ABSTRACT
The only other form of retailing which calls for consideration is the mail order business. In this case the potential customer for one reason or another is in a position neither to see nor handle the actual merchandise, and so the selling appeal has to be made to him by post, through the medium of catalogues and press advertisements, and where practicable also by small samples. The mail order organisation is more particularly an American development of the late nineteenth century, for in that country the enormous distances involved made the outlying districts more or less dependent on this type of trading. Cheap postage and carriage are presuppositions of its development, combined at a subsequent stage with a wide circulation of the national press. Its technique is, of course, quite different from that of other forms of retailing. As there is no question of displaying the merchandise, it can dispense with elaborate shop fronts and interior equipment, and does not have to pay high rents for suitable locations in good shopping areas. The situation of the warehouse from which the business is conducted is immaterial, provided it is convenient for rail and other transport facilities; and the process of handling the order from the time the letter enclosing it is received until the goods are finally despatched can be carried out with a less expensive type of labour than is required, for example, in the selling staff of a departmental store. Moreover, the large mail order business has one great advantage over every other form of retailing. Although it is subject to seasonal variations, it is not quite so much at the mercy of shopping habits and can make arrangements to ensure an even flow of pressure on its staff and space. The peaks and valleys of customer demand during the course of the day, which is a major factor in keeping expenses high in the ordinary retail establishment, do not arise to the same degree in the mail order business, where organisation and experience can readily adapt available resources to all normal demands upon them.
