This photo is from an ad on the front of a catalog I received in the mail. I still receive about a dozen catalogs in the mail quarterly. Most of them I have never even ordered from. I guess catalogs like Signals, Catalog Favorites, The Vermont Country Store, Uncommon Goods, Potpourri, etc. are targeted to mature consumers like me; so, mail order catalogs are one of their marketing strategies. Sleeker, more modern goods use more social media because their target audience is younger and more knowledgeable about technology. I can remember pouring over almost every page of a Sears Roebuck catalog as a child. I often folded down pages where my favorites were located and circled the sought-after items. My parents used it to buy Christmas gifts for me and my sisters. The Neiman Marcus Christmas Book was famous for its outrageously expensive fantasy gifts. And of course, there was the story that hillbillies used the pages of mail order catalogs as toilet paper in their outhouses. Whether or not that is true, maybe we should take a more in-depth look at mail order catalogs.
According to Wikipedia, mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as:
- Sending an order form in the mail.
- Placing a telephone call.
- Placing an order with a few traveling
agents and paying by instalments.
- Filling in a form on a website or mobile
app — if the product information is also
mainly obtained online rather than via a
paper catalog or via television, this model
is online shopping or e-commerce.
Then, the products are delivered to the customer. The products are usually delivered directly to an address supplied by the customer, such as a home address, but occasionally the orders are delivered to a nearby retail location for the customer to pick up. Some merchants also allow the goods to be shipped directly to a third-party consumer, which is an effective way to send a gift to an out-of-town recipient. Some merchants delivered the goods directly to the customer via their traveling agents.
A mail order catalog is a publication containing a list of general merchandise from a company. Companies who publish and operate mail order catalogs are referred to as catalogers within the industry. Catalogers buy or manufacture goods, then market those goods to prospects or prospective customers. Catalogers may "rent" names from list brokers or cooperative databases. The catalog itself is published in a similar fashion as any magazine publication and distributed through a variety of means, usually via a postal service and the internet.
Sometimes supermarket products do mail order promotions, whereby people can send in the Universal Product Code or UPC plus shipping and handling to get a product made especially for the company.
History - early catalogs
According to the article “A Visual History of the Catalog” at publitas.com, Aldus Pius Manutius founded his company “The Aldine Press” in Venice in 1495. The invention of the printing press earlier that century made it possible for him to efficiently produce the first printed editions of many Greek and Latin classics.
When he wanted to introduce his books to Venice, he printed a catalog of all the books he was printing in 1498 — the first ever published catalog.
According to the June 17, 2015 article “Never heard of Aldus Manutius? How about Bembo, Garamond and Palatino?” at sybilnolanblog.com, Manutius was one of the three great pioneers of printing, along with Johannes Gutenberg and William Caxton. He worked predominantly from Venice during his 20-odd-year career before passing on the business to his son and grandson. He had a vision of disseminating classical culture, much of his output being editions and translations of Greek and some Latin texts. He established an academy of scholars to prepare Greek manuscripts for printing and even learned and used Greek at home and in the print shop. A central figure in Renaissance classical culture, his academy corresponded with the circle of scholars like Erasmus and Thomas Linacre in Henry VIII’s London.
Technically and aesthetically, Manutius introduced a string of innovations including typefaces like Bembo, Garamond and Palatino, regularized punctuation and scholarly introductions, but the innovation for which he is most famous is the italic font. This was intended not as mode of emphasis, however, but simply as a technique of compaction. For he saw the advantage of making small-format books that could be carried in an overcoat pocket, and from 1501, printed smaller octavo editions that could be made thinner if printed in italics.
Manutius’s books show the rapid evolution from manuscript pages. On the one hand, his pages have a neat type-bed with justified margins and occasional flourishes such as tapering column- or page-endings which look very modern, while on the other the books are issued with arcane abbreviation conventions and with indicative blocks awaiting hand-colored initials in the manner of an illuminated manuscript. He had a wonderful sense of what these days are called “production values.”
According to the article “A Visual History of the Catalog” at publitas.com, even today it’s hard to find a seed company that does not offer a catalog. Just a quick online search reveals a huge list of free seed catalogs for your seed-shopping needs.
The roots of these seed catalogs lie in 1667 when English gardener William Lucas published a catalog with seed prices for his customers. The trend traveled to colonial America when William Prince of the Prince Nurseries published a catalog of fruit trees in 1771. The Prince Nursery catalogs from 1771 to their demise in 1865 are recognized as a major contribution to horticultural literature.
Most people might know Benjamin Franklin for his kite experiment or the invention of the lightning rod. But in 1744, he also invented the mail order business.
He published “A Catalogue of Choice and Valuable Books, Consisting of Near 600 Volumes, in most Faculties and Sciences.” On the opening page shown on the left, the terms of sale for the books he offered are clearly described.
Most notably, Franklin made it possible for people to purchase his books without visiting the shop: “Those Persons that live remote, by sending their Orders and Money to said B. Franklin, may depend on the same Justice as if present.”
It’s around the 1830s that mail order catalogs became more commonly accepted. And according to Wendy Woloson, “The first enterprises to embrace mail order in the modern sense were seedsmen and nurserymen.”
A notable early mail order catalog that’s still running today, is Tiffany & Co.’s Blue Book, first published in 1845.
History – first mail order
According to Wikipedia, the Welsh entrepreneur Pryce Pryce-Jones set up the first modern mail order in 1861. Starting off as an apprentice to a local draper in Newtown, Wales, he took over the business in 1856 and renamed it the Royal Welsh Warehouse, selling local Welsh flannel.
The establishment of the Uniform Penny Post in 1840 and the extension of the railway network helped Pryce-Jones to eventually turn his small rural concern into a company with global renown. In 1861, he hit upon a unique method of selling his wares. He distributed catalogs of his wares across the country, allowing people to choose the items they wished and order them via post; he would then dispatch the goods to the customer via the railways. It was an ideal way of meeting the needs of customers in isolated rural locations who were either too busy or unable to get into Newtown to shop directly. This was the world's first mail order business, an idea which would change the nature of retail in the coming century.
The further expansion of the railways in the years that followed allowed Pryce Jones to greatly expand his customer base and his business grew rapidly. He supplied his products to an impressive variety of famous clientele, including Florence Nightingale and Queen Victoria, the Princess of Wales and royal households across Europe. According to historian David Pugh “He supplied Queen Victoria with her underwear—it was a piece of woven flannel that was very soft.” He also began exporting drapery to the U.S. and British colonies.
One of his most popular products was the Euklisia Rug, the forerunner of the modern sleeping bag, which Pryce-Jones exported around the world, at one point landing a contract with the Russian Army for 60,000 rugs. By 1880, he was a multimillionaire responsible for 4,000 workers and 250,000 customers, and his success was rewarded in 1887 with knighthood.
History – in North America
Another example of an early catalog is that of New Yorker Ellen Curtis “Madame” Demorest. She promised to ship anything from a pin to a piano. According to the April 15, 2020 article “’Madame Demorest’ — The Woman at the Top of a 19th Century Fashion Empire” at mcny.org, Demorest was a pioneering and creative entrepreneur who created a massive fashion empire in New York City in the middle of the 19th century with her husband William. It was an empire built on two burgeoning industries in New York City — magazine publishing and fashion. And it rested on an innovation that played on the aspirations of middle-class women who wanted to look like the stylish upper-class women of the fashion capitals of Paris, London and New York City itself, giving them the tools to literally refashion themselves.
When the Demorests opened their first shop, Madame Demorest’s Emporium of Fashions, on lower Broadway in 1860, New York’s reputation for elegance and style in women’s fashion was already well established. Just ten years earlier, in his “American Notes” Charles Dickens remarked, “Heaven save the ladies, how they dress! We have seen more colors in these ten minutes, than we should have seen elsewhere in as many days. What various parasols! What rainbow silks and satins! What pinking of thin stockings, and pinching of thin shoes, and fluttering of ribbons and silk tassels, and display of rich cloaks with gaudy hoods and linings!”
But Ellen Demorest’s true innovation was not her store, nor her magazines and catalogs. Instead, it was her dress patterns — she was the first to successfully mass produce, market and sell paper dress patterns directly to consumers. The patterns were included as foldouts inside the magazines, as well as sold on their own by the Demorests themselves or through agents. The success of the pattern business was built on the increasing availability of home sewing machines, and the promise that home sewers or small-time dressmakers could make their own copies of the fashions normally out of reach of all but the wealthiest women.
According to Wikipedia, on August 18, 1872, Aaron Montgomery Ward of Chicago produced a mail-order catalog for his Montgomery Ward mail order business, the first mail order catalog meant for the general public. By buying goods and then reselling them directly to customers, he was consequently removing the middlemen at the general store and to the benefit of the customer, lowering the prices drastically.
His first catalog was a single sheet of paper with a price list, 8 by 12 inches, showing the merchandise for sale and ordering instructions. Montgomery Ward identified a market of merchant-wary farmers in the Midwest. Within two decades, his single-page list of products grew into a 540-page illustrated book selling over 20,000 items. By 1904, 3 million customers were on the catalog mailing list.
From about 1921 to 1931, Ward sold prefabricated kit houses — called Wardway Homes — by mail order.
Hammacher Schlemmer is the earliest still surviving mail-order business, established by Alfred Hammacher in New York City in 1848. Offering mechanic's tools and builder's hardware, its first catalog was published in 1881.
History - Sears
Richard Warren Sears started a business selling watches through mail order catalogues in Redwood Falls, Minnesota, in 1888. By 1894, the Sears catalog had grown to 322 pages, featuring sewing machines, bicycles, sporting goods, automobiles —produced from 1905–1915 by Lincoln Motor Car Works of Chicago, not related to the current Ford Motor Co. brand of the same name — and a host of other new items.
Organizing the company so it could handle orders on an economical and efficient basis, Chicago clothing manufacturer Julius Rosenwald became a part-owner in 1895. By the following year, dolls, refrigerators, stoves and groceries had been added to the catalog. Sears, Roebuck and Co. soon developed a reputation for high-quality products and customer satisfaction. By 1895, the company was producing a 532-page catalog with the largest variety of items that anybody at the time could have imagined. "In 1893, the sales topped $400,000. Two years later they exceeded $750,000."
In 1906 Sears opened its catalog plant and the Sears Merchandise Building Tower. And by that time, the Sears catalog had become known in the industry as the “Consumers' Bible." In 1933, Sears, Roebuck and Co. produced the first of its famous Christmas catalogs known as the "Sears Wishbook," a catalog featuring toys and gifts separate from the annual Christmas catalog.
From 1908 to 1940, Sears also sold kit houses by mail order, selling 70,000 to 75,000 such homes, many of which are still lived in today.
History – creation of an industry
By creating a direct marketing industry through the mail order catalog, Pryce Pryce-Jones and Aaron Montgomery Ward enabled the creation of a powerful global network that came to include everything from mail order to telemarketing and social media. Mail order changed the worldwide marketplace by introducing the concept of privacy and individuality into the retail industry. Today, the mail order catalog industry is worth approximately $100 billion and generates over $2 trillion in incremental sales.
History – Littlewoods
Sir John Moores was a British businessman and philanthropist most famous for the founding of the Littlewoods retail company that was located in Liverpool, England. He became a millionaire through the creation of the Littlewood Pool, one of the best-known names in sports gambling in England.
In January 1932, Moores was able to disengage himself sufficiently from the pools to start up Littlewoods Mail Order Store. This was followed on July 6, 1937 by the opening of the first Littlewoods department store in Blackpool. By the time World War II started there were 25 Littlewoods stores across the UK and over 50 by 1952.
The first Littlewoods catalog was published in May 1932 with 168 pages. The motto of the catalog was, "We hoist our Flag in the Port of Supply, and right away we sail to the Ports of Demand—the Homes of the People. We intend to help the homely folk of this country help them to obtain some of the profits made by manufacturing and trading... to save money on things they must have. This Catalogue is our Ship... staffed by an All-British crew... You won't find sleepy, old-fashioned goods carried in the LITTLEWOODS ship. Only the newest of the new goods—honest, British-made merchandise."
With the success of the catalog business, Moores moved his business four times to larger buildings in 1932. Moores sailed to America to look at the operations of Montgomery Ward and Sears and Roebuck. By 1936, the business had hit the 4 million pound mark, making Moores a millionaire a second time over — by mail order.
History – J.C. Penney
James Cash Penney started his first retail store in 1902 in Kemmerer, Wyoming. By 1925, J.C. Penney had 674 stores generating sales of $91 million. In 1962 J.C. Penney bought Wisconsin based General Merchandise Co. with discount stores and a mail-order operation. Thus J.C. Penney entered the mail order catalog business. J.C. Penney — a latecomer in catalog operations — was different from many of its competitors because it had a large retail store base before launching into the mail-order business. The first J.C. Penney catalog was mailed the next year in 1963. Customers could order from the catalog inside J.C. Penney stores in eight states. The J.C. Penney Catalog Distribution Center was located in Milwaukee.
History – Victoria’s Secret
According to Casey Lewis’ July 25, 2016 article “The Rise and Fall of the Victoria’s Secret Catalog” at racked.com and Charles Manning’s Aug. 27, 2014 article “33 Images That Show the Insane Evolution of the Victoria’s Secret Catalog” in Cosmopolitan, Victoria's Secret was founded in 1977 by a guy named Roy Raymond who wanted a place where he could buy lingerie for his wife without feeling like a perv and opened a mall store in Palo Alto, California. A year later, Victoria's Secret was a hit, and Raymond launched a mail-order business with the first-ever Victoria's Secret catalog in 1977. At the time, many mall flagships like JCPenney and Sears brought in big money from their mail-order businesses, inspired by the success of catalog companies. Spiegel, for instance, was bringing in around $500 million in revenue at that time. Pre-internet, catalogs allowed everyone — especially housewives who didn’t live in major metropolitan cities — to buy stylish things they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. And why wouldn’t they want lacy bras and silk negligees, too? In 1982, catalog sales for Victoria’s Secret accounted for 55% of their $7 million annual sales.
History – Spiegel
According to Wikipedia, Spiegel is an American direct marketing and catalog company. It was founded in 1865 by Joseph Spiegel. Its main product is its namesake, the Spiegel catalog, which advertises various brands of apparel, accessories and footwear. The company also distributes brands under the names of Newport News and Shape FX.
Spiegel delivered its first mail order catalog to women across America in 1905. By 1925, the fashion and furniture retailer had 10 million customers. Spiegel sent buyers to Paris fashion shows, who brought European fashion trends to American homes.
As of 2015, Spiegel sells women's style and fashion products and is owned by Lynn Tilton, through her company Patriarch Partners.
History – J. Crew
In 1947, Mitchell Cinader and Saul Charles founded Popular Merchandise Inc., a store that did business as Popular Club Plan and sold low-priced women's clothing marketed through in-home demonstrations. Throughout the mid-1980s, sales from catalog operations grew rapidly. "Growth was explosive — 25-30% a year," Cinader later recollected in The New York Times. Annual sales grew from $3 million to more than $100 million over five years.
The 1980s marked a booming sales period for catalog retail giants Lands' End, Talbots and L. L. Bean. Popular Merchandise initiated its own catalog operation, focusing on leisurewear for upper-middle-class customers, aiming for a Ralph Lauren look at a much lower price. The first Popular Club Plan catalog was mailed to customers in January 1983 and continued under that name until 1989. Popular Club Plan catalogs often showed the same garment in more than one picture with close-up shots of the fabrics, so customers could get a sense of how the garment looked on the body and be assured of the company's claims of quality. In 1983, Popular Merchandise, Inc. became known as J.Crew, Inc.
History – Lester Wunderman
Mail order had always relied on the innovative technique of selling products directly to the consumer at appealing prices, but the term "direct marketing" was only coined in 1967 by Lester Wunderman — considered to be the father of contemporary direct marketing. He was behind the creation of the toll-free 1-800 number and numerous mail order-based loyalty marketing programs including the Columbia Record Club, magazine subscription card and American Express Customer Rewards program.
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