Fashion catalogs on paper and online: modern trends

Clothing catalogs have been known in our country for a long time, but few people know that in the West, such companies as Quelle and Otto appeared before the Second World War, and since then have come a long way, changing their business model and becoming what we know them to be. today.

The history of Quelle began in 1927. As yet unknown salesman Gustave Schickedanz decides that he has had enough – he no longer wants to go from door to door and persuade housewives to buy goods. In those days, the catalog industry was still unknown, and salespeople distributed goods through face-to-face meetings with customers. This tedious and time-consuming work was often ineffective and the creation of catalogs became a logical continuation of it.

In 1927, Gustave Schickedanz creates the first mail order catalog. This idea turns out to be extremely successful, customers like the opportunity to leaf through colorful magazines and order those goods that they liked. Business is booming and soon every German has heard the Quelle catalogs. Much later, the company enters the world level. Around the 60s, these catalogs can be found all over Europe – a good reputation plays into the hands of the company and customers are happy to recommend it to their friends.

The Otto company appeared in Germany in the post-war period – 1949. Unlike the pioneer of the catalog industry, the owner of the company, Werner Otto, focuses not on clothes, but on shoes – 28 pairs of shoes are collected on 14 pages of the first catalog. The 60s are marked for the company by the departure from the original assortment and the expansion of the choice of products that can be found in the catalog – diamonds and haute couture clothes quickly appear on its pages, but soon disappear, giving way to more democratic things.

In the USSR, the first catalogs appeared in the 1990s. At that time it was impossible to order anything from them, they were rather a kind of fairy-tale world that one could look into from behind the “Iron Curtain”. Fashionable clothes, high-quality fabrics, unusual models – many Soviet ladies secretly dreamed of buying these things. However, such an opportunity appeared only in 2004 – it was then that the inhabitants of Russia were able to make direct orders from the company’s catalogs. Some inconvenience was delivered by the delivery time – the coveted order had to wait for several weeks, or even a couple of months. However, this did not stop anyone – the store offered too favorable conditions. The prices were significantly different from the store ones, and the quality was pleasantly pleasing for a long time. Russian buyers like it, so the number of catalog orders is growing rapidly.

However, the paper catalog industry is already fading into the background, because a new promising area is emerging – the Internet. It provides almost unlimited possibilities for both buyers and sellers: instead of several catalog pages, they have countless website pages, so the choice becomes much wider.

In 2005, the Russian online store Quelle opens, followed by Otto, and this provokes a new round in the development of the catalog industry. Vibrant paper magazines still attract their audience, but the online store is an incomparable success. It has a number of undeniable advantages over traditional directories:

1. Availability – shoppers no longer have to wait for a new number to arrive in the mail. You can access the website of the store at any time and from anywhere. This is especially true for those who are constantly busy at work and who do not have time to run around fashion stores.
2. Thrifty shoppers will appreciate the possibility of reasonable shopping. When shopping in the online store, you can use various promotional codes and coupons, which are presented in all their variety on our Qulle page and Otto page. And if you use them during sales, you can get a double benefit, since coupon discounts are usually combined with sales discounts.
3. Those who value special privileges will certainly like the loyalty program from Quelle. It lies in the fact that the more purchases you make, the more special bonuses you get. For example, you will receive notifications about closed sales, and Quelle operators will call you back to personally take orders.

During the existence of the company, they have come a long way: from unknown German catalogs to the international leader in online commerce. Models of clothing change, fashion and appearance of customers change, only the high quality of goods, a wide selection and affordable prices remain unchanged – it is on these terms that the success of the company is based.