Companies can adapt their catalog revenue model online by replacing or supplementing their print catalogs with information on their Web sites. True False

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Ariel Branch

Business

Today, 10:12

Companies can adapt their catalog revenue model online by replacing or supplementing their print catalogs with information on their Web sites. True False

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Jessica Livingston · Answer 1

Companies can adapt their catalog revenue model online by replacing or supplementing their print catalogs with information on their Web sites. True.

Explanation:

Many companies sell goods and services on the Web using an adaptation of a mail-order catalog revenue model that is more than 100 years old. In 1872, a traveling salesman named Aaron Montgomery Ward started selling dry goods to farmers through a one-page list.

Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck began mailing catalogs to farmers and small-town residents in 1895. Both Montgomery Ward (which closed in 2001) and Sears, Roebuck & Company grew to become dominant retailers in the United States by the 1950s, with retail stores serving urban markets in addition to the catalog business that served their rural and small-town markets.

Companies can take this catalog model online by replacing or supplementing their print catalogs with information on their Web sites. When the catalog model is expanded this way, it is often called the Web catalog revenue model. Customers can place orders through the Web site or by telephone.

Although these fears are less prevalent today, most companies that use the Web catalog revenue model successfully do give customers a way to complete the payment part of the transaction by telephone or by mail.

Many of the most successful Web catalog sales businesses are firms that were already operating in the mail-order business and simply expanded their operations to the Web.

Other companies that use the Web catalog revenue model adopted it after realizing that the products they sold in their physical stores could also be sold on the Web. This additional sales outlet did not require them to build additional stores, yet provided access to customers throughout the world. Types of businesses using the Web catalog revenue model include sellers of computers and consumer electronics; books, music, and videos; luxury goods; clothing; flowers and gifts; and general discount merchandise.