The Mouse is Mightier Than the Pen

February sales results for J. Crew (New York) revealed that for the first time, the company's web sales eclipsed its catalog sales. Though Crew started out as a catalog retailer, it now derives most of its sales from a growing chain of bricks-and-mortar locations. But the $13.1 million worth of goods the company sold online during the month surpassed catalog sales of $10.7 million.

The milestone points to the continuing online progress of the biggest catalog marketers. “These companies previously did the web with training wheels,” said Kate Delhagen, a retail analyst with Forrester Research, a technology consulting company. “Now they are riding the bike — they're optimizing.”

Perhaps one key to such success lies in attracting new customers through the Internet, not just shifting catalog shoppers to the new medium. Also, said David Towers, J. Crew vp for e-commerce, the average J. Crew order size was bigger on the web than through the catalog, “mostly because we're able to do things online that we can't do with the catalog.” An example is “up-selling,” the online equivalent of asking “Do you need a belt with those pants?” Since a redesign in October, the J. Crew web site automatically shows photos of matching shirts or belts when a customer places a pair of jeans into her shopping cart.