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.

Today, we launched Catalog Choice 2.0.  We have freshened up the user interface and enhanced the service with a variety of key features.

The site navigation has moved from the left-hand side of the site to tabs and a login strip.  The tabs are the key elements of the site - Dashboard, Find Catalogs, My Choices, Cool Catalogs, Invite Friends and Donation.

Other key elements of the navigation have been moved to the Login strip, located at the top of the page.  In the lefthand portion of the Login strip, you will find About Us, Blog, Privacy, FAQ and Contact us.  On the right side of the Login strip, there is a log out link and a link to My Profile.  The screen shot below shows you where each element of the original UI has been moved.

This change will make it straight forward for us to add in other forms of mail (beyond catalogs) to the site.  Look for this upgrade in the near future.

Still Receiving is back.  For a week, we removed the Still Receiving link from My Choices.  We heard from alot of members that they wanted it back.  We have put it back in My Choices. It works slightly different than before.  When you select Still Receiving, you will be taken to the catalog’s mail preference page where you will need to fill out the request form again.  This will allow us to use the most up to date contact method for the catalog and capture the relevant name and address information.

You can now add a new mailbox on the mail preference form.  We have made it easier to add new addresses while you are filling out the mail preference request.  The new mailbox link is right on the form so you can add a new address without leaving the page.

We have added a new mail preference delivery method that we refer to as “Form pop-up”.  While over 525 catalog titles use our secure merchant account to obtain your requests, many catalog mailers continue to ignore your request provided through our free merchant service.  We have been emailing your requests to hundreds of merchants using our anonymous email system - we never release your email address for a mail preference request.

The new method is designed for companies that use “contact us” forms on their site instead of email addresses.  When you go to set a mail preference request for one of these companies, we will open their contact us form within our site so that you can fill out the form.  If you want to keep your email private and have the company’s email response stored in your Catalog Choice account, use the anonymous email address shown on the top of the page.  When you are done filling out the form, select the “Save and Go Back” button and we will record the request in your account.  We recognize that the user experience of the form pop-up is a little jarring since a new website will suddenly show up on the page.  However, this feature is necessary to make the service work for a number of merchants.

We hope you like the site upgrades and continue to pass the word about Catalog Choice.  Together, we are making a difference in the world of direct marketing for the good of the consumer, the enviroment and the mailer.  As always, we welcome your comments below.

We have collected a handful of testimonials from our members that we want to share. We welcome your comments in the blog.

“What a great idea this is! Tell businesses that this is actually excellent advertising for them. I investigated and found a whole bunch of new catalogs that I am interested in while browsing through your list. I have bookmarked their websites, so I can browse their products online.”
-Catalog Choice member

“I shop 95% online. In less than 90 days I’ve opted out of 303 catalogs that weighed 120 lbs. My on line shopping will not diminish, just the waste. Thanks for a terrific site!!!”
-Catalog Choice member

“Thank you for helping! In three months I’ve gone from 51 catalogs to fewer than five stragglers, and seen your “confirmed” labels grow from single digits to almost half of the total as (I suppose) more merchants joined Catalog Choice. For the rest of the merchants, your “My choices” page and notes feature at least helped me keep track of those I contacted personally…The decrease in my daily mail volume is striking. Tell your merchants that the success of this effort will lead me to keep Catalog Choice bookmarked as a way of adding catalogs once the flood has ceased.
-William from Washington, DC

“I joined Catalog Choice last year after being inundated year after year with un-asked for catalogs at the holiday time. I wanted to let you know that this year, I have received a FRACTION of the amount of catalogs that I normally get. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!”
-Debbie from Villanova, PA

“I definitely will support merchants who participate in this service. The reason I will go to these merchants first is that I support anyone who is concerned about making our world better. We are living in a time where we need to cut down on waste. As our life is simplified (in this case by removing waste), it allows for more free time to do the things we enjoy… which can mean shopping and browsing online. I visit your website and have hundreds of catalogs at my fingertips and can browse and shop without having my mailbox cluttered where there’s so many that I don’t even look at them. They go straight to the recycling bin, because it’s overwhelming. It’s easier to just put them in the recycle bin than to start sorting through. Now I can just visit the catalog I’m in the mood for when I go to your website. Thanks for this service, and I hope the merchants know we really appreciate them listening. It certainly doesn’t mean I will not shop with them. I
will shop with any merchant online which is more convenient, and I’m happy to be doing something to help our environment, and working with others who have the same interest.
-Donna from Norridge, IL

“I definitely see the difference–and I’m thrilled!!! Catalog Choice is a tremendous service for the environment! Since I’ve been using your site to decline catalogues, I’ve seen a dramatic decrease in unwanted catalogue mailings. I could not be happier to see my mailbox emptied of wasted paper by the tons.”
-Brenda

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!! We have noticed a significant reduction of catalogs in our mailbox. You are providing a wonderful service.
-Carol and Jim

Yesterday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution requesting establishment of a Do Not Mail Registry and urging both the California State Legislature and United States Congress to establish a Do Not Mail Registry.  The full text of the resolution is here.

The resolution calls for, among other things, the establishment of an effective, user-friendly system to voluntarily stop the receipt of unsolicited direct mail:

The San Francisco resolution reflects strong consumer sentiment regarding the issue of unwanted mail.  According to the Resolution, 89% of likely voters nationwide voiced support for a Do Not Mail Registry in a 2007 national poll commissioned by Zogby International.

Hundreds of companies know that honoring mail preferences is a fundamental part of good business practices.  That is why they work with us to listen to consumers.  And consumers are not content with the time consuming process of contacting each company individually.  That is why consumers use our secure service to deliver their requests.

The DMA notes in a press release today regarding the San Francisco resolution:

Do Not Mail programs are unnecessary as individuals already have many existing options available to manage their mail including the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service (MPS) at http://www.dmachoice.org/.

The key question about the “existing options”, of which Catalog Choice is one of the largest, is whether we can obtain sufficient participation and compliance from direct mailers?

Our system makes it easy for each member of Catalog Choice to know which company is honoring their choice and which ones are not.  Collectively, we have insight into how 1,000 direct mailers are managing 15.7 million requests submitted by over 1.2 million consumers.  For many mailers, the results are excellent.  They regularly download the requests through their secure Merchant Account and make sure that consumers registered in our service will not be included in their mailings.  There are also many mailers who are not formally working with us, but are honoring requests emailed to their customer support team.  All in all, we estimate that 75% of the requests entered through our service are honored in a timely manner.

Improved mailer participation in mail preference services such as Catalog Choice is key to addressing consumer sentiment regarding unsolicited mail.   Catalog mailers, if you are not participating in the mail preference services available to you, then your actions undermine the solutions that your trade association is calling out as the reason that Do Not Mail programs are unnecessary.  Indifference to or rejection of effective mail preference solutions, such as Catalog Choice, sends the wrong message to the consumer and ultimately works against the collective interests of the catalog industry.

We have made it incredibly easy for any mailer to collect and honor mail preference requests.  We have gained the trust and support of over 350 catalog mailers by providing quality, innovative services that meet the needs of both consumers and mailers.  Best of all, there is no cost to establishing a Merchant Account with Catalog Choice - we are the only free solution for both consumers and the industry.

Financial support for Catalog Choice comes from several sources:  foundation grants, site advertising, merchant services that support our mission and your donations.

I want to take a moment and thank the hundreds of Members who have made a donation to our service.