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Management software Update Microcomputer technology continues to advance at an impressive pace. With 33-megahertz systems using an 80386 or 80486 chip (with the 80586 on the way), DOS-based software that [...]

Fingerhut and other retailers are utilizing advanced software to analyze their customer data to enhance customer retention as well as to increase customer purchases.

Minnetonka, MN-based Fingerhut Cos, the company acquired by Federated Department Stores, was able to process its direct marketers' huge data warehouse by using the Mail Stream Optimization software with IBM SP2 multi-processor hardware and the Orchestrate parallel sorting solution. The move was aimed at reducing the cost of mailings at the same time maintaining customer-generated revenue.

Saks Fifth Avenue's catalog division, Folio, needed a different information system than the Saks retail operation. Both businesses have different merchandise and have different management operations. The catalog needed a cost-based system because the same item could be different prices in different catalogs. Telemarketing personnel needed up-to-date information on availability and new products., High-end retailers and catalogers are doing well. So it's no surprise that business is brisk for Folio, the catalog division of that most fashion-forward of department stores, Saks Fifth Avenue. [...]

Reliable Corp's expansion into the retail business shifted its information services requirement into distributed systems integration and automated data collection systems. It is expected that the new system would be 3,000-programs strong withover 1,000,000 lines of program codes created or modified. By November 1991, two-thirds of the system's programming and testing has been accomplished, with final system turnover targeted for Feb 1992. Initial evaluations of the new system shows impressive results.

Systems strategies An informal survey shows how much catalogers are spending on data processing . . . and why As any business grows, its needs from a systems point of [...]

* CWDKids * VARs and Resellers from Vertmarkets * Amacai Everyday Lifestyles/Technology Savvy * America's Interest Activity Responders * Addressing the World International Consumer Lifestyle E-mail * Donors to Cancer [...]

Preppy cataloger and retailer J.Crew Group is reeling in computer work the company had outsourced, says a document it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It's part of J.Crew's […]

Chums, the mail order company specialising in comfortable clothing for the mature man and woman, is offering its list through Independent Direct Marketing. Customers have been recruited through ads in [...]

Horticultural mail order specialist Van Meuwen is making its list of over 1 million customers available through McCarthy O'Connor. The names on the list have purchased Dutch flowers, bulbs, plants, [...]

Mail order company ArtRoom is making its 60,000-strong database available through Go Direct Marketing. The ArtRoom collection comprises a range of items - from pictures to jewellery to gift ideas [...]

M&M Sport, the mail order company that offers discount sports-, fashion- and leisurewear, is making its database of 1,200,000 buyers available through list manager Tri-Direct Sales. Customers are mostly female, [...]

Consumer catalogers' love affair with cooperative databases is still going strong. Not only are marketers continuing to use co-ops for a significant percentage of their prospecting, but they're also turning [...]

Placing orders from thousands of stock lines, requesting samples and checking stock availability and viewing personal prices online are all possible through Antalis's improved online ordering system Antalink. Customers can [...]

Although catalog companies are data-driven businesses, most catalogers are dysfunctional when it comes to integrating their data technology. Often masking the gaps in the systems architecture is the overarching umbrella [...]

Few catalog companies can use their order management system as an effective database marketing platform. The way data are managed in entering and processing transactions is designed to streamline the [...]

By this time of year, most catalogers are tweaking and executing winning marketing plans for the fall and holiday seasons. You can make this process more efficient by putting together [...]

Many a cataloger has been wooed by the promises of 'quick fix' technologies. And it's easy to see why. The Websites of too many marketers are underperforming. Conversion rates are [...]

Byline: Paul Miller General merchandise cataloger Fingerhut sells a wide variety of products, including electronics, jewelry, and home goods. The broad assortment of items found in Fingerhut's warehouse made it [...]

Delray Beach, FL-based women's apparel cataloger Boston Proper two years ago developed a software system to help with its biggest inventory management issue: returns. The software, which creates a spreadsheet [...]

It doesn't take a genius to figure out who a cataloger's best customers are: They're the ones who shop most frequently and spend the most, of course. But who are [...]

If you're like most catalogers, you do a great job of obtaining information about your customers - often down to the smallest detail of each order. But when it comes [...]

Information technology executives and managers at catalog companies face a never-ending demand for new or enhanced software systems. Motivation for seeking a new system might be increased productivity and cost [...]

Most catalogers have used the term 'customer lifetime value' (LTV), but few have actually calculated it, let alone used it in determining their marketing strategy. And that's a shame. Without [...]

NEW YORK -- Meet the new and improved My Virtual Model tool at Landsend.com. Tuesday's launch of the updated version kept the catalogue operator firmly entrenched as the technology pioneer [...]

This month we look at another analytical technique or process that direct sellers need to know, understand, and apply to their daily operations: tracking response curves. Successful and profitable catalogers [...]

Religious gifts cataloger Abbey Press used to rely on recency/frequency/monetary value (RFM) analysis to determine which house file names to mail to. But last fall, it began testing IntelliMerge, a [...]

The detailed specs and variables of computer products have long made shopping for hardware and components a challenge. Customers typically have to wade through pages of copy to compare similar [...]

Catalogers that receive tens or hundreds of thousands of orders a day, such as Lands' End and L.L. Bean, have long had a dedicated Internet connection to their banks for [...]

As I look back on 30 years of prospecting history, a heretical conclusion forms in my mind: As an industry, we are really no further evolved in prospecting than we [...]

Merchandise management is both art and science. The art is in product sourcing and selection. The science is in forecasting, analyzing, and managing demand data to minimize backorders and stock-outs [...]

Road Runner Sports was running out of time. The cataloger, which produced 12 books last year and was set to increase that to at least 16 this year, also mails [...]

Byline: Paul Miller Compiled lists have long been a keystone of business mailers' prospecting efforts. Homing in on selections from them was challenging, though, as the files were usually little [...]

Retailers and other marketers generally view catalogers as being in the forefront of database marketing. In fact, when venture capital firms and other outsiders buy catalog companies, the catalogers' databases [...]

The president of Woodworker's Supply, John D. Wirth Jr., Ph.D., has reason to be skeptical of software programs that label addresses 'undeliverable.' In a test conducted during fall 2001, the [...]

Betty Crocker is, of course, a model homemaker. And now database models play a large role in the circulation strategy of the Minneapolis-based catalog division of food giant Betty Crocker. [...]

CRAIG RIEF owns 1-800-Faceoff.com, a catalog of hockey equipment based in Rollinsford, NH: 'We switched to our own proprietary software within the past six months, and we no longer have [...]

Interviewee: Phil DeKok, manager of IT training and sourcing Company: Lands' End Inc. Main location: Dodgeville, Wis. Number of IT employees: About 250, plus about 60 contractors, mainly for legacy […]

The phrase 'an ounce of prevention is the best medication' most certainly applies to list hygiene. After all, if you enter in the names and addresses of customers correctly the [...]

If this shootout between Web clothing retailers were a 100-yard dash, we would see Lands' End pulling ahead with a fantastic start and then, 50 yards out, pulling a hamstring […]

SAN FRANCISCO -- Anthropologie, a privately held women's apparel and accessories retail and catalog firm based in Philadelphia, is using its new Web site to manage inventory, set markdowns and [...]

Tim Hemstreet, a 32-year-old project manager in marketing systems at Spiegel and its Eddie Bauer Inc. unit, is responsible for developing and maintaining information systems to support the marketing department. […]

Madison, Wis. - When it launched its Web site in mid-1995, clothing manufacturer Lands' End Inc. might not have been able to fathom the strides E-commerce would make in the […]

While the rise of Web servers and thin clients garnered all the attention, middle-ware quietly reinvented itself. For years, middleware worked on the back end, exchanging apps between databases and […]

'A single version of the truth' is a frequently heard battle cry among retailers who typically wrestle with fragmented, disparate reporting systems. Coldwater Creek recent[y got closer to the ideal [...]

The catalog companies to get maximum return on investments should follow the data integration system practiced by financial services and big retailers. The name and address of customers are integrated by using historical name, address and other information to create a single version of the real customer.

Even the world's most attractive catalog won't produce the desired sales if it doesn't arrive in the right person's mailbox at the right time hence catalog marketers strategically manage their databases and mailing activities. Database management involves mining the house file that includes active and archived customer names.