Catalog Choice - You decide what gets in.

When convincing a direct marketer to reduce the volume of catalog mailings for the good of the environment, it is very helpful to have an alternative for them to consider.  Today, Catalog Choice is launching a digital alternative to the paper catalog, the iCatalog.  The iCatalog has been designed for the Internet and Mobile platforms from the ground up.  It is easy to use (no manual required) and designed for sharing.

The iCatalog:

1. lets you browse products from your favorite retailers in the privacy of your digital home – your computer’s desktop, your personalized homepage (iGoogle, MyYahoo, etc.), your Facebook page, or your secure Catalog Choice account.
2. lets you build a collection of your favorite retailers all in one spot
3. provides real time updates from retailers on new products, special deals and closeout sales, without inundating your email inbox
4. lets you share your discoveries with friends via email, bookmarks and messages in your favorite social network.
5. lets you go entirely paperless, saving natural resources and having fun at the same time.

Let’s take a closer look at an iCatalog from one of our launch partners, Crate&Barrel. Roll your cursor over the widget below and you’ll see a series of category tiles that correspond to the major product categories at Crate&Barrel’s website.  Click the blue arrow > to see the other categories.  It is summertime, so let’s check out what is available in the Outdoor Living category.  To make your browsing easy, each category is divided into various subcategories shown in a convenient list view.  Let’s take a look at the Bristol family of products.  Now you can quickly browse through the products by using the right or left arrows (<  >) along the product strip.  At any time, you can skip back to another category by using the breadcrumbs located in the upper right hand portion of the screen.  See something you like, click Save and a copy is saved to My List or Buy Now to go directly to the product page at www.Crateandbarrel.com.  Want to share you discovery with a friend, select Share and send a quick email with a link to your find.

The best part about the iCatalogs are that you can put them on your desktop or your personal homepage.  I am an avid iGoogle user. I visit my iGoogle page throughout the day to get headline news, weather, stock information. Now, I have set up my iCatalogs page, so I can shop from the privacy of my digital home.  Here is what my personal shopping page looks like.  You can add this set of iCatalogs to your iGoogle page by clicking here (it comes with the cityscape).

We will be building many more iCatalogs in the weeks and months ahead.  Let us know what you think and who else we should add to the iCatalog gallery.  If you are a retailer and you are interested in getting your own iCatalog, contact us at team(at)catalogchoice.org.

Proceeds generated from iCatalogs help us fund our free mail preference service.