Retailers received 5 million impressions and 43,000 catalog requests from an estimated 11,000 Canadians by participating in a multichannel campaign begun as part of Canada Post's Borderfree Get a Grip campaign, Borderfree said yesterday.
The campaign highlights Borderfree's aim to help U.S.-based retailers reach into Canada and fulfill cross-border transactions.
Get a Grip, launched in August, used the Canada Post Borderfree Snapshot segmentation system to target consumer segments most likely to buy from the participating retailers. It was designed to acquire customers and collect consumer data, creating intelligence on Canadian direct purchasers.
The effort highlighted a combination of Borderfree's online and catalog partners such as Brookstone, Tiger Direct, Total Home Store, Restoration Hardware, eBags and Victoria's Secret and tracked their response rate with Canadian consumers.
Canada Post Borderfree, Toronto, was established in 1999 and has been part of the Canada Post Group of Companies since 2002.
Borderfree also announced yesterday the opening of a second U.S. hub in Chicago as part of the company's growth strategy. The first hub is in Taylor, MI. A projected 70 percent increase in sales versus last year required a second hub to facilitate 1,000 cross-border packages daily, the company said.
Six of Borderfree's major merchants will begin delivering their Canadian orders to the Chicago hub including Brookstone, Guess and Crate and Barrel as it is nearer for U.S. Western and Midwest retailers. Going into the holiday season, the added capacity of the Chicago hub also reduces the potential for a backlog.
“For Canada Post Borderfree, this influx of activity means one thing: growth of the number of U.S. merchants doing business in Canada,” said Patrick Bartlett, president of Borderfree. “Imagine that in 2004, there were only 35 major catalogs circulating in Canada. Now, just in time for the 2005 holiday season, the Canadian marketplace will see over 46 new U.S. multichannel merchants mailing catalogs or doing business online, bringing the total of U.S. merchants to over 80.”
Melissa Campanelli covers postal news, CRM and database marketing for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
