Catalog merchant

A catalog merchant (catalogue merchant in Commonwealth English) or catalog showroom is a form of retailing in which consumers select items from a catalog, inspect display samples in a public showroom, then submit written orders for immediate fulfillment from an attached warehouse which is closed to the public. The typical catalog merchant sells a wide variety of household and personal products, with many emphasizing jewelry. Unlike most retail formats, the vast majority of the merchandise remains in the warehouse space and is therefore immune to shoplifting because it cannot be touched by consumers outside of the presence of a cashier.

Description

This retail format flourished in the 1970s as an attempt to combine the atmosphere of a department store with the convenience of reviewing a mail order catalog at one's leisure and the convenience and savings to be obtained from buying at a local discount store.

A consumer can search a mail order catalog for a particular product much more efficiently than walking around a department store and speaking with salespersons, but mail order has the drawbacks of very high per-item shipping costs, very slow fulfillment, and the inability to inspect the product until it arrives. Discount stores usually place their merchandise on self-service shelves open to the public where consumers can inspect the goods and then purchase and carry away a desired product that very day, but they suffer greatly from shoplifting. Full-service department stores provide a pleasant shopping atmosphere and have salespersons on the floor to provide quick service, but the consumer then has to deal with salespersons' tactics (e.g., hard sell, soft sell) and must pay higher prices to cover all that overhead.

A catalog showroom avoids all these issues. The consumer first searches the catalog at home at their leisure, and identifies products to see in person. The consumer then visits a local catalog showroom to inspect display samples of those products.