
experience, minus the print.
Google
Catalogs, Catalog Spree, Catalogue and Coffee Table are
among the downloadable apps that have gone live this
year, aggregating dozens of catalogs in easily browsable
formats. While each app works slightly differently, most
encompass home decor and other retail categories in
addition to fashion, allowing users to sort catalogs
alphabetically or by popularity, category or date added.
“People
would rather get catalogs on demand, but they don’t
want them on a computer,” said Joaquin Ruiz,
co-founder of the Catalog Spree app that launched in the
spring with Nordstrom, Hanna Anderson, Bullock&Jones
and other retailers. The app is now accumulating 50,000
new users each month. “Just like Amazon didn’t
deliver electronic books to the computer screen but to a
personal device like the Kindle that mimics the print
counterpart, with the iPad, we saw the opportunity to
shift catalogs onto a digital platform.”
Digital
catalogs have existed for years online, but they’re
rarely used by consumers because page flipping on a
screen using a mouse is so unnatural. With the advent of
the iPad and other tablets and smart phones that use
touch screens, shoppers can flip through pages as they
would with print, with an added feature. They can zoom
in on specific items and make a purchase through the
device.
“Paper
and postage costs have escalated to the point that using
catalogs is like handing out dollar bills. It’s very,
very expensive even though the impact of receiving a
physical catalog in the mail is tremendously impactful,”
said Harry Egler, spokesman for the heritage brand
Filson, which recently began offering its catalog
through the Catalog Spree app.
One in 10
visits to the Filson website is now generated from an
iPad or other mobile device, according to Egler. Still,
Filson generates a new, 84-page catalog roughly every
four weeks, mailing as many as 1 million of them to
customers during a peak selling season like Christmas at
a cost of $1 per mail-ing.
“When
we send out the catalogs, our phones ring and the Web
sales start to come in. We can see and feel the
importance of the catalog,” Egler said.
|
