F. Curtis Barry & Company’s Multichannel Operations & Fulfillment Blog

Can Happiness Improve Your Bottom Line?

At Merit Direct’s annual co-op last week, customer service expert and Happiness Coach JoAnna Brandi delivered an inspiring speech—one that I feel more of us should learn from, as it would lead to higher levels of productivity, retention and overall fulfillment for our companies. I know what you’re thinking: “Hold on there! ‘Happiness Coach’? Are you going soft in the head?” All I can say is, give this a few minutes of your time and see if I can make some sense.

First, some stats:
• 84% of US employees report being unhappy with their jobs; witness 8-9 am Monday morning being the hour for heart attacks.
• Scientists have found that 5:1 is the “magic ratio” of positive to negative experiences that can predict—with remarkable accuracy—everything from workplace performance to divorce. In other words, for every cross word or downer, it takes five “Way to go!”s to reverse the harm done.
• A Gallup poll says less than one third of the workforce is actually engaged in their work. Another recent poll says people who are unhappy take an extra 15 sick days a year. Gallup estimates that disengagement is responsible for $375 billion in lost productivity—and that’s just the direct costs. Add in the indirect costs and some estimates are as high as $1.7 trillion!
• In one of the most authoritative studies to date, 200,000 respondents in 8,000 business units show that outcomes—such as employee turnover, productivity, customer loyalty, and profitability—are all influenced positively by the way managers address the issues of well-being and engagement.

The bottom line is, productivity is lost because people are unhappy at work. When we get employees into something that they like to do—into their zone or flow—their productivity goes through the roof.

I was duly impressed and pledged myself to think through how I might adapt my behavior to take into account some of these principles. I must, however, confess it didn’t take me more than a day or two to hurt someone’s feelings because I was more intent on my productivity than I was in hearing out an employee’s problem. I did ask for their forgiveness and hopefully recovered by addressing it with them and giving them more attention later. In the end, it cost me more time than if I had been patient and helped them to address their concerns initially.

JoAnna Brandi is not saying to ignore reality—and neither am I. She points out that there is a place for negative thinking in business; there are positive uses for pessimism, and times when it’s very important to look at what’s wrong with things. But too much of that puts us in a state where creativity and innovation are impossible. In business, as in marriage, if you want to flourish use that magic ratio: Five positive interactions to every negative one. Spend five times more in positive frames than in negative ones. Give five times more positive than corrective feedback. Psychologists studying peak performing teams observe a HIGH positive to negative ratio of words, questions, facial expressions and body language.

Look at your employees. How many tell you, in various ways, that they are unhappy? How can we balance their needs and skills, improve their fulfillment and better achieve their happiness and our company goals?

And if you want an even more critical bottom line, don’t forget there is a clear link between positive emotions and longevity; optimists live on average 7-9 years longer than pessimists!

I urge you to visit JoAnna’s website at www.customercarecoach.com and blog site www.customercaregoddess.com or download a PDF file of her presentation at www.customercarecoach.com/media/articles/MERIT_2008_JoAnnaBrandi.pdf.

financial and operational planning, customer loyalty, employee turnover, indirect costs, joanna brandi, Multi Channel Business Systems, State of the Industry, strategic, Strategic, Financial and Operational Planning, unhappy at work, workplace performance

ACMA Forum and A Call To Action

Washington, DC June 27, 2008. Ammerican Catalog Mailers Association’s (ACMA) National Catalog Advocacy and Strategy Forum.

Hamilton Davidson, Executive Director, and the Board of ACMA) put together an absolutely effective event for catalogers to have a dialogue with to USPS, Congressional staff, Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) officials and other catalog management.

In a straight forward way catalogers expressed their concerns for rising postal costs, decreased prospecting and response rates and the survivability of their businesses (as well as the industry) if postal costs continue to rise dramatically.

I’m not going to recite a litany of highlights. I want to focus on what I hear we as the catalog industry need to do to bring about change:

1. Three important things: Relationships, relationships, relationships at the local and Congressional level, industry and postal level. It was said many times that unless we inform and relate continually to those with the power for change, nothing will happen. ACMA will be effective at the Washington level. You need to be engaged at the local and Congressional level. Educate your Congressional representative them on what economic benefit you bring to their district in terms of jobs and how a dollar turns in your community. What has been the effect of the postal increases on your costs and profits. Clearly, communicate how fragile profitability is with the increase in costs.

2. Don’t leave it to the other guy. With this whopping postal increase, did you think that other people were taking care of your interests? Are you too busy? Or, you can’t spend the money to work for change? It’s obvious that without significant change, many catalogs will not survive. How about yours?

3. DO NOT MAIL threat. There are 18 states which have legislation – the real threat may be that this fuels a national DO NOT MAIL law much like DO NOT CALL. We need to understand the consumer at a new level and not ignore this threat.

4. Communicate green. Many of us were floored when we realized that we had done nothing to communicate what we had done to show that we are concerned about the environment. Whether it’s the recycling efforts you do at corporate; or communicating the use of soy inks, decreasing the paper weight (which saves tons of paper in many businesses). Put the recycle icon on your catalogs, etc. Let’s be proactive in communicating to the customer our green efforts before others paint us the bad guys as an industry.

I hope you’ll reconsider joining ACMA. They have put in place a foundation upon which to represent the catalog industry in Washington. Call me if you’d like to discuss further.

financial and operational planning, acma, catalogs, catalog industry, catalog mailers, congressional representative, Freight Costs, national catalog, postal regulatory commission, response rates, State of the Industry, strategic, Strategic, Financial and Operational Planning

What If Gasoline Goes to $9.00 Per Gallon?

That was one of the questions futurist Don Libey (www.libey.com) posed to the audience during his presentation at the last VendorNet user conference. You may say that’s absurd! But fuel has already doubled in the past couple of years. Why should those who control the cost of oil give Americans a break?

Libey, who is known to get the audience thinking and groaning about “what might be if……..” has been living in London six months of the year. As many people know, the British and most of Europe have been paying over $9.00 for the equivalent of the US gallon for years.

Europe is a lot different from the US, in many ways. The geographic distance we travel to cover our country is much vaster. The Europeans have well developed mass transportation, where many US cities have elementary means. We were in love with the SUV until recently; now US manufacturers have started to shut down plants dedicated to SUVs. Our roads are full of single passenger cars. We’re already seeing airlines canceling less traveled routes, with ticket prices forecasted to climb. Whether the cause is oil futures speculation, supply constriction, market manipulation, or something else, oil probably will not go down to its old levels.

What would have to change if gasoline went to $9.00 per gallon? High fuel prices may actually cause consumers to favor direct retailing. But it will be a constant battle to keep inbound and outbound shipping costs down so they don’t kill the direct business. Might we as business owners have to shuttle employees from key points to staff distribution or call centers? And oil is the raw material of so many products; with a huge price increase, we will battle inflation.

Readers, how would a doubling of fuel costs change your business and life style?

financial and operational planning, fuel costs, fuel prices, libey, mass transportation, oil futures, outbound shipping, shipping costs, State of the Industry, strategic, Strategic, Financial and Operational Planning

VendorNet Connection User Conference

We attended VendorNet’s conference at the beginning of this month to present a speech and a roundtable on Vendor Compliance Policies. The speech covered:
• Role of vendor compliance in reducing costs and speeding receipts through the DC
• Trends in vendor compliance
• Contents of vendor compliance manuals
• What charge backs companies are implementing
• Where to begin in writing vendor compliance policies
• Who should be involved
• Communication between the retailer and the vendor community

For those of you who don’t know VendorNet (www.vendornet.com), their 100 percent Web-based software solution, VendorNet Commerce Suite, delivers high-speed retailer/supplier collaboration via the Internet, providing real-time transaction visibility to standardize, synchronize, and optimize the flow of order information among supply chain partners.

F. Curtis Barry & Company does not normally endorse vendor software products. But I have to tell you, the customers at the conference clearly felt like VendorNet has a great product. There were a number of actual merchandise vendors at the conference and I had a chance to talk with some of them. Guess what? The vendors love the VendorNet products and services too. Some talked about using other systems that weren’t nearly as straightforward. They liked the ability to follow up on work, and for their clients to communicate messages and status to each other.

The VendorNet user community includes Ballard Designs, Miles Kimball, Exposures, Neiman Marcus, Thompson and Company catalog group, Asset Marketing Services, Norm Thompson, and many others.

My hat is off to Sharon Gardner, co-founder and president, and the staff for an effective conference and great systems and services.

financial and operational planning, compliance manuals, compliance policies, Forecasting & Inventory Management, Freight Costs, Multi Channel Business Systems, Outsourced services, real time, software solution, strategic, Strategic, Financial and Operational Planning, supplier collaboration, supply chain partners, vendornet, vendor community, vendor compliance, Warehousing Distribution Planning

Are you concerned about catalog industry costs?

We want to remind you once again about a very important event, taking place in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, June 26 and Friday, June 27. The American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA) has organized a groundbreaking forum that will bring together key officials of the U.S. Postal Service, the Postal Regulatory Commission and members of Congress for face-to-face discussions with top-level executives of the catalog industry.

Let’s be clear: the National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum is an unprecedented occurrence. ACMA Executive Director Hamilton Davison has put together a schedule that gives catalog decision makers one-on-one access to the very officials who control our industry’s single largest cost center. And Davison pulls no punches about what is at stake: “We as an industry are facing a real risk to the profitability of our businesses in the short and longer term,” he says. “If you are responsible for managing the P&L of your business, why would you not be there?

Davison continues, “this industry does not have a relationship with the Postal Service or the Congress, and we need to have a relationship. Some of the biggest companies already have individual relationships, but I suspect they really want to have all the rest of us in this dialogue—because you can’t have a healthy industry with only a few players.”

ACMA has already gotten some leading catalogers involved, including Crate and Barrel, Gardeners Supply, Williams-Sonoma, Appleseed’s (Orchard Brands), Vermont Country Store, Plow & Hearth, Miles Kimball, Ross-Simons and others, along with many on the supplier side. But to have even greater impact, this forum needs to attract YOU. “We’re going to have a really great turnout from the powers that be in Washington,” Davison points out. “We should really have more senior level industry folks turn out. You can have one-off conversations over a glass of wine—and they’ll get it. We need to make them understand that if we choose, as an industry, to get out of the mail system, this is a preventable event—but the USPS will lose 20 billion pieces of mail and all other mailers will face substantially higher rates if this is not addressed now right now.”

Take a look at the Forum Agenda, and you’ll see just how impressive this event truly is.

National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum

Preliminary Agenda

Thursday, June 26, 2008:

11:30 am Registration open
12:15 pm Lunch served
12:30 pm Introduction and agenda review
12:45 pm Do Not Mail & Catalog Preference Requests panel & discussion
Participants:
Crate and Barrel
Gardeners Supply
Catalog Choice
Direct Marketing Assn
US Postal Service
2:00 pm Afternoon Break
2:15 pm Anita Bizzotto, Chief Marketing Officer, USPS*
3:00 pm Steve Kearney, Vice President, Pricing, USPS*
3:45 pm Marie Therese Dominguez, Vice President Government Relations & Public Policy, USPS*
4:15 pm ACMA Legislative Overview
4:30 pm Dan Blair, Chairman, Postal Regulatory Commission*
5:30 pm Evening Break
5:45 pm Dinner reception for members of the USPS & PRC
9:00 pm After-hours event

Friday, June 27, 2008:

7:30 am Board bus for trip to Capitol Hill
8:00 am Legislative breakfast with Members of Congress
9:30 am Return to hotel
10:00 am ACMA Annual Business meeting & strategy presentation
10:45 am Jack Potter, Postmaster General and CEO, USPS*
11:45 am Pat Donahoe, Deputy PMG and COO, USPS*
12:30 pm Lunch discussion: next steps and plan for further action
1:30 pm Adjournment

* Presentation & Discussion

I urge you to consider attending, and have a direct impact on your company’s—and our industry’s—financial future.

For more information, visit www.catalogmailers.org or contact:

Executive Director: Hamilton Davison
hdavison@catalogmailers.org
Direct telephone: 401-529-8183

Assistant to the Executive Director: Cathy Roden
croden@catalogmailers.org

financial and operational planning, catalog industry, catalog mailers, Freight Costs, Marketing & Merchandising, Multi Channel Business Systems, postal regulatory commission, State of the Industry, strategic, Strategic, Financial and Operational Planning

ACMA’s National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum

Save the Date:
National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum
June 26-27, 2008
Washington, D.C.

The American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA) has been engaged in continuing important discussions on how we can address the current state of affairs in the catalog industry with the USPS, and has been making progress on a number of fronts. These will be covered at the National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, June 26 & Friday, June 27, 2008. The Forum will include the Postmaster General of the U.S. Postal Service, the Chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission and a number of key personnel from both of these important institutions. Non-ACMA members are invited to attend this first-of-its-kind event.

This top-to-top forum, only for catalogers and their key suppliers, is an opportunity to join in dialog with executives of the Postal Service and their Regulator, visit with members of Congress and their key staff members to communicate the value of cataloging and educate policymakers on the critical issues facing our industry, and discuss Do Not Mail and ACMA work on how preference requests are handled by catalogers. Members will also be able to participate in an ACMA annual meeting to vote for officers & directors and get up to date on ACMA’s Program of Work to improve the external environment for cataloging.

ACMA is putting together a “Who’s Who” in postal affairs for the event. “It is critical we have a strong showing from the industry of top executives, owners and thought leaders to make our voice heard,” says Hamilton Davison, Executive Director of ACMA. “Representation from ownership and C-level executives in ACMA’s membership will, in and of itself, speak volumes,” adds Davison, who urges everyone to “pull a colleague or two from another company to attend with you.” Explains Davison, “When a bunch of CEO types descend on our nation’s capital with the same agenda, it gets noticed. Your participation will show the USPS and PRC through your action that you are committed to keeping the mail open for your products. Your questions and comments will reinforce the points I have been making that this is now difficult and proposed changes threaten to make it harder. Your passion and intensity will convey that this industry has terrific growth potential if properly managed, even though the last two years has taken us in completely the wrong direction.”

Please also help generate catalog industry participation from other companies by spreading the word about this Advocacy Forum to your network. This is an important opportunity to do something to help control the external environment that impacts your company’s financial performance for the future!

For more information, visit www.catalogmailersforum.org or contact:

Executive Director: Hamilton Davison
hdavison@catalogmailers.org
Direct telephone: 401-529-8183

Assistant to the Executive Director: Cathy Roden
croden@catalogmailers.org

financial and operational planning, acma, catalog postage cost, Freight Costs, Marketing & Merchandising, Multi Channel Business Systems, National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum, State of the Industry, strategic, Strategic, Financial and Operational Planning, usps, Vendor Press Releases

Is There a Wall Between IT and the Rest of the Company?

Here’s the picture: A multichannel company with sales of $20 million has an aging order management system that has been in place for over 20 years. While there are some things that the users like about it, they have basically outgrown the system. They need far better marketing information, e-commerce site to business systems interfaces, forecasting and inventory management, and the ability to deal better with light manufacturing and tracking sets and kits, which are a major part of their business.

The president authorizes a project to investigate replacing the system. Immediately a turf battle ensues. IT is already researching the Internet for the most technically up-to-date IT platform. The users’ comments are predictable: “They’ll pick the most expensive, technology-driven system out there regardless of whether it fits our business.” There is a proverbial glass wall between the two groups in many companies.

The outcome: After months of no progress, the president shrinks from his responsibility and says, “We’ll keep the current system.”

Unfortunately, this scene is played out on a daily basis in many companies both large and small. In defense of the IT department, they are often given responsibility for everything from telephone systems, to help desk, to advanced WMS systems, e-commerce systems and e-mail systems. Most often they are under budgeted. Management backs into a percent to net sales that the company can afford to spend. Additionally, the technology is diverse, complex and represents generations of different languages, databases and standards.

But in defense of the users, IT more and more takes a technological point of view rather than a business perspective. By a “business perspective” I mean that, in many cases, IT no longer knows the company’s business—not the mechanical things like how to enter an order. They lack knowledge of the industry overall. And they lack the understanding of how to help you grow and manage your business. Examples include details about what will make your marketing more effective; what do the merchants need to plan, grow and evaluate their merchandise selection; and how to help operations become more efficient. In many companies, IT often looks at application function as secondary to technology. Additionally, they hide behind a lot of technical jargon that pushes users away from them.

And systems software vendor salesmen are no better off. Gone is the day when talented sales and support people really understood the industry. Many barely know their company’s system, and many can’t even demonstrate their system without the aid of a support analyst.

The result of all this is a collection of negatives.

A technically advanced system or a system that fits the IT standard is selected. It may be a weak system from a business perspective. Technology by itself rarely gives an ROI.

The IT department’s lack of a business focus means that users don’t ever make high-level use of the systems in place, because they don’t know what applications and capabilities exist in commercial systems or in previous generations of in-house developed systems.

Another result is that there isn’t a partnership between the user departments and IT, which optimizes the full, untapped potential of IT. The company suffers because the rather large investments in critical applications don’t materialize or they are years off of the projection.

Tear down the wall
You will have to start thinking differently in order to change things.

Is there failure to recognize problems with IT? This amounts to costly neglect. Ask, is IT an expensive utility or a necessity in your company? Your management team and IT need to have a clear understanding of the mission and charter of IT, to provide information systems that assist in company profit and growth.
Is there failure to get IT to realize its role in the future of the business? Put IT management in place that understands the bigger picture of your business and the information that is required to manage and grow it.
Is there failure to make your IT director an equal partner in your strategic planning process? There must be exposure to the company’s direction and an understanding of where IT plays the crucial role. Get IT buy-in early rather than just handing them a list of requests after many months of meetings.
Is there failure to fully utilize IT resources? Develop internally, or hire, business analysts who are interested and dedicated to maximizing the user community’s use of the systems.
Is there failure to hold users accountable? Don’t let the users hide behind IT flaws and shortcomings. They should know the business and they need to take responsibility for understanding the applications with which they’ve been provided.

Outside resources can help your company make this transition. In our consulting assignments, we have successfully assisted companies in making these types of sea changes.

We believe that IT—for good or bad (and ineffectiveness is certainly bad)—governs the productivity and profitability of this industry. How well is your company tapping its potential?

Curt Barry is president of F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and warehouse consulting company. Helping you understand how to reduce freight costs is just one of the ways we can help your multichannel business.

consulting, Information Technology, IT, Multi Channel Business Systems, multichannel company, warehouse consulting

70 Ways to Reduce Costs, Increase Productivity and Improve Customer Service

Cost Reduction and Productivity Improvement Assessment
70+ Ways to Reduce Costs, Increase Productivity and Improve Customer Service
By Curt Barry

Over the past 23 years F. Curtis Barry & Company’s work with multichannel companies in operations and fulfillment consulting has allowed us to compile these 70+ ways that can cut costs and increase productivity, which will ultimately lead to an improvement in customer service. We have focused our cost reduction and productivity assessment efforts in the following four major areas:

Contact Center (Call Center)
Scheduling and staffing models, service levels and technology in the call center are all affected by the increasing eCommerce order volumes. What are the ways to be more efficient and serve the customer better from the contact center? Learn how to reduce costs and increase productivity in your contact center.

Warehouse & Distribution
With most companies coming out of a less than perfect holiday season, there is a real need to increase productivity without having to make major capital purchases to do so. Discover ways to reduce your warehouse cost per order, increase capacity without expansion and improve service levels.

Forecasting & Inventory Management
Inventory is most companies’ largest balance sheet asset. How it’s managed determines customer service and profitability. Learn ways to improve the management and forecasting of inventory.

Multichannel Business Systems
Order management, warehouse, e-commerce and inventory management systems are at the heart of the company. These systems affect the productivity and sales of all departments including merchandising, marketing, fulfillment and contact center. Investigate ways to plan for, select and implement effective Multichannel Business Systems.

We ask that you please consider using F. Curtis Barry & Company’s consulting services to tailor a cost reduction and productivity improvement assessment to your company’s needs in order to evaluate, develop and implement these improvements and cost reduction practices.

Download the PDF: 70 Ways to Reduce Costs, Increase Productivity and Improve Customer Service

For more information contact Jeff Barry at 804-740-8743 or email jbarry@fcbco.com.

financial and operational planning, Call Center Services, customer service, Forecasting & Inventory Management, increase productivity, Multi Channel Business Systems, productivity improvement, reduce costs, strategic, Strategic, Financial and Operational Planning, Warehousing Distribution Planning

National Wildlife Customer Alert

It has been seven weeks since BlueSky Brands shut down operations, stranding a number of catalog and e-commerce businesses. Now we’ve received an e-mail that the National Wildlife Federation sent to customers who have purchased items directly from the Federation.

Here’s what the e-mail said:

“There are still many opportunities to receive great wildlife and nature-themed merchandise when you support National Wildlife Federation!

Previously the National Wildlife Federation’s name and logo was licensed to National Wildlife Direct, a separate, unrelated company that offered nature-themed products and gifts. Unfortunately, National Wildlife Direct recently closed its doors and is no longer in operation.

However, we know how much you love helping wildlife and our environment while you shop. Watch your email in-box to find out about new offers coming directly from the National Wildlife Federation such as:

• Carry-all Bags: Handy totes, field bags, backpacks and more
• Outdoor Gear: Umbrellas, windbreakers, fleece jackets, beach towels and blankets
• Animal Adoption Gifts: A special Wildlife Adoption Center with many items to choose from. Receive an adorable plush with each symbolic adoption
• Products just for Bird Lovers: Unique bird feeders, bird-watching kits and binoculars
• Gardening Gifts: Gardening totes, how-to books and tools
• Educational Gifts for your Favorite Children: Magazines that help connect children with nature
• And more!
And the best part is, your gifts directly fund the vital conservation programs of National Wildlife Federation.

We appreciate your love of wildlife, the environment and outdoors.”

As you can see, NWF mentions that BlueSky Brands had licensed their name and is no longer in business. Here is the scoop that I got from the head of Customer Service at NWF:

The catalog, of course, is closed down indefinitely. If existing customers of the catalog/website have outstanding orders, they can call 800-822-9919 or e-mail info@nwf.org. NWF will talk them through what they need to do to resolve the situation. They will not receive the product they ordered. If they ordered via credit card, they will be told to dispute the charge through the bank or credit card company. If payment was via check, they will not receive a refund until the issue with BSB is resolved.

The products mentioned in the e-mail are already sent out to people who sign up for memberships in NWF. These products are distributed via a 3PF vendor that they have been using for some time.

We applaud NWF for stepping up to help these customers, even though it was not their actions that caused the disaster. Such a possibility is always present when you license your name and don’t have direct control over others’ actions.

Jeff Barry is marketing manager of F. Curtis Barry & Co. – we are catalog consultants working with multichannel businesses to improve warehouse operations through the assessment and implementation of warehouse management systems and careful benchmarking of strategic metrics.

animal adoption, BlueSky Brands, children magazines, conservation programs, e commerce businesses, Marketing & Merchandising, Multi Channel Business Systems, national wildlife federation, Outsourced services, State of the Industry

Are We Trying to Make a Broken Business Model Work?

At our recent Executive Forum we talked about how rising postage costs, increasing paper costs and the fall off in prospecting response rates have radically changed the traditional catalog business model. While there are large, efficient catalogs that spend in the high 20-percents on the total cost to create and mail catalogs, many businesses are paying 30% to 35% of net sales. Postage will continue to go up.

List prospecting has declined for 10 years and has been dismal for many companies. Some attendees felt that the co-op databases, while they developed responsive lists and expanded circulation for the membership, may in the long run have eroded response rates as customers are receiving too many pieces of mail.

When you look at major expense categories, other than merchandise purchases, the total marketing cost is the major expense—well ahead of fulfillment and G&A overhead combined. To turn around company profitability, the industry has got to get more prospects and sales at a lower cost than we are used to with the traditional catalog model.

But the real question is this: are we, in the catalog industry, relying on a broken business model? And is the old traditional catalog business model one that can be fixed? We have had occasion to work with a couple dozen Internet pure plays in the past year. None of them use catalogs. Granted, they are all smaller companies. But they generate traffic to their sites with search engine optimization (SEO), mostly organic rather than paid search.

How much money are you spending on SEO? If the traditional business is broken, is that expenditure enough to push your company to more financial viability? In talking with clients, I’ve found very few who are experienced and comfortable with this new electronic media and can decrease their dependence on print catalogs.

How is your experience—good or bad—with SEO? Post your experiences, and let’s learn from each other.

Curt Barry is president of F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm for catalog, e-commerce, and retail businesses. We offer clients expertise in business process and order management systems, inventory management systems, warehouse management systems; warehousing and distribution; contact center services; inventory management and forecasting solutions; and strategic, financial, and operational planning for all business channels.

financial and operational planning, business model, catalog circulation, catalogs, catalog business, circulation, co op databases, databases, executive forum, expense categories, Forecasting & Inventory Management, Freight Costs, Marketing & Merchandising, marketing cost, merchandise purchases, paper costs, postage costs, response rates, State of the Industry, strategic, Strategic, Financial and Operational Planning, traditional catalog model, traditional catalog