What this report will tell you

This report is based on extensive research conducted by both Royal Mail Marketreach and Retail Week.

As shown in the methodology (below) Marketreach commissioned 16 expert interviews, in-depth at home interviews and observations with 10 UK households, two focus groups and a survey of 3,000 UK consumers, through independent research agency Illuminas.

Retail Week then analysed the findings in depth, conducted extensive market research and interviewed eight retailers, from businesses including Matalan, Seasalt and Wickes (full list opposite).

The result is a detailed account of how consumers view and use catalogues, as well as the strategies that retailers are deploying to make direct mail a success and drive return on investment.

This report reveals that catalogues deliver physical, sensory experiences with positive cognitive and emotional impacts on consumers. They are an effective complementary marketing and sales channel working alongside ecommerce.

Consumers value catalogues’ relaxing and inspirational qualities. The research reveals shoppers are likely to reach for a catalogue when they want to unwind at home. On average, they will spend 15 minutes browsing a toys or books catalogue, 12 minutes on electricals or health and beauty, and 11 minutes leafing through a fashion catalogue; 53% did something of commercial value after receiving a catalogue. Meanwhile, 48% of consumers agree catalogues provide a “way to escape from the busy world for a while” and 76% agree they give them ideas for things to buy. As a result, the commercial appeal for retailers is clear.

Catalogues have evolved to become slimmer and more experiential. In the same way that retailers are focused on fewer but more experiential stores and ecommerce retailers look to recreate the same wow factor digitally, the catalogue has also moved forward from being a large listing to delivering a strong brand and customer experience. In chapter two, we reveal how this step-change has not gone unnoticed by consumers; 42% note fewer pages in catalogues and 39% have spotted smaller pages being used.

The White Company, Seasalt, Wayfair, Majestic Wine and Hotel Chocolat are just a selection of the retailers taking advantage of the opportunity that catalogues provide. In chapter three, we take a deeper dive into their strategies.

QR, AR and VR technologies are increasingly integrating catalogues into the wider shopping journey. Retailers can still display their full ranges to consumers through a slimmed-down catalogue that contains a QR code to direct them to the products online, where they can complete purchases and arrange for delivery. Beyond this, AR and VR technology are being used to create more of an in-store experience, removing the drawback of not being able to touch and feel products.

Ploughing investment into digital marketing may seem the natural conclusion to draw from the past two years, but the situation is more nuanced. This swell of consumers online has escalated the digital noise level and made online advertising as competitive – and expensive – as it has ever been.

Research by advertising technology company AdSkate in June 2022 found: Meta’s CPM (cost per thousand impressions) has increased 61% year on year, averaging at $17.60 (£15.57); while TikTok’s has increased 185% year on year, averaging at $9.40 (£8.32); and Google’s programmatic display cost has increased 75% year on year. Instagram’s has increased 23% year on year.

The logic is there are more eyeballs to target digitally. That is true, of course, and digital ad spending was estimated to see growth of 11.9% in 2022, according to analyst group eMarketer, following what it calls a “remarkable” 36% surge in 2021. That means increased competition and greater costs. Retail – at £5.2bn – is the sector set to spend most on digital ads in 2022, highlighting the clamour for share of voice and visibility in the industry.

The average cost per click (CPC) worldwide was $0.52 (£0.46) at the beginning of 2021 compared to $0.62 (£0.55) at the beginning of 2022, with evidence pointing towards continuing CPC inflation, markets and consumer data expert Statista says.

Gary Howard, chief digital officer at marketing agency Precision, says: “Retailers need to think more creatively and look at data acquisition. First-party data is needed so you can engage with consumers over and over again – and catalogues will come into their own here.”

Catalogues cut through digital overload as consumers are more accepting of physical marketing: 60% of the consumers surveyed by Illuminas agreed that they received too many marketing messages via email. Only 42% said the same thing about marketing communications through the post.

Retail Week’s recent Retail 2023 report surveyed 57 CEOs and found that 82% plan to spend on email marketing next year, behind search engine marketing first and Instagram second. 

Although digital ad spend is significant and remains critical, in reality customer journeys are not linear so rather than relying on one channel brands should look to create an integrated approach that can touch consumers wherever they are and whatever they are doing, be that on- or offline.

One 36-year-old female consumer from Essex who took part in the research explained the value of catalogues to her: “I think generally it’s a positive communication. They remind you of the brands themselves, they remind you of the products and just keep it sort of fresh in your mind.”

Catalogues still do what they always have done, bringing the brand and product selection into people’s homes, allowing them to shop as they choose. They also provide a more considered, but impactful, alternative to the ‘shout-out-loud’ marketing messages following people around the internet.

Precision’s Howard says of the catalogue: “It’s a great call to action – for example, you’ll only go online to buy if you know the item exists. If you Google something, you already know what you are looking for, but print can sell you something you didn’t know you wanted yet, which is absolutely key to retail.”

According to Marketreach’s research, print is now differentiating itself from digital through the use of taster catalogues and the adoption of long-term, brand-building tactics. Catalogues provide consumers with tactile experiences and they are increasingly vivid and targeted.

“There is a value in something you pick up and hold,” Holition’s Chippindale argues. “It is important that a campaign has good quality and enticing imagery – the quality of the creative is a big consideration in how well a campaign performs and how it influences product desirability.”

The journey of the catalogue in the home

Sixty per cent of consumers said they enjoy sitting down with catalogues and looking through them in their own time, while 48% said reading a catalogue is a way to escape.

“The catalogue is very tangible,” says Rogberg. “As an example, an Avon representative who is also a hairdresser started bringing people to her house to cut their hair during the pandemic. She left the Avon catalogue in the ‘waiting room’ and her sales took off.”

He adds: “People were sitting there, so they picked up the catalogue and then they placed orders through it. Rather than fiddling with your phone, the catalogue is there and is an attractive option.”

One 70-year-old woman from Manchester said: “When they first come through the door, I would make myself a cup of tea and sit down and, and just glance through them and then put them to one side for possibly when I’ve got a bit more time to have a proper look at them.”

This was echoed by a 59-year-old male from London, who said: “If they’re around, when I’ve got downtime, so if I’ve cooked dinner and I’m sitting down to eat, usually it’d be on my own. So if there’s anything like that, I would flick through it.”

Inspiring purchases

The consumers interviewed revealed how catalogues encourage then to make purchases.

One 42-year-old woman from Essex said: “If I’ve seen something which I think might make a good birthday present I’ll hang on to it to look further down the line.” Another woman, aged 29 and from Essex, talked about receiving a JoJo communication in the post and said: “I did flick through that catalogue and I saw something that was quite sweet actually. I went online and I did buy that for a friend of mine. It was her daughter’s birthday, so I bought that and sent it directly to her.”

A 41-year-old woman from London added: “If you get a really nice catalogue from a brand like Selfridges or Liberty, I love it. It makes me feel I’m part of something and they’re saying ‘you may like this’. It’s not something that I’d thought of buying but because it’s such a beautiful catalogue, I love looking through it.”

Most importantly from a commercial retail perspective, 76% of consumers said catalogues or product brochures give them ideas for things to buy, according to Marketreach, and 55% bought something they saw in a catalogue within the past year.

Offering a personal example, but one that supports the study’s statistics, Savvy’s Shuttleworth says: “I recently received a magalogue from The White Company with all its Christmas goods in it; there was a 15% voucher and a list for me to rip out and write what I want from it. I read it cover to cover and I will now go on The White Company website. I might have avoided it otherwise.”

Timeliness is key to catalogue success, she adds, saying they can work particularly well when sent ahead of peak events such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, and – in the case of garden centres, for example – ahead of the summer.

The rapid pace of retail technology developments means big – and new – advances for catalogues. From augmented reality (AR) to virtual reality (VR), and the revival of QR codes, there are various ways new tech is combining with traditional print to compelling effect for the consumer and therefore the brands embracing these new techniques.

QR codes – for example – were one of the winning technologies in helping us through the pandemic. They found their use case in different scenarios, having been around for years without widespread take-up in retail.  

From helping people to purchase goods from store windows, to their use as menus on pub and restaurant tables when social distancing was in place, QR codes now provide brands and retailers with a chance to help consumers ‘buy off the page’ in a more seamless way. 

Crucially, they are presenting the opportunity for companies to better understand customers by tracking the end-to-end marketing to conversion journey. Howard says QR codes provide “a quick, deep link into digital communications” and, paraphrasing marketing strategist Mark Pollard, he says: “Covid did for QR codes what Pulp Fiction did for John Travolta.”

Zappar’s Stahel adds: “Printed catalogues drive a significant proportion of online sales, and mobile-friendly QR codes are increasingly appearing in catalogues to help consumers navigate more easily to the online listing and point of sale and tell brand stories behind the products that cannot be covered in the limited space in traditional printed catalogues.

"More excitingly, QR codes are being used to help consumers link quickly to immersive AR content and visualise products in their homes and overcome the ‘imagination gap’ helping them make a purchase with more confidence.”

ProCook chief marketing officer Angela Porter says the homewares retailer sees a tangible benefit from its marketing strategy to blend its catalogue and online channels: “In a world that is ever increasingly digital, catalogues and direct mail still have their place in the mix and manage to cut through. Recent testing showed us that customers who receive our catalogue along with emails are more likely to purchase, so for us it’s about sharing our range in the right way for the customer.”

She adds: “It’s important to us to share helpful content like recipes, how-to’s and videos with as many of our customers as we can. We’ve seen an increase in the demand for simple ways to access digital content from print such as QR codes, and we have made our digital online catalogue fully shoppable.

"Again focusing our marketing activity on making it easy for customers to access our content and shop our range how they want to."

What’s the reality?

As with ecommerce, catalogues face the challenge of consumers wanting to ascertain a product’s true quality and suitability. With the use of AR, catalogues can help solve this consumer knowledge gap.

Fifty-seven per cent of consumers asked by Marketreach said they would find it appealing if a brand or retailer offered them the ability to use their smartphone or tablet to scan and capture how a product in a catalogue might look in their home or when worn.

Consumers said the technology should be used for bringing the information in the catalogue into a space to confirm the decision, supported by further research if needed, and to see the latest deals and prices.

Such deployment would need to be seamless, they said, with many believing there is still some distance to travel to replicate in-person shopping via AR and VR.

Chippindale agrees that the digital capabilities do not exist yet for AR experiences to be offered for every product in a retailer’s catalogue, meaning if it is used today it is typically for “hero” or showcase products.  “There’s some tech that needs to be invented and then there needs to be a conversation on how it’s applied so consumers get the benefit through a catalogue,” he says.

“Every year improvements are made but the development in this space is slower than I thought it would be. I thought it’d be commonplace five years ago.”

However, Chippindale predicts the use of AR will become “a hygiene factor” in retail, becoming a natural part of how the industry engages with consumers, but its rise in prominence may require it falling into the merchandiser’s budget rather than the marketer’s.

“If merchandisers see it is driving revenue, they’ll use it; the problem with AR being part of the marketing budget is this department is always looking at what’s new, so they’ll experiment in some catalogues rather than rolling it out.”

Research by Holition showed consumers want AR – for example, to try on several looks digitally while they are on the train home after work – but it is not at the level of adoption yet where it becomes a truly influencing factor in why they select a particular brand over another.

“It’s not that consumers don’t know about AR, it’s just not out there in enough scale for consumers to get on with it, understand it and expect it,” Chippindale argues. “AR in conjunction with a catalogue can be the last-minute check. [When the technology is at the suitable level] consumers will be able to use it to check if the product they propose to buy looks right.”

Further development in this field could feed into sustainability strategies; if a consumer can be more sure of the look, feel and fit of a product they are much more likely to buy the right thing the first time, which in turn leads to fewer returns.

Multiple retail sectors are embracing catalogues to deepen their relationship with existing customers and to win new ones.

Fashion/clothing and homewares/lifestyle are the two categories using catalogues the most based on what consumers say they have received, according to Marketreach.

Thirty-four per cent said they had received marketing material from fashion or clothing companies and 22% said they had received homewares/lifestyle catalogues.

This report shows overwhelming evidence that catalogues deliver powerful brand and sales success for retailers, even in an increasingly digital world.

Let’s take a moment to recap some of the key findings from the research. First, the physical nature of catalogues means that by virtue of living in a consumer’s home, the medium has a far greater chance of influencing purchase compared to online, where the message can be fleeting or overlooked and the competition is just one click away.

Secondly, catalogues have a cognitive and emotional impact, providing consumers with greater brand connection than the frenetic nature of the digital space.

Sixty per cent of consumers believe they receive too many emails but just 42% feel the same way about catalogues. This is a notable difference in the world of marketing.  Once they have a catalogue, consumers spend on average 10 minutes reading it. The research found 76% of consumers say catalogues provide inspiration for things to buy.

As shown within the case studies in this report, many retailers are using data insights to make their catalogue content more relevant to customers.

Consumers find 69% of the catalogues they receive are relevant to them.  However, particularly in today’s fraught market —in which retailers are coping with numerous headwinds from the pandemic fallout, the cost of living crisis and the increasing pace of digital innovation —  ROI is critical.

The third key takeaway from this research is that catalogues are delivering tangible results.

In the fashion category, 68% of respondents took action after receiving a catalogue, while 35% looked at the sender’s website. Others spoke to family and friends about it, searched online or went into a store. In beauty, 66% of consumers acted after receiving a catalogue.

Catalogues are increasingly playing an immersive role in marketing strategies.

The buying experience is not linear and consumers crave both on and offline experiences. Retailers that understand this know that digital and catalogues can complement each other to drive short-term activation and longer-term brand building, providing a mix that maximises results.

QR codes are one example of how catalogues fit into the bigger picture, giving consumers that targeted but personal one-to-one offline experience but also gently directing them to the website to learn more about products, see the full range, make a purchase, or find a store to visit.

Marketers are faced with one of the greatest cost-of-living crises in a generation, where customer retention and loyalty will become critical. Tangible and trusted channels like direct mail and catalogues rightly earn their place in the mix to meet these challenges.