Eleven out of 13 catalog categories experienced holiday season growth in 1997, with five segments having at least a 13% increase in dollar spending, according to Westminster, CO-based Abacus Corp.’s Consumer Catalog Buying Trend Report.
The report analyzed 584 catalogs, rating each based on total dollars spent, number of transactions and number of households making purchases from within the category. Gardening, jewelry and shoe catalogs topped all three measures in overall growth, with each showing hikes of at least 20% in total dollars spent.
Jewelry additionally had almost a 52% gain in net transactions, followed by gardening (25.6%) and shoes (18.5%).
As for the number of households making purchases in these categories, jewelry grew by 46.6%, gardening supplies increased by 17.4%, and shoes were bought by 17% more households in 1997 than in 1996.
In contrast, electronics, tools and gadgets, crafts and hobbies, and men’s apparel were all at or near the low end of growth in overall dollar spending. Crafts and hobbies actually fell 3.5% and men’s apparel dropped 1.7% from 1996 levels. Electronics, tools and gadgets rose by 4.8%, the second-lowest positive growth rate, trailed only by children’s apparel and merchandise, which grew a meager 1.7% over 1996.
The categories were also ranked based on average number of transactions, dollars spent and order size per household. Gardening, for example, grew from 1.2 transactions during holiday season 1996 to 1.3 during the same period in 1997. It had a 13.2% increase in average order size and a 21.2% leap in average dollars spent.
Electronics, tools and gadgets, while not showing nearly the dollar amount growth as gardening supplies, nonetheless rose 9%, followed by home-focused catalogs (8%) and men’s apparel (7.7%). Another strong category in 1997 was women’s apparel and accessories, ranked among the top five in growth in spending, overall number of transactions, number of transactions per household, and dollars per household.
The “negative growth” categories, when ranked by dollars spent per household, included jewelry, which fell 9.6% from 1996 levels; health and beauty products, which dropped 7.3%; and children’s apparel and merchandise, which declined by 1%.
But the Scrooge spirit was alive and well in 1997, as evidenced by an underperformer among categories experiencing “positive growth”: The gift category ranked in the bottom five listings (among those catalogs experiencing any growth) for number of transactions, number of households purchasing, average dollar amount of transaction, and average dollars per household spent.
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