Early catalogues In 1498, the publisher
Aldus Manutius of Venice printed a catalogue of the books he was printing. In 1667, the English
gardener William Lucas published a seed catalogue, which he mailed to his customers to inform them of his prices. Catalogues spread to
British America, where
Benjamin Franklin is believed to have been the first cataloguer. In 1744 he produced a catalogue of scientific and academic books. In 1833, Antonio Fattorini started a mail order watch club in Bradford, which would eventually transform into Empire Stores.
First mail order The Welsh entrepreneur
Pryce Pryce-Jones set up the first mail-order company in 1861. Starting off as an apprentice to a local draper in
Newtown, Wales, he took over the business in 1856 and renamed it the Royal Welsh Warehouse, selling local Welsh
flannel. It was an ideal way of meeting the needs of customers in isolated
rural locations who were either too busy or unable to get into Newtown to shop directly. This was the world's first mail order business, an idea which would change the nature of
retail in the coming century. The further expansion of the railways in the years that followed allowed Pryce Jones to greatly expand his customer base and his business grew rapidly. He supplied his products to an impressive variety of famous clientele, including
Florence Nightingale and
Queen Victoria, the
Princess of Wales and royal households across Europe. One of his most popular products was the
Euklisia Rug, the forerunner of the modern sleeping bag, which Pryce-Jones exported around the world, at one point landing a contract with the
Russian Army for 60,000 rugs. By 1880, he had more than 100,000 customers in the UK alone and his success was rewarded in 1887 with a knighthood.
In North America catalogue, published in 1884. The Eaton's catalogue would continue to be published until 1976. In 1845,
Tiffany's Blue Book was the first mail-order catalogue in the United States. In 1872,
Aaron Montgomery Ward of Chicago produced a mail-order catalogue for his
Montgomery Ward mail order business. By buying goods and then reselling them directly to customers, Aaron Montgomery Ward was consequently removing the middlemen at the general store and to the benefit of the customer, lowering the prices drastically.
Hammacher Schlemmer is the earliest still surviving mail-order business, established by
Alfred Hammacher in New York City in 1848. Offering mechanic's tools and builder's hardware, its first catalogue was published in 1881. T. Eaton Co. Limited was founded in 1869 in
Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an Irish immigrant. The first
Eaton's catalogue was a 34-page booklet issued in 1884. As Eaton's grew, so did the catalogue. By 1920, Eaton's operated mail order warehouses in Winnipeg, Toronto and Moncton to serve its catalogue customers. Catalogue order offices were also established throughout the country, with the first opening in Oakville in 1916.
Sears Richard Warren Sears started a business selling watches through mail order catalogues in
Redwood Falls, Minnesota, in 1888. By 1894, the Sears catalogue had grown to 322 pages, featuring
sewing machines,
bicycles,
sporting goods,
automobiles (produced from 1905–1915 by
Lincoln Motor Car Works of Chicago, not related to the current
Ford Motor Company brand of the same name) and a host of other new items. Organizing the company so it could handle orders on an economical and efficient basis, Chicago clothing manufacturer
Julius Rosenwald became a part-owner in 1895. By the following year,
dolls,
refrigerators,
stoves and
groceries had been added to the catalog. Sears, Roebuck and Co. soon developed a reputation for high quality products and customer satisfaction. By 1895, the company was producing a 532-page catalogue with the largest variety of items that anybody at the time could have imagined. "In 1893, the sales topped 400,000 dollars. Two years later they exceeded 750,000 dollars." In 1906 Sears opened its catalogue plant and the
Sears Merchandise Building Tower. And by that time, the Sears catalogue had become known in the industry as "the Consumers' Bible". In 1933, Sears, Roebuck and Co. produced the first of its famous Christmas catalogues known as the "
Sears Wishbook", a catalogue featuring toys and gifts and separate from the annual Christmas catalogue. From 1908 to 1940, Sears also sold
kit houses by mail order, selling 70,000 to 75,000 such homes, many of which are still lived in today.
Industrialization , American magazine advertisement from 1916 offering mail delivery of fish and seafood By creating a direct marketing industry through the mail order catalogue,
Pryce Pryce-Jones and
Aaron Montgomery Ward enabled the creation of a powerful global network that came to include everything from mail order, to telemarketing and social media. Mail order changed the worldwide marketplace by introducing the concept of privacy and individuality into the retail industry. Today, the mail order catalogue industry is worth approximately 100 billion dollars With the success of the catalogue business, Moores moved his business four times to larger buildings in 1932. Moores sailed to America to look at the operations of Montgomery Ward and Sears and Roebuck. By 1936, the business had hit the 4 million pound mark, making Moores a millionaire a second time over, by mail order.
Catalogues through the ages File:NEHA tulip book p.003 Switsers.jpg|Hand-painted page from a
Tulip Catalogue, 1630s File:Findlay and Co. -Findlay and Co's illustrated catalogue of cottages, doors, sashes, mouldings, architraves, and every description of furnishings for building purposes. Steam saw and planing mills, (21049534156).jpg|Cover of Findlay and Co's
Illustrated Catalogue of Cottages, Doors, Sashes, Mouldings, Architraves, and Every Description of Furnishings for Building Purposes, 1874 File:Illustrated Catalogue of Cottage Organs (1875), J. Estey & Company (Brattleboro, Vermont).pdf|
Illustrated Catalogue of Cottage Organs, J. Estey & Company, Vermont, 1875 File:Fall and Winter, 1890-91 Fashion Catalogue - H. O'Neill and Co. (1890) (14804977333).jpg|
Fashion Catalogue, H. O'Neill and Co., 1890 File:Catalogue of seeds, plants, bulbs and fruits (1894) (20575408742).jpg|Page from
Catalogue of Seeds, Plants, Bulbs and Fruits, 1894 File:Arthur Yates and Co. Ltd, Auckland -(Pansies). Yates' nursery catalogue. 1899. Front cover). (21662791745).jpg|Cover of Arthur Yates and Co.'s
Nursery and Seed Catalogue, Auckland, NZ, 1899 File:Catalogue (1902) (19944767254).jpg|Page from Henry G. Gilbert's
Nursery and Seed Trade Catalogue, Kentucky, 1902
Wunderman Mail order had always relied on the innovative technique of selling products
directly to the consumer at appealing prices,
Rise of e-commerce With the invention of the Internet, a company's website became the more usual way to order merchandise for delivery by mail. Unless the retailer provides a paper catalogue from which to order, that is if the products are mainly presented to and searched for by the customer on a web site or mobile app, the term "mail order" is rarely used to describe the ordering of goods over the Internet. It is more usual to refer to this as
e-commerce or online shopping. Online shopping allows more detailed information (including audio and video) to be presented, and allows for faster ordering than by mailed form (though phone orders are also common for mail-order catalogues). Most traditional mail order companies now also sell over the Internet, in some cases with a PDF or tablet application which allows shoppers to browse an electronic catalog that resembles a paper one very closely, though by the late 2010s this has become increasingly rare, and product information is presented in a format designed for the Web and mobile apps, rather than a PDF. Rising paper, printing, and postage costs have caused some traditional catalogue merchants, such as
Bloomingdale's, to suspend their printed catalogues and sell only through websites. Also, while some Internet merchants are or were also catalogue merchants, many have never had a printed catalogue.
Catalogue publishing Year Mail Order Catalogues were founded •
Tiffany's Blue Book: 1845 (US) •
Thonet brothers 1859 (GER) •
Royal Welsh Warehouse 1861 (UK) •
Montgomery Ward: 1872 (US) •
FAO Schwarz: 1876 (US) •
Hammacher Schlemmer: 1881 (US; claims to be the longest-running catalogue in the U.S.) •
Eaton's: 1884 (Canada) •
Kastner & Öhler: 1885 (Austria) •
Sears: 1888 (US) •
Kays Catalogues: 1889 (UK) •
Universal Stores: 1900 (UK) •
Freemans: 1905 (UK) •
Spiegel Inc. 1905 (US) • Empire: 1907 (UK) •
Grattan: 1912 (UK) •
Johnson Smith Company: 1907 (US) •
L.L.Bean: 1912 (US) •
Lane Bryant: 1917 (US) •
Eddie Bauer: 1920 (US) •
La Redoute: 1922 (France) •
Quelle: 1927 (Germany) •
SS Adams Company: 1920s (US) •
Littlewoods: 1932 (UK) •
Neiman Marcus: 1939 (US) •
Scholastic: 1940 (US) •
Vermont Country Store: 1945 (US) •
Spencer Gifts: 1947 (US) • Walter Drake: 1947 (US) •
Neckermann: 1950 (Germany) •
Lillian Vernon: 1951 (US) •
Ikea: 1951 • Taylor Gifts: 1952 (US) •
Simpsons-Sears: 1953 (Canada) - a partnership of Sears with the pre-existing Simpson's chain •
Otto: 1949 (Germany) •
JC Penney: 1963 (US) •
Quill Corporation: 1963 (US) •
Lego: 1966 •
Whole Earth Catalog: 1968 (US) • Carol Wright Gifts: 1972 (US) •
Victoria's Secret: 1977 (US) •
Sharper Image: 1977 (US) • Dr Leonard's Healthcare Corp: 1980 (US) •
Hallmark: 1979 (US) •
Toys R Us Big Book: 1980 (US) •
J.Crew: 1983 (US) •
Archie McPhee: 1984 (US) •
Next: 1988 (UK) •
Staples Direct: 1988 (US) •
Previews/Diamond: 1988 (US) •
SkyMall: 1990 (US) •
Scotts of Stow: 1992 (UK) •
Delia's: 1993 (US) •
Abercrombie & Fitch: 1997 (US) •
Urban Outfitters: 2003 (US) •
Westport Big & Tall: 2006 (US) ==Taxes==