Author: Archive

Catalog reinvention turns new page

Posted by | Dec 12, 2006 | |

There are vested interests on both sides of the debate. Printers, paper manufacturers and the U.S. Postal Service see the paper catalog as being invincible. Internet service providers, search firms and the Internet industry see the catalog as a relic of the pre-online era.

The truth: the debate will be decided by metrics. The problem: we don’t have the metrics.

The coming year will advance those metrics and the logical answer will be that the catalog is losing influence and search is gaining influence.

In fact, while not in 2007, but one year soon, there will be no multichannel marketing, only marketing once again, and it will demand mastery of all channels.

Photography will become much larger-heroic, as it is called. Space, copy and message will be thought of differently; not as cost per square-inch, but conversion cost relative to paid search, keyword expense and pay per click/pay per order.
In 2007, the number of pages will decrease. As catalogs morph to Web drivers, the intent will be to attract buyers rather than display products. If a buyer can be attracted to the in-depth online product experience with 36 pages instead of 120 pages, the “bait-and-hook” catalog will gain in usage.

In 2007, the debate between “black box” membership list co-ops and list-specific co-ops will intensify. Catalogers will demand metrics – from both – that empirically prove the future value of customers.

In all cases, however, youth and profit will come to dominate their operations. And that can only mean huge shifts from tradition to innovation, from passive to aggressive, from print technology to online technology, from response-based to conversion-based.

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DHL Express strengthens its sales outlet network following an agreement with Prodesa

Posted by | Dec 11, 2006 | |

Last October, DHL Express and Prodesa, press distributors to shops and newspaper stands belonging to the Grupo Zeta, signed a collaboration agreement adding Prodesa to DHL’s Spanish outlet network.
Under this agreement, the Prodesa Rail Press and La Tienda Z outlets will offer DHL services functioning on the basis of the new pre-payment system. Clients will therefore be able to pay beforehand for this service, receiving the packaging of their choice to suit their needs, together with a folder containing simple instructions to help them complete the documentation required for their shipment. Once wrapped, they can hand it in at the collection point whenever it suits them.

Apart from making it faster for clients to complete the procedures related to the sale of DHL services, this system is adapted to the Prodesa outlet style and ensures that clients get the right packaging for their shipments.
This agreement targets responding to the growing demand for transport services by individuals, small company owners, freelance professionals and the fast-rising number of immigrants generally located in towns and cities.

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Post offices could go mobile to survive

Posted by | Dec 11, 2006 | |

Rural post offices could go mobile or relocate to pubs and church halls under plans to preserve the threatened network.

The ideas are being encouraged by the Scottish Executive, as it faces fallout from the likely closure of hundreds of rural post offices.

Whitehall ministers will announce this week that changes to the support for Britain’s loss-making post offices, including the removal of counter services on which they have depended, could see many of them close.

Opposition parties, business and campaign groups yesterday stepped up their demands for ministers not to sanction wholesale closures among the 14,500 offices across the UK.

Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling will tell MPs this week how much money the government is prepared to give the Royal Mail which will help shape the future size of the network.

Ross Finnie, Scotland’s Rural Development Minister, has been putting the special case for Scotland’s rural post offices, arguing that closures would mean the financial exclusion of many Scots.

Pilots have been tried to make the network more flexible, combining services with other facets of village life, including the village hall, and pub. There has also been the possibility of running mobile post office vans.

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Postal reform update: Bill passes House, Senate

Posted by | Dec 11, 2006 | |

The House and then the Senate passed a sweeping postal reform bill that will bring forth significant change in the way that postal rates are set. President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law sometime this coming week.

The bill’s passage culminates 11 years of prior failures to get a postal reform bill through both chambers of Congress.

In brief, what this means to catalogers is as follows:

* Future postal rate hikes will be at or below the inflation rate. A cap for raising rates will be created by linking rate changes to increases in the consumer price index. This will give mailers the chance to know what’d5s coming and be better prepared for rate increases.

* The cumbersome and costly, nine-month-long rate case process will be eliminated, giving the Postal Service the ability to set new rates much quicker, but with oversight from a new government agency, the Postal Regulatory Commission. The commission would be able to alter the cap or the rate system if it sees fit. The USPS will have greater incentive to keep its costs in line.

The new bill contains two key elements that will likely lead to its success:

1. For the first time in U.S. history, the USPS will no longer be required to pay for postal employee pension costs for those employees who previously served in the military. The new bill would eliminate this.

2. The bill repeals the law that forces the USPS to make postal pension payments, which are unwarranted, to an escrow fund, effectively freeing up $78 billion over the next 60 years. This money instead will help keep postage in check, as well as cover retiree healthcare liabilities and postal debts to the U.S. Treasury.

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2007 – The year of UPS

Posted by | Dec 11, 2006 | |

Next year will be a special year for UPS as Big Brown turns 100 on Aug. 28. However, it is the other events that could occur in 2007 that will make it an important year for the company and the transportation industry and thus provide a strong incentive for the UPS management and Teamsters leadership to cooperate in an unprecedented manner in the interest of the customers, investors, employees and management.

Teamster cooperation with early contract execution would allow UPS to avert parcel volume diversion and revenue loss to competition, and disruption to shippers operations. By announcing the agreement in 2007, the union would gain by preventing potential job losses that a drawn-out negotiation might bring. UPS gets the opportunity to ramp up its integrated air and ground domestic parcel service from both operational and marketing perspective for a new competitive advantage for market share gain.

Shareholders would also gain. If UPS, with its strong cash flow, is unable to make a large strategic acquisition in 2007, the board of directors could authorize another share buyback on top of two buyback authorizations over the last three years totaling USD4 billion.

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UPS system delivers savings

Posted by | Dec 11, 2006 | |

UPS has spent USD600 million to automate package sorting and cut time, miles and cost. For drivers, it’s a real help.

When Rick Schetinski starts his United Parcel Service truck each morning, he no longer worries about overlooking packages during a rapid-fire delivery schedule averaging 17 stops per hour.
Thanks to a huge computer-automation project at the Maple Grove distribution center where his truck is loaded, Schetinski receives a list on his handheld computer of everything in his truck and where it’s going.

UPS says the automation system — akin to putting the Dewey Decimal System in a library to replace random book piles — is a key to handling increasing package volume, up 8 percent this year, and coping with the increased volume of holiday deliveries. The Maple Grove distribution center, one of three serving the Twin Cities, expects a peak volume of 86,000 packages a day around Dec. 20, up from 59,000 packages a day the rest of the year.

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Up to 3,000 UK Post Offices face closure

Posted by | Dec 11, 2006 | |

A fifth of Britain’s post offices could be shut under government-backed plans to be outlined by ministers next week. Alistair Darling, trade and industry secretary, is preparing to sanction proposals to shut between 2,500 and 3,000 urban and rural post offices in a bid to stem mounting losses, the Financial Times understands. The decision could provoke a backlash from Labour MPs and rural communities which have campaigned fiercely to protect post offices from closure. However, ministers believe they have struck the right balance between Royal Mail’s demands to shut thousands more and the need to maintain a widespread service. Mr. Darling will also make it clear that the government intends to continue with a public subsidy for rural post offices at about its current level of GBP150m a year, which was due to expire in 2008. The Department of Trade and Industry is due to make a statement next Thursday on the future of the 14,400-strong post office network. The cuts are likely to be implemented over a number of years.

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TNT delivers more than 100 new jobs for North-West

Posted by | Dec 11, 2006 | |

A new GBP5.6 million depot built for TNT is set to create more than 100 new jobs for the Merseyside region.
TNT is currently putting the finishing touches to the new depot in Hale Road, Speke, at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which will handle domestic parcels for the North-West of England as well as international consignments to and from mainland Europe and further afield.

Employing approximately 110 people, the 56-bay depot on the 4.13-acre site is projected to handle almost three million domestic collections and deliveries a year, while the international side expects approximately half a million a year.

The air gateway is scheduled to go operational in the first week of 2007. The new facility will be handling parcels and packages for UK destinations by February, and will be offering full national and international services by April.

Businesses throughout the North-West will now be able to take advantage of the depot’s leading edge technology, including a ‘dolly train’ system for the quickest loading and unloading of TNT aircraft.

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