In the digital age — in fact, especially in the digital age — catalogs are a critical component in a brand’s omni-channel marketing approach. In the midst of information overload, a printed catalog with defined parameters is not only a welcome relief, curating products in a way that isn’t replicable online, but it’s also a driver of customer loyalty and sales through both print and the web.
With so much purchasing happening online, it can be tempting to believe that direct mail is outdated. Ikea recently discontinued its catalog, citing a recent increase in online sales. But research suggests that abandoning print marketing could have serious consequences for brands. According to the Data and Marketing Association, 90.9% of merchants list catalogs as a primary marketing tool, and between 2004 and 2018, response rates from catalogs rose 170%. This points to a catalog revival: Many brands that were digital-only are now producing a print catalog, and brands that had abandoned or drastically reduced their print distribution are renewing their efforts after realizing a significant decline in sales.
As catalogs are making a comeback, this is what we’re seeing:
Catalog customers are better customers.
A print catalog is a core component in a brand’s marketing mix. In a recent study conducted by the Harvard Business Review, an e-commerce watch company found that customers who received both emails and catalogs contributed to a 49% increase in sales, while the control group only caused a 28% sales lift.
Catalog customers also engage more deeply with a company’s brand. Most of the customers who received catalogs in the Harvard Business Review study — more than 90% — reported leafing through their catalogs and keeping them on hand for an average of a week. The open rate for the emails, on the other hand, was only 26%.
Across the board, the return on investment for catalogs is high: On average, targeted marketing through catalogs leads to between $3 and $9 in returns for every dollar spent.
Catalogs drive sales through all channels — not just print.
Consider Lands’ End, which in 2000 cut catalog costs significantly and saw a $100 million decline in sales. From that experience and a subsequent pop-up survey on its website, the company learned that customers are catalog-driven to shop, meaning they actually spend more money when they’re shopping with a catalog, even if the point of purchase is online, in the store, or over the phone. In fact, the survey reported that 75% of all customers placing orders online had first looked at a catalog.
While the catalogs of decades past were designed to act as marketplaces in book form — places where merchants could advertise all of their available wares — the catalogs of today play a different role. Data suggests that catalogs often drive customers to a brand’s website, rather than acting as the point of purchase. For this reason, the Data and Marketing Association recommends that brands aim for “highly creative presentations, focusing on customer benefits and strong calls-to-action.”
Catalogs aren’t just for traditional, established brands with mature audiences.
Even brands with a digital-only heritage — Wayfair, Everlane, and Boll & Branch, to name a few — have begun to realize the value in a printed, tactile marketing effort. Perhaps most surprisingly, Amazon has started printing catalogs, aiming to send customers to its website. “Amazon has eliminated the direct response component of the medium, using it purely to drive web traffic,” says Larry Kavanaugh, CEO of NaviStone, a company that uses online browsing data to develop direct mail campaigns.
Bonobos, a menswear brand, is another e-commerce company that began testing print catalogs in 2013. Upon realizing early success, it gradually expanded its distribution, and by the following year, more than 20% of the website’s first-time customers were those who first received a catalog. The company views its catalog as a way to “grab folks’ attention” and “tell a bit of a fuller brand story” while driving people online for more detailed information.
Retailers with no physical stores whatsoever are reaping the benefits of catalogs as well. For the e-commerce retailer that participated in the Harvard Business Review study, sending catalogs in combination with weekly emails yielded an additional $180 per customer in annual profit — an ROI of 600%. If the company took this approach with all of its customers (rather than only the sample chosen for the study) and saw similar results, it would experience a 40% lift in annual profits, the study revealed.
Catalog producers are adopting new, innovative approaches.
With the revival of what may seem to be an “old school” marketing format comes a new school of savvy marketers — those who are using technology to redefine the role of catalogs. These leaders are opting for scalable, more customized campaigns; testing new formats; and integrating the use of catalogs into other purchasing channels.
Recognizing the power of beauty and story, many brands use magazines as inspiration for their catalogs. The high-end fashion brand Cuyana prints a catalog that resembles an art magazine. “We designed it to story-tell; it’s very beautiful to look at, and shopping is a secondary part of the experience,” says the brand’s cofounder, Shilpa Shah. That approach has paid off: After increasing the catalog’s circulation by around 50% in 2016, Cuyana saw a 200% increase in profits from new customers.
Patagonia weaves essays on adventure, activism, and the environment into its catalog, and K&L Wines produces a printed newsletter that includes tasting and travel notes. With lush, eye-catching photography, catalogs for companies like Pottery Barn and Nordstrom evoke an enjoyable mood and encourage customers to imagine using the products shown in their everyday lives.
“Just like the evolution of the retail landscape, catalogs have also evolved — they should no longer be a rambling collection of product pages reminiscent of Sears’ golden days,” writes Jonathan Z. Zhang in the Harvard Business Review. “Instead, firms need to focus on designing stunning imagery and creative presentation of products to evoke emotion.”
Catalogs allow for customization.
The use of a high-end design aesthetic and integration of enriching content to create a “mag-alog” feel is only part of how catalogs are distinguishing themselves in mailboxes. With vast amounts of data at their fingertips, retailers are able to test the effects of customization and find ways to make their mail stand out from others.
We’re seeing this type of deep analysis in action. Bonobos looked at sales patterns and realized that how casual shirts were presented in catalogs drove sales: If a shirt is shown with pants as an “outfit,” many men ordered both items. Using sales data, catalog versions are often tailored to a customer’s purchasing history: Costco, for example, varies the content in its catalog depending on who will be receiving it. Brands are discovering that personalizing their catalogs using customer data not only increases ROI by targeting the people most likely to purchase a certain type of product, but it also offsets production costs.
So while rumors have circulated ever since 2008 that “print is dead,” it is in fact thriving, remaining a critical component in an omni-channel marketing approach. Consumers are hungry for curated content in a beautiful, digestible format. Retailers have learned that by leveraging data to customize their approach and offering an enriching experience, they can distinguish themselves in the marketplace, build loyalty, and impact sales revenue across all channels.