Mail Order Catalogs Are Gone

Or are they really?

Sharon, my wife, took time to honor mail order catalogues by showing how they’ve been replaced.  Amazon, Zappos, and yep, Sears, have all gone over to ordering on the web.

But has the day of mail order catalogues gone or just been enhanced?

Sure Amazon and such are faster but a lot of classic ordering remains.

1) Flip through and find the things you want.

2) Fill out the paperwork and send it off.

3) Wait to receive the goods.

Where you see the most difference is in the following:

1) More choices

2) No more wish lists on scraps of paper to lose or confuse

3) Live order tracking

But sometimes it’s not as good.

1) You can’t ‘pass the list on’ to just anyone. If they don’t use that service, they can’t buy what’s on your list there.

2) No more phone updates.  You used to be able to call Sears and check on your order.

3) No more catalogue circling or tearing out pictures to share.

My three ideas to ‘get back to the fun’ of catalogues.

1) Allow non-members to order with just a credit card.

2) Clearly provide an easy to see and use 800 # for order status checking.

3) Create a way to share a wishlist w/out that single column scroll behind some obscure link.  How about a big array of item images, with highlighting around the ones I want most?

None of these is difficult to implement but they all steer away from controlling the users, getting their information, and avoiding human interaction.

What’s your gripes, recommendations, and more about shopping online today.

Go.Shop.Review.

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