A new Roy Morgan survey has found millennials to be Australia’s biggest readers of catalogues, with 3.2m readers as compared to 3.16m baby boomers and 3.16m members of Generation X.
The study, conducted in the first quarter of 2019, found that almost a third of Australia’s 13,436,000 catalogue readers read them cover-to-cover; 35 per cent have shared hard-copy catalogues with people they knew; and 41 per cent have emailed or texted pictures of catalogue products to friends or family members.
According to Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan, the data shows that, despite the recent rise in digital media, catalogues remain a key advertising channel for reaching Australian consumers.
“A clear majority of seventy per cent of Australia’s 13.4 million catalogue readers say that catalogues are a helpful shopping tool and over half, fifty-three per cent, find catalogues more useful than other forms of advertising,” she said.
Catalogues also spur purchasing decisions, the study found, with one in five readers whose most expensive catalogue purchase topped $1000 in an average six months buying something they did not intend to before seeing it advertised.
“Nearly half of Australia’s catalogue readers, forty-seven per cent, have seen a product in a catalogue and then made a special trip to a store to buy the product which they otherwise would not have seen without reading the catalogue.
“There’s little doubt that if you are looking for a way to reach hard-to-find and time-poor consumers that catalogues offer a direct route to the eyeballs of over 13.4 million Australians,” said Levine.
Catalogues are a core part of the country's two biggest printers Ovato and IVE, and provide a host of work for smaller printers. IVE has also just launched an e-commerce catalogue, but it says it will not impact on its print volumes.