Old-fashioned catalogs still draw customers in Internet age

FREEPORT, Maine — If your mailbox is stuffed with catalogs, that's what the catalog retailers want to see this holiday season.

More catalog retailers like Maine-based L.L. Bean are moving toward the day when the bulk of their sales are made online. Yet the number of catalogs mailed to U.S. households has been climbing over the past couple of years.

Even though some will get tossed, catalog retailers are counting on consumers thumbing through enough of them to drive sales.

L.L. Bean expects to ship 50 million more catalogs this year than it did two years ago when it shipped 200 million catalogs.

"It is the best way for us to get lasting impressions in front of our customers," said spokesman Rich Donaldson. Most customers hang onto the catalogs for weeks, using them for reference, making catalogs far more valuable than television, radio and Web-based marketing and advertising, all of which Bean also undertakes, Donaldson said.

Catalog retailers are hoping for a better season than last year when L.L. Bean and others resorted to free shipping amid worries about consumer confidence slipping because of Hurricane Katrina, high energy costs and the war in Iraq.

"Last year it was very tentative at this time," said George Hague, senior marketing strategist at J. Schmid & Assoc. Inc., a catalog consulting company in Mission, Kan. "We're seeing a more solid early season."

The Direct Marketing Association projects catalog sales will grow roughly 7.5 percent to $144 billion for the year.

At L.L. Bean, which expects to finish the year 4 percent ahead of last year, the gears are turning as the company shifts into holiday mode.

The 635,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution center where items are shipped is abuzz with activity and the beeps of electric-powered trucks.

Overhead, conveyors are carrying flannel shirts, boots and other merchandise; below, workers pack the items after they slide down chutes.

On a recent day, 110,000 items were shipped. That's roughly half of what'll be shipped when sales peak in a couple weeks.

Ramona Cox handles about 1,000 shipments a day at her work station. Whether it comes from online or catalog doesn't matter to her. Either way, she has to move it out.