Almost 16.8 million consumers will purchase products online in 1998, compared with 10.1 million in 1997 and 5.2 million in 1996 an increase of more than 300 percent in three years, according to the market research firm Jupiter Communications. Anytime, anywhere, toll-free catalog service revolutionized shopping in the 1970s, but the Internet takes remote buying to the new level. I've shopped all the catalogs, especially Penney, and I've bought everything from videos to my groceries. Catalog companies have made the transition to virtual shopping almost seamlessly. Shoppers at most major catalog Web sites are treated to a plethora of exclusives as well as merchandise found in the company's mailers.
Some merchants have their entire catalogs online.
Others, such as J.C. Penney, provide an online order blank for buying items not specifically featured on the site. In 1994, Penney became one of the first catalog merchants to jump into cyberspace. Its Web site, spruced up for the holidays, currently features 3,000 items and a gift guide as diverse as the company's in-store stock. After Thanksgiving Day, Penney began airing a series of 30-second television ads to promote its Web site. We look at it as our third destination after shopping in-store and through the catalog.