According to new research from British postal service Royal Mail, online retailers will be relying on catalogues this Christmas to drive sales over the festive season. The survey conducted by Royal Mail questioned more than 20 online retailers including John Lewis Direct and Firebox.com and the findings highlighted the use of catalogues as one of the most effective promotion channels for generating online orders.
Read MoreA new report on Home Shopping from Mintel’s Retail Intelligence argues that retailers are missing out on a big opportunity in home shopping. However, the study finds the European home shopping sector continuing to lose retail share, with the few areas of sector growth failing to offset the slow declining big book mail order sector. While overall retail sales are predicted to grow by 16% between 2000 and 2005, mail order is expected to show an increase of just 8.2%, representing 2.7% of total retail sales in Europe by 2005. British shoppers are spending more per capita on home shopping than any other European country.
Read MoreMail order company Hermes Versand, part of German mail order giant Otto Versand, is entering the private parcel delivery market and taking on Deutsche Post. The move comes as Deutsche Post joins forces with rival mail order conglomerate KarstadtQuelle to offer a mail service from within Quelle retail outlets. Quelle is already one of Deutsche Post’s main customers, accounting for 300 million mailing deliveries, and 40 million parcel deliveries a year. By contrast, Hermes Versand has largely served other companies within the Otto group, and business customers. By the end of the month, it expects to open 8,000 branches in Germany.
Read MoreOver 100 catalogue owners are forming their own trade association in an attempt to improve standards of training and support within the catalogue industry. The new body, called the Catalogue Exchange, may also be used to challenge the DMA (UK) on the issue of size-based pricing. Although negatively received by the majority of the direct marketing industry, Royal Mail’s new pricing proposals are set to improve the lot of niche cataloguers by reducing their costs.
Read MoreBusiness Express will undertake the final mile home delivery for Mail Order Express, the mail order division of independant toy retailer Arbon.
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