Year-end Pt. II: Traffic Jam
We just finished the merchandising review for the holiday season with a major gift and home catalog. In this four-drop season, the first two drops (dated 08/30/06, and 09/27/06) did +9.5% and +2.2% above plan, respectively.
However, the later two drops were far below plan, even though there were no major differences in the circulation make-up (list segments, etc.). One of the issues with the third and fourth drops may have been late delivery in-home (see the earlier post, Year-end Pt. 1: Frustration for Catalogers below).
As we all know, customers are buying every year closer to Christmas. Customers make split-second decisions to read your offer based on whether they have bought from you before or whether it’s an interesting new offer. Add to that zealous e-mail campaigns, often several per week from a business. It looks like the direct-to-customer industry has created a traffic jam in customers’ mail boxes with too many offers to sort out and read.
Additionally, this puts severe strain on the fulfillment departments. During the last six weeks of the year, customer contact center peak volumes are often 10 times the average day during the rest of the year. It’s harder and harder to staff for those peaks, as businesses want to use part-timers.
What has been your experience? Where is all this going as we try to sell and service the same Christmas customer?