E-tailers judge catalogs not only by sales but by Web traffic generated. The idea is to put a tangible, tantalizing sample of your merchandise in consumers' hands and hope they go online to find out more - or, better yet, buy something. A survey by the Direct Marketing Association, a trade group for marketers, found that half the people who received a catalog from a company that also had a Web site placed an order at the site.
"It may be much easier to put up a Web site overnight, but [dot-coms] are realizing that catalogs are very useful for targeting customers," says Robert Wientzen, president of the Direct Marketing Association. "It's not just slapping up a banner ad and hoping people will come."
The lifespan of the catalog is filled with chances to make an impression. When it arrives in the mail, customers thumb through it and decide whether to keep it. Even if it's dumped immediately, a catalog leaves a more lasting impression than mass e-mailed (and quickly deleted) product newsletters.
Products look better on paper than in pixels. Pages are easier to navigate; they can be dog-eared or torn out. A catalog can end up a mosquito swatter or a coffee-table coaster, but even on its way to the recycling bin it may get one last look. Those moments alone are worth the price to pure-plays adrift in the echoing reaches of cyberspace.
Then there are the unwired masses to consider. Through its catalog, eZiba.com can tout the attractions of its Zulu wire bowls to shoppers who would sooner set off across the Sahara Desert than venture online.
"Everybody is thinking about their offline presence these days," says Elaine Rubin, chairwoman of Shop.org. "If you choose not to put out a catalog or partner with an established brick-and-mortar or something along those lines, the online world has become a difficult place to build a business."
MALL OR NOTHING?
One quick way to get physical is with a kiosk. These Internet terminals are set up in stores to connect customers to retail sites. PC-maker Micron offers its computer systems via kiosks at 358 Best Buy stores. Since Micron partnered with Best Buy, its PC sales have improved - the fiscal quarter ending August 31 was the first in almost three years that Micron posted a year-on-year sales gain. After successes in Europe and Asia, Internet music distributor Liquid Audio (LQID) is bringing its Liquid Kiosk Network to retail outlets in the U.S. The stations let shoppers preview, buy and download music on the spot.
Mall developers also see kiosks as a moneymaker. General Growth Properties (GGP) and Simon Property Group, (SPG) two of the largest mall builders in North America, have tapped the firms DotJunction and Clixnmortar to open multichannel kiosks in their shopping centers. Art.com was one of the first clients to list in these kiosks, which look a little like glorified phone booths. The site pays a fee for the service. Art.com sees the kiosks as a way to advertise in malls (the site's logo will appear on the screen) and give shoppers another channel to browse products.
Shop.org's Rubin cautions that kiosks are still an open question - they enjoyed brief popularity in 1995 and '96, then failed. Many shoppers who are comfortable online don't go to the mall, and vice versa. Kiosks can be expensive to maintain, as well.
Kiosks and catalogs can only go so far in solving one of e-tail's fundamental conundrums: Shopping is a social event. According to retail guru Paco Underhill, if you don't have a brick-and-mortar presence, you can't reach your most lucrative customer, what he calls the "born-to-shopper."
