Catalogue & Home Shopping: Flick, click or both.

There has been a long held view that Catalogue and Home
Shopping companies are a little staid, a little outdated or
just plain old old-fashioned. There is also a slightly more
modern view that the internet and shopping on the internet
in particular, is for techies or whiz kids or dare I say,
for young people.

I'm sure you'll have your own view on the matter, but
opinions aside, there is a growing audience who recognise
that neither viewpoint has any substance today.

If there's such a thing as a mercenary shopper, then I
believe I'm it, and I strongly urge you to join me. Any
retailer of any description will curse me for saying this
but the fact is, there are an incredible number of places
for you to spend your hard earned cash and in today's
retail environment, finding the best deal no longer
involves fighting your way through the weekend crowds or
pounding the pavements up and down the high street.

The Internet has brought the high street right into your
living room and in doing so it has also brought both
opportunity and dilemma for both the staid old Catalogue
businesses and, the snappy new web only retailers. It's
also because of the internet that neither can afford to sit
on their laurels.

Catalogue and Home Shopping retailers can no longer rely on
the lure of extended credit terms to attract new customers
because credit can now be obtained with ease and far
cheaper, which is where the newer internet only retailers
are cashing in. It's fair to say that the traditional
Catalogue and Home Shopping retailers recognise this fact
and the more astute ones now have an internet presence as
well. However, despite their traditional credit hungry
customers being in decline, they still account for a
significant chunk of their business and as such, cutting
them loose would be commercial suicide. They have no choice
but to endeavour to satisfy their old customers and their
new ones.

The upshot of these dilemmas for you and I is opportunity.
To keep pace with web only retailers, Catalogue and Home
Shopping retailers are being forced to come up with new
initiatives to attract new customers and yet despite the
undoubted success of some of these new initiatives, there
is no shortage of irony when they play their ace. Their ace
is that they still produce printed catalogues and not only
that, they produce very good printed catalogues. The
production of these very good catalogues has been fine
tuned over many, many years and to their readers, they have
always been held dear. The printed catalogue of today is a
brilliant shop window which offers plenty of product
information, beautiful detail filled photography which is
as colour accurate as possible to ensure customer
satisfaction.

The new mercenary shoppers (me!) are taking advantage of,
and are enjoying the opportunity to pick up a catalogue,
browse, read and compare, before going online to browse,
read and compare, and only when they have found the best
deal, do they place an order. No crowds, no queues, no sore
feet, no communal changing rooms just the best possible
choice at the best possible price. Consumer heaven.

I urge you to become a mercenary shopper. Go online, order
a free catalogue and browse, read and compare to your
hearts content and then, and only then, part with your hard
earned cash and enjoy your choice.

As always, Happy shopping.

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