UK Catalogues.org.uk

Welcome to a page dedicated to mail order and catalogue companies. We will aim to list all the major companies, with detailed information about the costs, pros and cons of their publications. Long-term we also hope to list the various offers they produce from month to month.

So what is a mail-order catalogue (catalog - for US)?, well it's a publication which either contains a selection or a full list of merchandise on sale from a company. Whilst some manufacturers do create catalogues or small sales flyers for their products, the major players buy branded or rebranded products to sell.

The typical business of a catalogue is exemplified by Freemans. Using a warehouse to stock the goods, most goods are sold on credit, with agents used to market and distribute the illustrated catalogue. Quite a few companies (Betterware) also use their agents to collect the order forms, then distribute and collect payment for the order.

Whilst Freemans began with the same model Betterware currently use, once they started competing with the leading department stores they needed to use a professional courier service to deliver the larger consumer goods. Some companies also began to charge when they started to produce full-colour, 1,000-plus page catalogues. The cost of creating full colour images page after page is an expensive process. Freemans still charge £2.99.

A major criticism of catalogues presently is the environmental issue. With some companies releasing and posting flyers week after week, most of which get binned, the waste of paper is a major concern to some households. To combat this quite a few mail order companies now include instructions and encourage recycling with sound disposal. Appropriate compliance schemes can be found at sites such as catalogue recycling and waste online.

The World Wide Web now represents a great opportunity for these companies, not only can they save money by producing less full colour publications, but they can satisfy the environmental brigade at the same time. The speed by which people can order is also increased, posting or telephoning an order takes longer and is more work and inconvenience.

Privacy Policy

The information contained within this site is general in nature, and may not be applicable to all catalogue companies. We can also not guarantee the accuracy of the information.