The industry consists of two main sectors; those selling directly to consumers (86 percent of the total) and those selling to other businesses (14 percent of the total). The firms reporting to the Bruce, Dean survey were somewhat more heavily slanted toward business-to-business firms, and the survey also identified a hybrid category of firms reporting sales both to consumers and other businesses. The breakdown of reporting firms was 45 percent selling more or less exclusively to consumers, 28 percent business-to-business, and 27 percent hybrid. However, the most likely case is that the total number and percentage of business-to-business mail-order firms is larger than shown in these statistics, since many of these firms do not report themselves as mail-order businesses, but only report their principal line of business (e.g., office supplies).
The aggregate revenues of Bruce, Dean respondents was $3.5 billion, a mere six percent of the estimated total catalogue revenues of $57.4 billion. If we assume that the firms responding to the survey tended to be larger on average than those that did not, we may infer that the total number of mail-order firms is very much larger than the twelve thousand responding firms. The vast majority of both responding and non-responding firms are thus probably quite small specialty firms.
Another sensitive area of public concern, and one impacting even more directly on the mail-order industry, is that of privacy. A good deal of media attention has been given to the notion that "they know all about you" -- that the exchange and analysis of computerized data bases allows the great unspecified they (ranging from the mail-order industry to government agencies) to gather enormous amounts of information about the private, even intimate lives of individuals. Broad if diffuse concerns about privacy may lead to moves to curtail the use and exchange of data bases, potentially denying the mail-order industry precisely the tool it can use most effectively to target those consumers who would actually wish to be contacted.
Moreover, the industry has tended to show little imagination in the development of its most basic asset -- mailing-lists of potential customers. In the past few years, firms have depended overwhelmingly on the rental of other firms' lists as a source of new names. (Indeed, renting out their lists is an important source of income for many mail-order firms.) This tendency of firms to use one another's lists means that more and more catalogues are in effect chasing the same customers, who may begin to experience catalogue burnout. Consumer response rates to catalogues have in fact been declining since the mid-1980s ("Service Industries," n.d., p. 1013).
Finally, social and political impacts will be felt not only on the mail-order industry as it now exists, but on the future forms which it may take. New information technologies, which may play a major role in shaping the future development of the industry, have now entered the broad public consciousness. Terms like "interactive" and "Internet" are now familiar to millions of people who have only a hazy notion of what they mean, or of how they might effect their lives in the future.
The aggregate revenues of Bruce, Dean respondents was $3.5 billion, a mere six percent of the estimated total catalogue revenues of $57.4 billion. If we assume that the firms responding to the survey tended to be larger on average than those that did not, we may infer that the total number of mail-order firms is very much larger than the twelve thousand responding firms. The vast majority of both responding and non-responding firms are thus probably quite small specialty firms.
Moreover, the industry has tended to show little imagination in the development of its most basic asset -- mailing-lists of potential customers. In the past few years, firms have depended overwhelmingly on the rental of other firms' lists as a source of new names. (Indeed, renting out their lists is an important source of income for many mail-order firms.) This tendency of firms to use one another's lists means that more and more catalogues are in effect chasing the same customers, who may begin to experience catalogue burnout. Consumer response rates to catalogues have in fact been declining since the mid-1980s ("Service Industries," n.d., p. 1013).
Finally, social and political impacts will be felt not only on the mail-order industry as it now exists, but on the future forms which it may take. New information technologies, which may play a major role in shaping the future development of the industry, have now entered the broad public consciousness. Terms like "interactive" and "Internet" are now familiar to millions of people who have only a hazy notion of what they mean, or of how they might effect their lives in the future.
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