Backcountry.com makes a commitment to catalogs
After experimenting with paper catalogs since launching its first, self-developed catalog in November 2003 and hiring a catalog consultant for a year to learn more about the business, online retailer Backcountry.com is making catalogs a standing part of its marketing mix and will expand staff dedicated to its catalog operation this year, vice president of marketing Dustin Robertson tells Internet Retailer. Backcountry.com is No. 150 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites.
Through 2005, with the input of the consulting firm, Backcountry tried everything a traditional paper catalog company would do, mailing about 3.5 million catalogs in 7 mailings and experimenting with page count, at one point boosting its initial 24-page catalog to 42 pages, Robertson says. Among the learning acquired, Backcountry discovered that the sweet spot from its house list was about 10% to 20%—no matter how often they were contacted, these customers placed orders in response.
It also learned that not everything that works in the catalog world worked for it. For example, while many retailers use catalogs for prospecting, Backcountry ultimately judged it too expensive for the return generated. The cost of buying lists from offline magazines targeting its audience pushed the cost of acquiring a customer to as high as $30, in contrast, for example, to the estimated $10 it costs Backcountry to acquire a new customer online, Robertson says.
“We now believe that the catalog is a tool to drive people to the site,” Robertson says. “So it needs to be entertaining and represent the brand well, and ultimately drive people to visit Backcountry.com.”
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