Catalog and Mail Order Sales- Retailing Storefront Alternatives

Selling products via mail order is an attractive way to start a retail business from home without the need of a storefront location. Read on to learn some of the advantages and disadvantages of using catalog and mail order sales to distribute your products.The main advantage of selling through catalogs is the ability to reach hundreds of thousands of readers with just one mailing. This dramatically increases a retailers exposure to potential shoppers.

With mail order sales, the catalog is essentially your store and the copy is the salesperson. Instead of waiting for the customer to come to you, your catalog is written, designed and mailed purposefully to a particular target demographic.

To reduce the amount of risk and expense, a catalog business can grow slowly. This allows retailers to focus on marketing a small amount of merchandise in the beginning and then let the catalog evolve as more customers are acquired. Because payment is received in advance, retailers may not need to stock the merchandise and tie up their cash flow.

Like selling online, mail order retailers must work harder than brick and mortar shops to build trust and customer loyalty.

Selling via catalogs does have a lot of initial expense. Besides the production of the catalog, retailers must purchase lists of prospective customers in order to generate new sales. Low response rates and high postal costs may also discourage a retailer from sending follow-up mailings.

Mail order retailers cannot easily change prices in response to market conditions. The product copy must be extremely well written as it serves as the only enticement for the customer to purchase the product.

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