Our catalog client, a company that offers household goods and gifts, had hit a growth and profit plateau. They knew old strategies wouldn’t get them to their incremental profit goals. Business performance was sluggish. They faced some of the most common challenges that catalog mailers face today, and they were ready for new insights and a fresh approach.

The Challenge

The Challenge

The client reached out to the ZAPFI Credit Program team at IMS to explore the benefits of a private label credit program.

They were keen to drive incremental revenue and bolster profits. They aimed to overcome barriers to boosting profitable sales of kitchen, garden and home products:

• Reverse a decline in prospect conversion rates
• Fund more cost-effective customer acquisition
• Improve retention rates among existing buyers
• Develop a new competitive advantage
• Reduce marketing costs as a percentage of sales

Our Insights

Our Insights

The good news is that this catalog company had a strong business foundation and a stellar offering.

We knew adding a private label credit offering would help.

They needed a catalyst for growth and a unique marketing strategy that would be a bold departure from their outdated strategies. 

We spent time with their marketing and management teams, as well as their customer operations and finance teams. After a series of conversations with key stakeholders, the client was excited to pursue the ZAPFI Credit Program by IMS.

Our team is experienced in launching and operating successful private label credit programs. In fact, we have more than 30 years in direct-to-consumer credit experience. We reassured them that we would be with them every step of the way, and remain a strategic partner for continued private label credit program success year in, year out.

Our Approach

Our Approach

ZAPFI’s private label credit offering serves as a catalyst for the expansion of catalog industry clients’ retail enterprises, particularly in the sub-prime and near-prime market segments.

Providing a private label credit program provides customers with a way to buy now and pay later.

ZAPFI helps catalog clients drive higher average order values, improve retention and lifetime customer values. These results would help our catalog client drive more incremental profit. 

ZAPFI by IMS is unique from other private label credit cards, branded credit cards or buy now pay later options. Instead of a bank or outside vendor operating credit applications and managing risk, the company would keep the program in house, carrying risk on their own balance sheet. It may sound daunting, but this difference is why our clients thrive. 

This unique private label credit program would enable the catalog client to target a consumer base they’d previously been unable to reach with conventional bank credit cards and cash payment alternatives. 

They could identify and approve credit program applicants that traditional bank-funded credit cards would normally shy away from, deeming them risky. 

We knew—and reassured our client—that with our help and experience, they could embrace and manage this risk to leverage it for the rewards they wanted. With decades of experience in credit risk and underwriting policy, as well as catalog marketing, we were confident we could help them navigate growth opportunities and win. 

We reminded the client that we wouldn’t be implementing anything we hadn’t tried and proven for other clients. This earned the catalog company’s trust that our expertise would make the launch and ramp-up process manageable.

Results

Results

Post-launch analysis revealed that the ZAPFI Credit Program helped the catalog company to prospect well above break even. They drove higher incremental profit per customer across all mailing segments. The client was thrilled with these results:

• Profit per customer increased 2.5x versus control (weighted across all segments)
• Average order value increased 14%
• Response rate improved by 24%
• Dollars per book increased by 42%

Conclusion

Conclusion

The ZAPFI private label credit program drove incremental revenue and profit.

This long-time catalog company was thrilled to be able to achieve profit and growth gains while leveraging their existing product assortment. 

The company can now enjoy financial growth, optimizing previously untapped potential within the current product lineup—even before investing time and money in new products. 

This enhanced the bottom line and maximized value from products already in the marketplace and hits with existing customers. This client’s private label credit offering with ZAPFI delivered a tailored solution within the framework of the client’s established product offerings so they could win.Learn whether ZAPFI’s Credit Program by IMS could help your multi-title catalog company take growth and profit to the next level. Book a demo today.