In the latest quarterly ‘ACRS Shopper Report’, catalogues demonstrate their value: tracked in terms of audience readership, channel usage, channel purpose and drivers of shopping behavior.
As a valuable source of information, 74 per cent of shoppers use catalogues ‘always to sometimes’ when making purchasing decisions and looking for information. Despite the growth in online purchasing, the survey results found catalogue purchasing remains stable over the next 12 months with 71 per cent of shoppers reporting they would use catalogues in the same way as they do now and 15 per cent stating they would increase their use.
Forty-two per cent of shoppers use catalogues for general information and 46 per cent use them for price comparisons. Just behind the internet, catalogues are more likely to be used than in-store when seeking product information and for price comparisons. Digital media indicate the weaker channels with social media ranked 19 per cent for general information and five per cent for price comparison, tablets reported 20 per cent for general information and 22 per cent for price comparison.
“With an audience reach of 19.7 million and a national distribution volume of seven billion, the latest ACRS research further highlights the strength of catalogues as a performing print media,” Australasian Catalogue Association CEO Kellie Northwood said.
“The ACRS behavioural tracking highlighted, on average, shoppers choose to read catalogues to find competitive prices and chase bargains. In the comfort of their own home consumers will often read catalogues for enjoyment and prefer reading them more frequently, with an advertorial design, as their most preferred style of catalogue.”
Catalogue readership strengthens as 33 per cent of respondents read at least four to 10 of them a month and a further 20 per cent will read 10 or more a month. In total, 88 per cent of respondents read at least one catalogue a month.