Growing up in the North (Whitehorse, YT) has its advantages: plenty of outdoor frolicking, camping, fishing – at your doorstep. And it had its disadvantages, like very limited shopping options. Summer vacations down south were characterized by daylong mall adventures and spending-sprees. And in the winter, we relied on the Sears catalogue. Ahhh the Wishbook – my brother and I would deliberate over that catalog for hours… sometimes even days, making lists of everything we wanted. But I digress.

I was reminded of all this, by the release of some new DMA numbers examining catalogue shopping – not the least of which is that catalogers generate more that 37% of their annual sales during the holiday season.

The NY association reported that Americans who shop from catalogues are loyal mail-order shoppers – with an average of 15 catalog purchases each year. Once people get into the habit of buying by catalogue, the DMA reports, they become accustomed to the convenience of shopping on their own terms and choosing from the variety of products available.

An interesting tidbit was the continuing convergence of catalogue and Internet shopping: the study showed that while 69% placed their most recent catalogue order via the telephone, 14% ordered from the catalogue’s Web site.

Cheers, BJ