The cover of the first Eaton's catalog, published in 1884. The Eaton's catalog would continue to be published until 1976.

Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call. Then, the products are delivered to the customer. The products are typically delivered directly to an address supplied by the customer, such as a home address, but occasionally the orders are delivered to a nearby retail location for the customer to pick up. Some merchants also allow the goods to be shipped directly to a third party consumer, which is an effective way to send a gift to an out-of-town recipient. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (936x1474, 734 KB) Summary Created October 1, 2005 by Michael Stewart. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (936x1474, 734 KB) Summary Created October 1, 2005 by Michael Stewart. ... Look up Trade in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Trade centers on the exchange of goods and/or services. ... Good (accounting) - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Services are: plural of service Tertiary sector of industry IRC services Web services the name of a first-class cricket team in India This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Postbox redirects here. ... Childbirth in a hospital. ... In commerce, a retailer buys goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers or importers, either directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells individual items or small quantities to the general public or end user customers, usually in a shop, also called store. ...

Now-a-days, Mail Order becomes a popular business in India. There are lots of Mail Order dealers in India. Particularly in India, NIGC runs Mail Order Business successfully in Manipur.

A mail-order catalog is a publication containing a list of general merchandise from a company. Companies who publish and operate mail-order catalogs are referred to as catalogers within the industry. Catalogers buy or manufacture goods then market those goods to prospects (prospective customers). Many catalogers, just as with most retailers, are increasingly buying goods from China. Catalogers "rent" names from list brokers or cooperative databases. The catalog itself is published in a similar fashion as any magazine publication and distributed through a variety of means, usually via a postal service and the internet. In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or need. ... A drawing of a self-service store Retailing consists of the sale of goods/merchandise for personal or household consumption either from a fixed location such as a department store or kiosk, or away from a fixed location and related subordinated services (Definition of the WTO (last page). ... A list broker buys and sells lists of customers addresses. ... A cooperative database holds information on customers and their transactions. ... A British pillar box The postal system is a system by which written documents typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages containing other matter, are delivered to destinations around the world. ...

History

According to the National Mail Order Association (NMOA.org) Benjamin Franklin is believed to have been the first cataloger in the United States.

In 1744, he formulated the basic mail-order concept when he produced the first catalog, which sold scientific and academic books. He is also credited with offering the first mail-order guarantee: "Those persons who live remote, by sending their orders and money to B. Franklin may depend on the same justice as if present."

The earliest mail-order business was established by Charles Orvis in Manchester, Vermont in 1856. Orvis sold fishing flies, rods, and tackle to tourists visiting the Green Mountains, and subsequently supplied fishing equipment to them by mail. Manchester, Vermont Manchester is a town located in Bennington County, Vermont. ... 1856 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

Aaron Montgomery Ward is credited with sending out the first mail-order catalog in 1872 for his Montgomery Ward mail order business. This first catalog was a single sheet of paper with a price list, 8 by 12 inches, showing the merchandise for sale and ordering instructions. Montgomery Ward identified a market of merchant-wary farmers in the Midwest. Within two decades, his single-page list of products grew into a 540-page illustrated book selling over 20,000 items. Another early mail-order catalog was published in 1884 by the Eaton's department store in Toronto, Canada. Almost a decade later, the first Sears catalog was published in the United States. Aaron Montgomery Ward (February 17, 1844 - December 7, 1913) was an American businessman notable for the invention of mail order. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Mail order. ... 1872 (MDCCCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Montgomery Ward (later known as Wards) was an American department store chain, founded as the worlds first mail order business in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward. ... Eatons was once Canadas largest department store retailer. ... Interior of a typical Macys department store. ... Template:Hide = Motto: Template:Unhide = Diversity Our Strength Established: March 6, 1834 Area: East to West: 43 km North to South: 21 km629. ... Sears Holdings Corporation NASDAQ: SHLD is the third largest retailer in the United States, behind Wal-Mart and The Home Depot. ...

With the invention of the Internet, a company's website became the more usual way to order merchandise for delivery by mail, although the term "mail order" is not always used to describe the ordering of goods over the Internet. It is more usual to refer to this as e-commerce or online shopping. The front page of the English Wikipedia Website. ... Electronic commerce or e-commerce consists of the buying, selling, marketing, and servicing of products or services over computer networks. ... Online shopping is the process consumers go through to purchase products or services over the internet. ...

In the United States, an advantage of this type of shopping is that the merchant is typically not required by law to add sales tax to the price of the goods, unless they have a physical presence in the customers' state. Instead, most states require the resident purchaser to pay applicable taxes. There has been periodic discussion about amending the law to make these sales taxable. A sales tax is a tax on consumption. ... A state is an organized political community, occupying a territory, and possessing internal and external sovereignty, which successfully claims the monopoly of the use of force. ...

Other mail order catalogs include JC Penney, Wal-Mart, Spiegel catalog. J. C. Penney Company, Inc. ... Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ... Spiegel Catalog, Inc. ...

See also

• specialty catalogs
• Mail order bride

Specialty catalogs are a promotion and distribution technique commonly employed by direct marketers. ... Mail-order bride is the term often used to describe women who come to a foreign land from a less developed area after only correspondence or short meeting with their eventual mate. ...

External links

• Mail-order history
• C. F. Orvis Company history