SAN FRANCISCO — An increasing number of catalog shoppers place orders and check order status on catalog Web sites, according to a Direct Marketing Association survey released yesterday at The Annual Catalog Conference at the Moscone Center here.
The Customer Audit of Catalog Performance Survey showed that 20 percent of customers who ordered from a cataloger in the 2002 holiday period placed the order online. The figure was 14 percent a year earlier.
Also, 66 percent made their most recent catalog purchase through the telephone, a drop from 69 percent in the prior year.
Other statistics in the survey:
· Forty-four percent of catalog shoppers also shopped online in the past year, up from 41 percent in 2001.
· Fifty-six percent of shoppers keep catalogs for more than three months, or until they receive a replacement copy.
· Fifty-nine percent used the catalog's Web site to check order status, or confirmation, an increase from 48 percent in 2001.
· Fifty-two percent used the site to “pre-shop,” including activities such as comparison shopping or researching products, up from 41 percent in 2001.
· Twenty percent responded online to an e-mail offer, up from 16 percent in the prior year.
The survey was based on interviews with 3,400 consumers who bought from at least one of 17 catalogs during December 2002 and January 2003.
