Disney’s consumer products division has announced they’ll stop printing and mailing catalogs of their product to consumers. If you want to shop the Disney Catalog, you will now have to do so at their online website, DisneyShopping.com. They expect to save over $18 million this way.
As the NY Times article points out…
The move bucks a trend that has practically become gospel in online
commerce in the past several years — namely, that retailers who sell
through the combined channels of catalogs, Web sites and physical
stores engender more customer loyalty and bigger profits than those
that do not.
In fact, one of the largest catalogs ever, Land’s End, once tried this same maneuver and ended up having to do a mea culpa. I’d be willing to bet that this move will cost the Disney Company much more than $18 million in profits and customer loyalty, and I’m sure they know that. So there must be something else going on here.
However, since they won’t grant me affiliate status at DisneyShopping.com this is probably the last comment I’ll have to make on the subject. Sink or swim on your own, I say.
[ disney, disney+shopping, disney+catalog, catalog, store, website, disneyana, disneyism, disney+consumer+products, online+shopping ]
I worked for a brief time in retail marketing, and heard the exact same gospel about multi-channel, so the decision struck me as odd as well. It does mean a bit less clutter in my place, as I’m a packrat who holds onto my old catalogs.
I’m also constantly puzzled that more items from the stores aren’t available online.
Predict we’ll all get catalogs again by Xmas.
I hope so, BlueMan. I always liked to get the catalog. I could take notes, dogear pages and circle items before committing to buying. Once I’m ready to purchase, I’ll likely do it online. I like to shop via catalog, and then buy online.
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