Disney has all its ducks in a row in the retailing giant’s 2004 Back to School catalog. Directly on page two, Disney communicates the ability to shop the catalog online with RichFX’s Rich Catalog – a true best practice to help bridge the multi-channel gap. With a picture to help illustrate the feature, the catalog text reads, "Shop Our Catalog Online – Flip through the pages and click on your favorite items. It`s that easy to shop for summer at DisneyStore.com."
It’s no secret that online catalogs support a seamless multi-channel strategy by providing consistency across offline and online channels. But what about catalog-only shoppers that are not aware of this familiar shopping experience online? Effectively communicating this comfortable page-flipping tool is critical to persuade traditional catalog shoppers to try online purchasing. Catalog shoppers may only remember where they saw an item and how it was featured – only the online catalog replicates this experience on the website.
Disney is setting the standard for many best practice trends in multi-channel retailing. The company started bringing their catalogs online with RichFX in January of 2004 and they are timed perfectly with the print catalog drop. They have had tremendous success -- several catalogs receiving close to 50,000 unique visitors, with an average of 2,000 per day.
Paul Gainer, Vice President, Merchandising & Creative, at DisneyStore.com explains, "As a multi-channel retailer, we identified the Rich Catalog as an effective tool to improve the online shopping experience for our catalog guest. This tool also allows our catalog guest to shop at DisneyStore.com and experience a breadth of assortment that is a great point of differentiation for the online channel."
In a recent white paper on Shop the Catalog tool, Lauren Freedman, President of the e-tailing group, agrees that that the online catalog is a success, helping reach broader audiences. "For the merchant, it [online catalog] can leverage existing catalog investments in photography while simultaneously offering the consumer a comfortable transition from the catalog experience which may be integral to their current shopping behavior. Merchants can also reach a much broader audience online that would be financially unfeasible in the print world, increasing new customer opportunities."
Now that the online catalog is a standard, the next step is discovering best practices to maximize the investment. Leading retailers like Disney will continue to try different ways to effectively communicate the presence and function of the online catalog to ensure customers have an optimal multi-channel experience.
To learn more about RichFX or Rich Catalog, please go to www.richfx.com.
About RichFX
RichFX is the market leader in online visual merchandising solutions, enabling retailers to leverage existing visual assets and turn them into powerful and cost-effective marketing tools. Since 1997, RichFX has been combining its online merchandising expertise, patented technology and consumer research to offer solutions that enable online and multi-channel retailers to achieve measurable results. Repeated analyses have demonstrated that RichFX solutions increase conversion rates and total e-commerce sales by boosting comfort levels and buying confidence online.
RichFX. Bring it online.
Contact Information:
Sarah Glasser
RichFX, Inc.
(646) 274 3912
sarahg@richfx.com
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