Yesterday's posting about where the catalog industry has been and where it's likely to head was about as popular as anything I've written in the past three years (click here). Yes, a little LinkedIn promotion didn't hurt. Non-vendors have a very different set of questions/comments from what the service provider community has to say. Non-vendors want to know about the customers who buy from digital channels and the products purchased from digital channels ... specifically, "are the products purchased in, say, paid social, different than the projects purchased through print"? Yeah, that's a good ..read more

This article was forwarded to me this weekend by one of our intrepid and now retired advocates (click here). Plow & Hearth going away (old news) should cause catalog professionals to go ... hmmm? Let's step back for a moment. Here's what an awful lot of you in the catalog world are experiencing. This is what net sales look like over time. Click on the image for a bit more resolution. Notice the COVID bump in 2020, and the dramatic deflation of the COVID bump in 2021-2022. On October 29, 2020, I told you to SELL (click here), to take full advantage of that gigantic peak in the image ..read more

My wife told me about the history of WLS in Chicago following attendance at a quilting retreat, which I didn't know about (the history of WLS - I knew about the quilting retreat), so I had to look it up. Now you get to look it up as well (click here). Wow. WLS = World's Largest Store (which was Sears in 1924). By creating a radio station, Sears could sell radios in the catalog, providing "engaging content" for people to listen to on their new radio.  They were doing Amazon Prime stuff a hundred years ago. Then Sears sold the station and moved on. What might have happened had they taken a ..read more

Retail Dive really derives pleasure/clicks out of bankruptcies. Over 45,000 retail stores may close in the next five years? There have been many stages of omnichannel theory. 2000 - 2005:  You had to send catalogs to grow your e-commerce business and drive customers to the store. 2005 - 2010:  You had to align every product and promotion and price across all channels, no exceptions. 2010 - 2015:  40% of catalog circulation disappeared because, it turns out, older technology bolted on to newer technology does not protect older technology ... while at the same time the experts ..read more

In my Merchandise Dynamics projects, I tag every order with the Life Stage the customer is at on that order. If it is the 4th order for the customer, then LFS = 4. Your items do not distribute equally across your customer base. Some items are preferred by first-time buyers. Some items are liked by Google/Facebook. Other items are time-tested, preferred by your best customers. It is important to tag each item in your merchandising database ... you can make this easy for your merchandising team. Very Early in Customer Life Stage. Early in Customer Life Stage. Middle of Customer Life Stage. Late ..read more

I once spoke with a CEO who suggested he was going to "reinvent the brand". It's not easy to reinvent a brand. Sometimes, your customer won't let you reinvent the brand. Before you make the decision to blow things up, look at the percentage of sales that come from winning items by customer life stage. 1x Buyers = 33% from winning items. 2x Buyers = 37% from winning items. 3x - 5x Buyers = 42% from winning items. 6x - 10x Buyers = 46% from winning items. 11x+ Buyers = 55% from winning items. This analysis tells you that your best-selling items are preferred by your very best customers. If yo ..read more

In general, a small number of high-performing items account for the top 20% of your sales. Then a small number of good-performing items account for the next 20% of your sales. Eventually, a large number of low-performing items account for the bottom 20% of your sales. Using this segmentation strategy, you can produce a quick query that will help you understand if your merchandising team is killing off high-performing items. Step 1:  Select last year's winning items (top 20% for sales). Step 2:  Calculate the percentage of last year's winning items that are in the top 20% for sales th ..read more

There are pros and cons to what I call "winner stability". This metric captures the rate that last year's winning items maintain winning status this year. The "right" rate is different for everybody. If you sell the same products year-after-year, a drop in winner stability from 93% to 79% is a catastrophe. Fashion brands wouldn't even bother to measure the concept. When winner stability declines and new item introductions suffer, your business will suffer. Therefore, measure "winner stability" carefully ... once a month should be sufficient. Look for changes in the metric, and do some digging ..read more

Read this article and you'll be struck with a notable finding (click here). There is no context here. "Pureplay decreased by 51%". "Share of Ear?" The article would have lead you to believe that people are listening to Spotify half as much as in the past. Actual company data from Spotify shows revenue growth that is essentially unfettered. In order for survey data to be accurate, a few things "could" have happened. The audience would have to grow about 4x as fast to compensate for a 51% reduction in "share of ear" whatever that metric means. The data Spotify shares publicly (above) is ..read more

On Monday night, a furious finish to the 76ers/Knicks game was captured by three announcing teams. On TBS, legendary Milwaukee Brewers announcer Brian Anderson shows you what a professional, unbiased approach sounds like (click here and watch through the 5:26 mark). Ok, here's the best NBA announcer ... Mike Breen ... calling the game on MSG for Knicks fans ... notice a difference in tone (click here)? Yes, I saved the best for last. This is the camera that is set up to monitor the Knicks radio team. They have to paint a picture for their audience. Listen to the crowd noise, the tension create ..read more