Live from Catalog on the Road: Many Factors Influenced Holiday 2006
Attention catalogers: holiday 2006 was bumpy, and 2007 might not be smooth either.
Ben Perez, president of Millard Group Inc., told attendees at the Direct Marketing Association’s annual Catalog-on-the-Road conference Tuesday that the 2006 holiday season wasn’t nearly as robust as 2005. Clients were confident early in season, he reported, but then things suddenly slowed down.
Some factors influencing this simply couldn’t be controlled, such as the unseasonably warm temperatures in much of the country, he noted. This meant cold weather clothing sales were down, and shoppers perhaps weren’t in a holiday shopping frame of mind.
Retail competition — especially from big box stores — is also increasingly becoming more of an issue. Store are promoting themselves more aggressively, both online and off. For example, said Perez, the Web sites of Target and Wal-Mart are two of the popular shopping destinations online, and the retailers’ brick and mortar presences (1500+ and 3900+, respectively) are increasing almost daily.
And when looking to see where dollars are going, marketers need only look under their own holiday trees, he said. The iPod was the number one holiday gift for the third year in a row, taking away dollars that might have been spent on catalog products.
Another factor was the increase in gift card sales, up 34% in 2006 to $25 billion, reported Perez. This means instead of simply focusing on clearance sales, retailers are becoming more strategic in their January marketing efforts to draw shoppers into the stores to use those cards.
Going forward into 2007, Perez said he was a bit more pessimistic than in years past. Catalogers need to have their eyes wide open in today’s competitive environment and give their marketing approach more of an edge.
This doesn’t mean they should forget the basics, he said, noting that having the right merchandise mix is essential.
The 15th annual Catalog-on-the-Road conference was held at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, MA.
