ELuxury ditches catalog, citing green intentions
ELuxury.com, an online retailer of luxury goods and designer clothes, is replacing its printed catalog with online catalogs.
Citing consumer interest in “green measures,” the company decided to stop printing and mailing its 270,000 yearly catalogs, said Karen Wallerich, director of eStore and marketing for ELuxury, in an e-mail interview. Women's designer, women's contemporary and men's virtual catalogs premiered online March 11, and the accessories guide made its debut on yesterday.
“We moved to paper-free in response to the eco-friendly requests of our customers,” according to Wallerich. “Eliminating the paper catalog has provided us an opportunity to create more trend-based and conceptual style guides, showcase more merchandise, reach a broader audience, and target more specifically our designer, contemporary, men's and accessories customers.”
Wallerich said she believes the paper-free move will appeal specifically to ELuxury's customer base — women in their early 20s to mid-30s who are well educated, fashion forward, urban and environmentally aware.
“It is our observation that being environmentally conscious is a more intrinsic value among our younger, educated customer than it is for an older audience,” she pointed out. “However, we are beginning to see some shifts among older audiences as well — there is an increasing awareness about global warming, the impact on the environment and what we can do to effect change.”
The company will be monitoring the success of its online catalogs and comparing its performance to print pieces but has no plans to reinstate print catalogs in the near future. Wallerich has not ruled out the possibility of printed collateral to market ELuxury but said that most of the company's direct marketing would be done by e-mail.
“Our plan is to effectively utilize e-mails by accessing our existing database to generate buzz and awareness of these new virtual catalogs,” she outlined. “Additionally, we are prospecting via our affiliates and leveraging the catalog creative with them.”
ELuxury does not have a campaign in place to publicize its move away from print catalogs.
