About Mail Order Catalogs
The mail order catalog remains a part of America's consumer lifestyle even as the Internet has become commonplace. Mail order catalogs were used in the nineteenth century to give settlers west of the Mississippi access to products that were unavailable at local shops. In the present day, mail order catalogs have evolved into downloadable PDFs and smaller supplements that fit the mobile lifestyle of American consumers. As the Internet becomes the dominant shopping venue for Americans, businesses will need to reinvent mail order catalogs to maintain their relevance.
History
Benjamin Franklin is often credited for producing the first recognizable mail order catalog, publishing a listing of science and historical texts in 1744. The boom for mail order catalogs occurred after the Civil War with Montgomery Ward sending out its first catalog in 1872. This single sheet of products and prices ballooned to 540 pages by 1892 as the retailer grew in popularity in the newly settled West. Montgomery Ward's competitors, including Sears and JC Penney, produced catalogs at the turn of the twentieth century to capitalize on installment plans, reduced mailing costs and conspicuous consumption by an emerging middle class.
Features
The format of a mail order catalog has changed little during the twentieth century. Each page is filled with pictures of models sampling or wearing products accompanied by a letter or number in the corner. This symbol corresponds with a product listing that describes the materials used, prices and available sizes of the items on the page. As the name indicates, mail order catalogs typically include an order form on the back page or cover for easy use. This form has a series of blank spaces to write down product numbers and quantities from the catalog. Modern catalogs include email addresses, websites and phone numbers to reduce mailing costs for postage-paid order forms.
Considerations
For small businesses looking into producing mail order catalogs, the primary considerations are postage and printing costs. An office supply company may send out catalogs by the thousands each month, incurring high postage costs despite bulk mailing discounts. These costs compound if catalog recipients use mail order forms instead of online forms to purchase their products. Mail order catalogs should be disbursed to legitimate buyers including companies and past customers to decrease the burden of postage costs. The expense of printing a single mail order catalog includes graphic design, copywriting, color ink, premium paper and binding.
Size
The days of 1,000-page mail order catalogs are long gone as Sears waved goodbye to its general catalog in 1993. The company was ahead of some competitors by breaking up the general catalog into seasonal and product-specific supplements available to loyal customers. The modern mail order catalog ranges from a staple-bound 12-page supplement on this season's hottest toys to a glue-bound 100-page catalog with bedding, home decor and furniture. Retailers have turned their focus to downloadable PDF sizes, trying to streamline graphic elements and text to decrease download times for consumers.
Effects
The persistence of mail order catalogs in the digital world stems from the positive consequences they have on a company's sales. Just as homesteaders in Nevada and Nebraska did in the Gilded Age, farmers and travelers in remote areas are using mail order catalogs to purchase items today. These catalogs are useful for urban dwellers as well, providing ideas for gifts ahead of birthdays and Christmas. The primary effect of mail order catalogs is a demonstration of brand loyalty for smaller business. Small publishers, art galleries and other companies can gauge interest in their products by the number of queries sent for their catalogs.
