Do Digital Catalogs Drive Conversions?

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March 26, 2012 · by Charles Nicholls

 

Traditionally, catalogs are printed. They have an interruptive value as they arrive through the mailbox. They get read at the breakfast table, in front of the television, and in bed. They provide customers with a pleasurable way of browsing at their leisure, selecting products for a potential purchase later. This offline browsing has a dramatic impact on online buying behavior. Research shows that online shoppers that received a catalog in the mail purchased twice as often, and spent on average 163 percent more than those that didn’t. We've addressed that research here previously, in "Conversion Tip: Send Customers a Catalog."
 
But printed catalogs are prohibitively expensive to produce and distribute. They are often the largest expenditure that a merchant makes. This has effectively eliminated catalogs as a marketing tool for many merchants. The popularity of tablet computers has changed the way that customers are using the Internet. Like a traditional catalog, tablets are used at the breakfast table, in front of the television, and in bed, making it a compelling device for digital catalogs.

Enter Digital Catalogs

Digital catalog apps have quietly been creating a revolution in the catalog business. Rather than printing a catalog, merchants can join a group catalog app — which includes products from many different merchants — to get access to a massive stream of new shopping traffic for a fraction of the cost. This brings an important new stream of high quality traffic within the reach of all merchants.
These apps present tablet users with easy access to all their favorite catalogs in one place: and on their tablets. They can browse, Pin, Like, compare items from multiple catalogs, and click through to place an order on the ecommerce site.

What’s more, it’s really simple for merchants to get involved. Google Catalogs costs nothing for a merchant. Others like Catalog Spree charge you only for the traffic that clicks through to your site.

Do Digital Catalogs Increase Sales?

It’s a great idea. But how well do they actually work in driving conversions? I spoke with Donna Bouchard, vice president of Hamilton Jewelers — a 100-year-old Princeton, N.J.-based jeweler with five retail locations and an ecommerce store — about the company's experience as an earlier adopter of online catalogs. Ecommerce has traditionally only accounted for 4- 5 percent of the company's sales. But it plays an important role in getting customers to the point of purchase, often in the store.

Enlarge This Image Hamilton Jewelers' tablet app on Catalog Spree.

In the last 18 months, Hamilton Jewelers has seen its ecommerce sales grow to represent almost 10 percent of sales as a result of signing up with Catalog Spree, a tablet-based catalog application provider. “The typical visitor to HamiltonJewelers.com is a woman aged 30 – 50 shopping from home, and that’s a tough audience to reach,” says Bouchard. ”Ninety percent of our visitors already know us. Catalog Spree has done a great job of helping a small retailer like us to gain some notoriety in a really big area.”

When the digital catalog first went live, Hamilton noticed an immediate 30 – 40 percent jump in traffic, which has sustained, and a 10-20 percent growth in traffic each month since launch. Sixty-eight percent of traffic from the catalog is new traffic.

Bouchard cautions, “While visitors coming from the catalog are highly qualified, having browsed a specific item in the tablet app and then clicked through directly to the ecommerce site, it’s a challenge to secure add-on sales.”