This is NOT one of those articles full of predictions for the coming year. Frankly, with so much happening in the world of retail, marketing and catalogue design (our area), we find trying to stay on top of all the trends such articles suggest we should be on top of, all a bit daunting. If not downright intimidating.

Right about now, retailers around the world are planning their Xmas Catalogues. And some are planning not to have one at all. So what are the pros and cons of catalogues? Are you for them or against them? What's the risk of going all online?

One of marketing's toughest decisions these days is choosing the right channel to place content into the customers' hands, none more so than the debate between digital and traditional, "old-school" media.

Luring to store, keeping them there, upselling and cross-selling. That's been the goal of every retailer since Adam asked Eve "would you like fries with that?"

So when Urban Outfitters opened their new midtown Manhattan Herald Square store it was a chance to make a real statement.

We've been helping Freedom produce sales-boosting, award-winning catalogues and content for over 30 years. While it is probably way too early to pronounce the demise of the printed catalogue per se*, online catalogues have certainly become an increasingly significant part of the catalogue landscape.

Like anybody in marketing these days, I'm keen to make sure I'm up with the general trends at the leading edge of digital commerce. 

But two articles just published (on the same day!) had me carefully looking to definitions and distinctions to try and make sense of what's happening with M-Commerce in the near future.Given that the same organisation (Forrester) contributes comments to both articles is even more confusing!

We ran a Short News article in the last Toolbox which appeared logical on the face of it and backed up commonly held perceptions of the death of shopping centres - "Sears and JC Penney Deserting Already Struggling Malls". But that really did shopping centres and their operators a great dis-service.

This case study looks at how CAS client Howards Storage World changed their marketing strategy from product-centric to content-rich - and the results they achieved.

Here's an idea you might be able to work with when you're thinking about creating customer engagement - for your next catalogue, online web content, ad promotion - whatever.

If you could get your customer to spend 15-20 minutes with your marketing material I bet you'd be more than happy. That's what one UK online retailer is finding with the catalogs they are sending their customers.

Macy's has been one of the great retail success stories of the last decade, but particularly since the GFC and the rise of online retail.

With 800 stores under the Macy's and Bloomingdale's brands, CEO Terry Lundgren has driven Macy's share price to 450% up on 2008, four times the S&P500 index. And, probably a linked metric, Macy's is now the 10th largest internet retailer by revenue after Netflix.

With share price double the IPO listing in November 2012 and surging a whopping 14% two weeks ago, everyone wants to know what Restoration Hardware is doing so right

In two separate recent articles, leading online retailers are reported as turning to the use of hard copy printed material, to increase sales. 

Whether in the form of product catalogues or more elaborate, editorial style "magalogues" featuring products available on their sites, these e-tailers see print as both another touchpoint and as a "bridge" to those on their customer data base who may not be regular visitors to their sites but who still enjoy the convenience of shopping at home. 

"We're meeting customers where they shop," said Wayfair's GM of merchandising for lifestyle brands.

Toronto's recent DX3 conference showed off some of the new technologies that tech savvy retailers can now apply to give their customers a better instore experience.

The nice guy of German retail, Michael Otto is under attack from Jeff Bezos' Amazon. And right now, he's losing.

Forbes Magazine takes you through a short history of the Otto company (including CEO Michael Otto's beginnings in the catalogue business - hence our initial interest in the story) and then poses the question: Can a family-owned retail giant run by a paternalistic billionaire compete with the efficiency-obsessed behemoths born of the cut-throat Internet? Do nice guys finish last?

Sucharita Mulpuru is Forrester's Principal Analyst and when she speaks, marketers listen.

For the first time, John Lewis and its stable-mate Waitrose have overtaken Marks & Spencer as the darling of the UK's High Street.

The recent Australian Centre for Retail Studies Breakfast Seminar gave lucky delegates a concise insight into a number of trends Dr Sean Sands identified out of the January 2014 National Retail Federation Big Show in New York.

Cost-of-entry tenets like "keep the customer at the centre of your thinking" and "deliver on the promise of omnichannel" might still resound but Stores Magazine has made its 7 key predictions of what it sees "in store" (their terrible pun) for US retailers in 2014.

If you want a great example of content marketing you need look no further than US online furniture and homewares retailer pure-play One Kings Lane.

In an age where there are new acronyms coined every week I don't feel compelled to disseminate all of them. Unless, of course it makes sense. And, having discussed this with a number of other marketers over the last few months or so, the ZMOT ("Zero Moment Of Truth") is a concept which has resonated increasingly.

There's no doubt that in the last 10 years or so the headline battle has gone to the Online guys. Disruptive technology tends to do that. "12,000% change in online spending last 20 years" is a headline I'm yet to see but I'm expecting to any day now.

"Uber Digitals", as Cisco calls them, are the 18% of mobile users who use their mobile devices in-store. This group has doubled in size since Cisco's previous study of retail behaviours last year.

Retail Concept Excellence: Best Made Company, New York

Every now and again, in our quest to keep our clients and readers abreast of what is happening in the big wide world of retail, catalogues and content, we come across an out of the box retailer who we just have to tell you about.

The Millennials are expected to outspend Baby Boomers by 2017 and by 2030 will have larger spending power than all other generations combined.

Here are some recent US articles we've sourced which might help you understand and market to them more successfully:

The success of QR codes has been somewhat patchy but 2 developments will drive their uptake - increased user base of Smartphones and Google glass (it will also help if you have some good content for the viewer when they make the effort to engage with you! - CAS ed).

The Problem We had To Solve

For the past 10 years we had produced iconic annual catalogues for Howards Storage World, each year becoming more sophisticated and solution-centric for the Howards customer.

In late 2011, Howards approached us to take their catalogue online.

Analytics regarding “mobiles” as a category have always annoyed the hell out of me.

A recent Roy Morgan study shows that Australians still have a high regard for the usefulness of catalogues

With so much attention on digital media these days it almost seems a little retro to be writing about print catalogs but Bloomingdale’s have released

Spanish Chef Miguel Maestre has been appointed as the latest face of the Howards' Kitchen campaign – Spice Up Your Kitchen. The Cumming's team designed and produced the video which launched this event on their website.

Long feared by bricks and mortar retailers as yet another weapon used by online, it would seem that showrooming is not as big a threat as first feared. In fact it's a great opportunity.

Australian retailers have always been fond of print catalogues and now Roy Morgan has given us the numbers that show why. According to a report released end December 2012, it seems that even in the digital age, this hard-working, traditional tool is valued highly by all age groups from 61% in the 14-24 group through to 75% in the 50+.