The convenience of catalog shopping: Is there more to it than time?

Abstract

There is little doubt that one of the important motivations behind direct marketing patronage is convenience. Convenience has traditionally been conceptualized as a time-dominated phenomenon, yet much of the research that attempts to link demographic surrogates of time-constrained individuals/households with direct marketing patronage has shown only weak relationships. This paper reexamines the nature of convenience in the context of direct marketing patronage behavior. It reveals that an important oversight regarding convenience is that it consists not only of a time dimension, but also of space and effort dimensions. The qualitative data on which the study is based provide user-friendly data that offer rather literal suggestions as to how the convenience concerns of catalog patrons can be addressed.