Old-fashioned paper page views will be ringing up sales along with digital page views this holiday season. According to a new survey by Kurt Salmon, a global retail consultancy, 86% of survey respondents bought an item after first seeing it in a printed catalog. More than half of online shoppers said they browse catalogs, and almost a third who make an Internet purchase have a catalog on hand when they click “buy,” per the survey. And the catalog impact isn't limited by age group: Shoppers between the ages of 18 and 24 are as likely to use one as those between 45 and 54. In a recent article in Business Week magazine, Artemis Berry, vice president at Shop.org, the digital group of the National Retail Foundation, points out that printed catalogs retain a key role in retail marketing in part because of more efficient mailing list targeting and distribution. Today's improved data use ensures that a Victoria’s Secret catalog is not mailing to the homes of single men, for example. For more on catalog trends, see http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-07/why-the-analog-catalog-still-drives-digital-sales
