Back in 2007, before we launched Catalog Choice, I often dreamed of a time when it would be as easy to opt-out as it is to opt-into catalog mailings. Today I saw the future at Crateandbarrel.com – they added an “opt-out” link to the footer of their consumer website.
As soon as I saw the link, I called the head of marketing at Crate&Barrel to learn more about what caused them to add this link. He indicated that they made this change because their customers asked for a more convenient way to find their email and mail preference forms.
I asked, “Are you afraid that you will lose customers if it is too easy to opt-out of your catalog mailings?”, echoing the concerns many companies have expressed to me. He answered, “If we don’t do what our customers want, that will cause us to lose them. Even if we don’t send them catalogs in the mail, they are still our customers.”
Crate&Barrel is the first website that I am aware of that makes it convenient for a customer to voice their choice about how often they receive catalog mailings on their consumer site. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. provides a convenient link on the home page of their corporate site. If you know of others that have a link to their mail preference form on their home page, please list the URL in the comments. Other leading merchants have developed online forms where consumers can opt-down or opt-out of catalog mailings, but it remains difficult to find these forms. Crate&Barrel is the first merchant to put the link on their home page.
This reminds me of a story a seasoned catalog marketing consultant told me. She said that years ago merchants did not recognize the value of making it easy to return items that we bought through their catalog. Once merchants started making it easy to return items, more people bought merchandise through catalogs and the web. I believe that we are seeing the beginning of the same sea change in mail preference. Since it is expensive to mail catalogs to households and there are convenient online shopping tools for anyone who has a computer and access to the internet, it is time to make it convenient for consumers to state their mail preferences. Congratulations Crate&Barrel.
Any company interested in providing a convenient online form that allows consumers to communicate their mail preference can contact Catalog Choice to learn about our hosted mail preference service. Offer consumers the same preference options at Catalogchoice.org and your website. We can provide this service running within your website without any development costs on your part.
