TulipTools Internet Business Owners and Online Sellers Community

Quote:Clarity is emerging regarding the catalog’s future function. This past year has produced many tentative observations on the changing benefits and intents of the catalog. The buzz has a philosophic twist, a genuine questioning of the catalog’s future utility.

That is an interesting term: utility. It is an economic term and implies benefit, as in, “What is the benefit of a catalog?” Or, perhaps more strident, “How much benefit do we get from catalogs?” Perhaps the underlying question is, “What does the catalog do today?” Until now, the function was to cause a phone or mail order because the catalog actually sold products. Everything necessary to creating a sale has been embodied in the design, copy, photos, ordering process and customer service elements of the “catalog shopping experience.”

The catalog’s utility has been in its ability to make a sale. Everything we know about catalogs and everything we do in creating catalogs has been codified for one purpose: to sell. Suddenly, half of the orders or more are coming to us online. Our online catalogs are absorbing more of our resources and energies than our paper catalogs...