Consumer catalog and online spending dipped from $19.3 billion in 2001 to $19 billion in 2002, according to the spring 2003 trend report on catalog activity from Abacus.
The spending decline reflected 800,000 fewer households making purchases in 2002. In 2001, 49.1 million households did so, compared to 48.3 million last year. The total number of transactions between the two years fell from 191.3 million to 189.7 million, while the average order size was off from $101 to $100.
The accessories, children and other categories all declined, while gifts, senior-market, mens, and books/music/video products, showed increases. With 37% growth, to more than $553 million, books, music and video showed the largest increase. Conversely, "Other", which includes pool gear, business merchandise, travel package and supplies, household pet and horse products and non-profit/fundraising experienced the biggest decline – 24%, to just under $1.8 billion.
At just under $6 billion, combined male and female apparel, and fashion accessories and beauty was the largest category when ranked by spend. But apparel fell 3% from 2001’s level.
Online sales continued to show strength: In 2001 they amounted to 30% of all catalog sales, up from 24% a year earlier. During the fourth quarter of last year, they made up one-third of all sales, compared with 28% in fourth-quarter 2001.
During the holiday season in late 2002, nearly two-thirds of all names mailed were from house files, with the remaining 37% generated from prospect lists. Rental lists generated responses of between 0.5% and 1.5%, while house lists saw response levels between 1% and 4.25%.
When war tensions loomed in spring 2003, response rates for rental list were between 0.3% and 1.3%, while house lists generated response levels between 0.9% and 3.5%. Once the war appeared to be in hand, response rates, which had dropped significantly in March with the start of hostilities, moved upward sharply.
The Abacus Catalog Industry Trend Report is generated from a representative sample of the consumer catalog world. Data is primarily drawn from the Abacus Alliance, a cooperative catalog database file.
