In the catalogue equivalent of teaching an old dog new tricks, Demon Tweeks and M and M Direct have branched out into new product categories.
A cataloguer/retailer of motor parts and equipment, Demon Tweeks has added bicycles and related accessories to its product range. Cycling merchandise went on sale at the company’s Wrexham showroom in November, and a website went live in December. To promote the new venture Demon Tweeks launched a MySpace account, a Twitter feed, and a Facebook page dedicated to cycling-related news and information.
Discount apparel cataloguer M and M Direct in December expanded its gifts section and created a separate Christmas gifts catalogue for the first time. According to chief executive Steve
Robinson, M and M has always had a focus on gifts at Christmas, promoting items such as pyjamas and underwear, but ?this year it decided to broaden the range ?to include toys, calendars, and books. The main reason for the standalone gifts catalogue, he said, was to capitalise on the uplift in web traffic that M and M enjoys in the festive season.
M and M is testing other product categories as well. In November it began stocking laptops and mobile phones. On whether the company plans to increase its range of nonclothing items
permanently, Robinson said he won’t execute a “large-risk, full-on push” but that “from time to time we may try seasonally relevant categories”. He also commented that the company had not yet decided whether to continue with the mobile phones and laptops experiment and that performance of the phones was “okay”.
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