Opting Out of Catalogs

Since the launch of Catalogchoice.org in October, the website claims to have signed up nearly a quarter-million consumers who have declined to receive about 2.6 million catalogs.

Catalog Choice is a sponsored project of the Ecology Center, a Berkley, California-based nonprofit.

According to the Kansas City Star, "Analysts say that many merchants are monitoring the web site, weighing whether it might benefit them. Fifty already have opened accounts in active support of the movement, including catalog giants L.L. Bean, Lands' End, Brookstone and Tiffany & Co.

Al Bessin, a consulting partner with Lenser, which advises the catalog industry, said that higher paper and postal costs — and a drop in response rates — make the old approach of mailing thousands of phone-book thick catalogs to everyone a waste of time and money.

The question now for catalog companies, Bessin said, is how to "put your best foot forward" and reach consumers whose behavior will be triggered to go online or to the mall to buy an item they see in a catalog."