Archive for the ‘Merchants’ Category

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Welcome New Merchants

Friday, January 16th, 2009

January is only half way over and 22 new catalog titles have activated their secure account. As our team of merchant account managers work away, there is nothing more pleasing to see a new merchant’s name appear on the Cool Catalogs page.

The account set up process is so simple that most merchants step through the set up in minutes.  This includes personalizing their mail preference page, defining a set of mail frequency options, uploading links to their electronic catalog and downloading the mail preference requests.  Before your morning coffee gets cold, a new merchant can be well on the way to saving money and resources by helping their customers go paperless through Catalog Choice.  If you are not already signed up, there is no time like the present.  Contact us at Merchantservice@Catalogchoice.org and we will get you started.

We are pleased to have the following companies working with us to honor mail preference requests.

Charles Gardens

Patagonia

Charles Tyrwhitt

Pet Solutions

3Rivers Archery

Touch of Class

Hammacher Schlemmer

Schweitzer Linen

Sweet and Powerful

Spike Volleyball

Eastern Mountain Sports

Audio Book Stand

Bass Pro Shops

Danforth Pewter

Mason Companies family of catalogs:

Maryland Square

Auditions

Wissota Trader

Masseys

B.A. Mason

Mason Easy Pay

E.T. Wright

K. Jordan

Posted in Featured, Merchants | 9 Comments »

Merchant Update

Monday, January 5th, 2009

Several readers (Fred B, Jim Wiggin, and Al) have commented about the fact that Patagonia was not participating in Catalog Choice.

We are pleased to inform you that Patagonia has recently activated their Catalog Choice account and will be honoring requests entered at Catalog Choice.

Posted in Media Coverage, Merchants | 1 Comment »

Get on the wagon to listen to your customers’ needs

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008

A recent article by Mike Kraus, a business columnist for Allbusiness.com, concludes by saying: “Get on the wagon to listen to your customers’ needs when it comes to direct marketing (and everything else).”

This is Mike’s second article about the business perspective on junk mail in an article titled Junk Mail Be Gone.  Mike provides other sage advice that I hope more direct marketers will reflect on as they develop their direct marketing strategies for 2009.  Mike states:

1.  Consumer backlash continues to grow as direct marketers ignore their wishes.  I, for one, continue to work to reduce junk mail whenever possible and continue to grow increasingly frustrated with retailers that ignore my wishes.  I don’t own a pet and I don’t want to get your pet catalog no matter what my demographic profile is.  And your catalog geared toward women’s clothes isn’t relevant to me either.

2.  Consumers are greener than ever.  Retailers that ignore consumers’ wishes to be removed from their lists are viewed as non-green in their efforts, choosing capitalism over the environment.  Citibank take note:  I do not want to earn up to 25,000 miles with a Citibank/American Airlines credit card, so stop sending me your weekly direct mail!

….

So here are a couple ideas to maximize your efforts:

1.  If you’re going to advertise in val-pack, or any number of similar coupon packs, ask them for data about how many consumers are opting out of receiving their mailers in the zip codes you’re targeting on websites like the ones listed above.  You may find that more and more of your target demographic doesn’t want to receive those mailers, thereby wasting your marketing dollars.

2.  Most retailers sign people up for email at their stores, which has an easy opt-out function in every email.  Try to do the same for direct mail.  Create a sign up list or form that asks them to check a box for each type of communication they’d like to receive (or not).  These days, most people just opt for email because it’s quick and easy (to write when they’re signing up and to unsubscribe when they dont’ want to receive it anymore).  But doing a check against your database when they’re checking out just to confirm they still want to receive mail will help cull your list down and save your money in the long-run.  You can even explain that this is another effort to make your company more green.

Posted in Blogs, Media Coverage, Merchants, Recycling | 5 Comments »

A Merchant’s Testimonial

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

Today we received the following email from John Schroeder, Business Intelligence Manager for Room & Board.  He provides a clear description of how Catalog Choice benefits the merchant and the customer.

We love catalogchoice.org!

It is a perfect fit with our overall philosophy of sustainability and respecting our consumers wishes on how we engage them throughout the year.  We recently had a customer who called our call center (shop from home)  and requested that we stop sending our annual catalog for the next 3-years as she was taking an assignment in Europe.  We had the perfect solution for her, Catalog Choice.  This gave our customer total control not only for our catalog but potentially for other catalogs companies that she would of needed to contact.  And the great thing is when she comes back to the U.S. she can opt back in to our annual catalog.  She was thrilled.  In 2008 we referenced catalogchoice.org on the back cover to allow our customers an easy and reliable way of opting out of our printed material distribution.  In return we gained additional productivity in our call center where our Design Associates were more available to assist customers with orders over opting out for future mailings.  This during our busiest time of year.  We also monitor the comments customers give for opting out of our catalogs.  We love the fact that over 50% have done so for environmental reasons.  With our web site becoming a more frequently used tool it only makes sense that customers have the option of their preferred method of engagement with our company.  Catalog Choice is one of the many ways we capture this.

Thank you Catalog Choice for your services!


Posted in Featured, Merchants | 2 Comments »

Shout out to our new merchant members

Saturday, November 29th, 2008

An array of large and small merchants activated their secure account at Catalog Choice in November.  You will recognize some names and others may be new companies that you may want to support as they are now honoring mail preference requests from our members.

Here is our monthly shout out list:

Allen Edmonds

Alpenland International

Chico’s

Linda Anderson

Music Stand

Harbor Freight Tools

Lehman’s

Getty Publications

Western Psychological Services

U.S. Cavalry

Odysseys Unlimited

Wave Fashion

Audio Partners, Inc.

Coldwater Creek

See all the participating merchants listed on the Cool Catalogs page.

Posted in Fulfillment, Merchants | 2 Comments »

What’s New at Catalog Choice

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

Many catalog mailers and consumers have told us that they would love to have the option to receive fewer mailings of a specific catalog rather than opt-out entirely. 

That makes perfect sense – we all love our dimmer switch rather than the old fashioned on-off switch.  So, we talked to as many merchants as possible in an effort to figure out a process for offering “frequency” choices to consumers.  We concluded that, unlike that handy dimmer switch that works everywhere,  there was not a one-size fits all program for mail frequency.  As a result, we developed a system that allows the participating company to define the frequency choices that makes sense for their catalog.  So don’t be surprised when you go to set you mail preference and you get the following choices:

Now when you go to My Choices, we created a way to separate the catalogs you do not want in the mail from those that you do want.  You can toggle back and forth between your selections with ease.  If you want to change your selection, simply select View Details for a Confirmed catalog and update your mail preference.  While over 300 catalogs are confirmed participants right now, many have not set their mail frequency options yet.

We think it is really cool when catalog merchants participate in our service and support American’s desire for a centralized site to manage catalog mailings.  So, we have also made it easier to filter through the list of 300+ catalogs that are honoring mail preferences so that you can show your support by visiting their online store.  We call this area of our site “Cool Catalogs“.  So head on over to that page this holiday season and start your shopping with a company that puts the consumer’s choice first.

We hope that our members like the new features and that many more companies will activate their free account to honor requests being entered at Catalog Choice now that your company can offer mail frequency choices to consumers.

Posted in Catalog Choice, Featured, Merchants | 30 Comments »

American Catalog Mailers Association Endorses Catalog Choice

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Today, the American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA) published a press release endorsing Catalog Choice.  The endorsement is the results of months of research on mail preference services.  According to the release, the ACMA Board of Directors announced its:

“unanimous decision to recommend catalogers actively embrace consumer mail preferences and enter into a merchant licensing agreement with Catalog Choice, consistent with their own policies and business models”.

In the release, Hamilton Davison, Executive Director of the ACMA states:

Our conclusion is that Catalog Choice is sincere and focused on reducing unsolicited catalogs, waste that places a burden on catalogers and catalog customers alike,” said Hamilton Davison, executive director of ACMA. “Based on eleven months of work, the ACMA Board is broadcasting a public call for the catalog industry to actively execute consumer preferences.

…

“We committed early on in the process to dig through the rhetoric, assess all the major participants in mail preference area, and come to a recommendation on how to deal with the building proliferation of preference services. While it is not feasible for catalogers to continuously draw consumer preference requests from dozens of different services—each with their unique data architecture and different data format and integrity—it was clear to us that new methods deserved careful consideration,” commented John Seebeck of Crate and Barrel and co-chair of the ACMA task force on consumer preferences. “Our company, Crate and Barrel is today joining with other leading catalogers to formally expand our working relationship with Catalog Choice. We call on our industry colleagues to do likewise.

…

ACMA supports the Catalog Choice goal of eliminating unsolicited catalogs from American mailboxes. “Our members do not want to send catalogs to anyone that does not want them. It is wasteful of company funds, unnecessarily wasteful of resources and presents a hassle we do not want to impose on consumers,” said Jim Feinson, CEO of Gardeners Supply and a member of the ACMA Task Force. “The vast majority of catalog customers look forward to receiving catalogs through the mail. We respect and honor consumer preferences and seek feedback as to how, when and how frequently customers want to hear from us,” continued Feinson. “We have a variety of methods to do this already and are now adding a clearinghouse approach with demonstrated commitment to consumer and industry interests.”

Posted in Catalog Choice, Environment, Media Coverage, Merchants | 5 Comments »

One Million People and Industry Agree: Consumers Deserve a Choice

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

This morning we issued an important press release announcing our new merchant partnership agreement.  The agreement was crafted to benefit both consumers and businesses.  Our team worked with executives from Crate & Barrel, Williams-Sonoma, L.L. Bean, Orchard Brands and the American Catalog Mailers Association to develop the new agreement.  Hundreds of hours were invested in developing the partnership which provides the foundation for a productive vendor relationship between Catalog Choice and merchants.

What does this agreement mean for consumers and members of Catalog Choice?

It means that more and more merchants will be activating their accounts in the coming weeks and honoring your mail preference requests entered at Catalog Choice for years to come.  While some of you may still be receiving unwanted catalogs, the service will be much improved in 2009 because of this agreement.

What does this agreement mean for Merchants already participating in Catalog Choice?

The agreement solidifies our obligation to provide the Merchant with a service that provides secure access to the mail preference requests entered at our site.  It also means that more of your colleagues in the industry will be honoring our members’ requests.

What does this agreement mean for the merchants who have yet to activate their Catalog Choice account or have chosen to not participate in our service?

The agreement resolves all of the issues raised by the DMA about our intentions and business practices. It details our agreement to focus on providing high quality vendor services and to not engage in advocacy.  We hope that the agreement gives you all the information you need to make an informed decision about accepting the mail preference our members have recorded.  For those merchants who have decided not to participate, we hope that the agreement will give you reason to reconsider.

What does this agreement mean for Catalog Choice?

It means that we now have over 285 catalog titles (see them all on Bravo Merchants) who are actively working to honor our members’ mail preferences.  It means that we can focus our efforts on being the nation’s leading independent mail preference provider.  We can continue to enhance our service for our members – both consumers and merchants.  Best of all, it means that we have a great set of industry partners with whom we agree – Consumers Deserve a Choice.

Posted in Catalog Choice, Featured, Merchants | 10 Comments »

Respecting the Customer’s Choice Drives Sales

Friday, September 19th, 2008

Susan Bratton, co-founder of Personal Life Media, published an article praising merchants who honor mail preference requests from Catalog Choice.  Her article is titled – Big Gold Star for Crate & Barrel’s Direct Marketing Guru Today, CatalogChoice.org’s Opt Out Program WORKS.

From the sounds of it, Susan is going to head down to the nearest Crate & Barrel store to buy something just because Crate & Barrel followed up on her opt-out request entered at Catalog Choice with an email acknowledging that they will be honoring her request.

Susan’s post is a great case study for why we built the service and the enhanced customer loyalty that we hoped would result from companies honoring consumers choices to reduce the amount of mail they receive at home.

With the holiday shopping right around the corner, I wonder how many people will start your holiday shopping by looking at our Bravo Merchants page.

By the way, we will be making it easier to find the merchants you are looking for by adding the ability to search through Bravo Merchants by product category.  Look for this enhancement in a couple of weeks.

Posted in Customers, Featured, Merchants | 5 Comments »

Listening to what customers want and need

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

… that is the conclusion of Mike Kraus’s article titled “Catalog Choice – A Benefit for Retailers?“.  Mike tells the story from his perspective in his article published at Allbusiness.com.  Here are the key excerpts from Mike’s article.

The great news is that nearly a million people have signed up, opting to cut down their junk mail and more importantly, send a signal to retailers that they are wasting the planet’s natural resources by sending out the catalogs to people who don’t want them anyway.

…

It doesn’t matter how you sum up Catalog Choice, the fact is that people love it.  And it continues to grow.  And the retailers that take part gain credibility as being environmentally conscious and in tune with their customers, or potential customers’ needs.

I know I opted out of Hammacher Schlemmer six months ago and just yesterday, I received a catalog.  Do I think poorly of Catalog Choice for not being able to strike a deal?  Nope.  I think poorly of Hammacher Schlemmer who isn’t listening to me, who isn’t concerned about wasting resources, who is too self-centered to realize that they are having a negative impact on my perceptions of their company.

…
All I know is the halo effect around retailers such as Grandin Road, allposters.com and Relax the Back is heightened due to their desire to listen to their customers by not sending catalogs when customers don’t want them.  Hmmm.  Listening to what customers want and need.  That’s a concept every retailer can learn from.

Posted in Catalog Choice, Featured, Media Coverage, Merchants | 24 Comments »

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