• June 27, 2000

Seventy-three percent of consumer catalogs that accept orders on their websites are making a profit on these transactions, according to research released today by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) - http://www.the-dma.org.

"Catalogers are among the first companies to actually make money on the Internet," said H. Robert Wientzen, president and CEO of the DMA. "In addition to their expertise in customer service and order fulfillment, these companies are effectively using catalogs to drive current and prospective customers to their websites. In fact, many pure-play Internet retailers are taking a page from these companies' success and are launching print catalogs to sell products and to drive traffic to their websites."

The DMA survey found that 76% of consumer catalogs conduct online transactions, and 73% of them reported a profit on their Web business. Business-to-business catalogs fared even better than their consumer counterparts. While only 43% of business-to-business catalogs accept online transactions, 80% of them reported earning a profit on the Web. Of the 142 catalogers that responded to the DMA survey, 95% of consumer catalogs and 96% of business-to-business catalogs use the Web in their business operations.