A printed catalog is one of the few marketing assets a customer keeps, flips through, and acts on days after it arrives. That staying power shows up in the numbers. In a study conducted for the U.S. Postal Service by comScore, 15 percent of consumers who received a catalog and then visited the seller’s website went on to make an online purchase, and those recipients viewed 22 percent more pages and spent 15 percent more time on the site than people who did not get a catalog (Post & Parcel reporting on the USPS Multi-Channel Catalog Study).
For product-led brands in Georgia and across the Southeast, catalog printing remains one of the highest-return print formats you can put in a buyer’s hands. This guide covers what the research says, how the format actually works, and how to specify a run that sells. Walton Press has printed catalogs, magazines, and marketing collateral from its Monroe, Georgia plant since 1900, so the recommendations here come from more than 125 years at the press.
Key Takeaways
- Catalog printing still moves product. Consumers who receive a catalog and visit the seller’s site convert at 15 percent, and existing customers are 33 percent more likely to buy afterward.
- Catalogs lift digital campaigns. Harvard Business Review research reported by USPS found that adding a catalog to an email program produced a 15 percent lift in sales and a 27 percent lift in inquiries versus email alone.
- Print sticks in memory. Neuroscience research from Temple University for the USPS found that physical ads produce stronger memory encoding and greater subconscious desire than digital-only ads.
- Demand for print is rising, not falling. In the 2023 Two Sides Trend Tracker survey, 30 percent of U.S. consumers said they prefer to read catalogs on paper, up from 22 percent in 2021.
- Format is a strategic choice. Saddle stitching suits shorter catalogs, perfect binding suits thicker books, and offset printing keeps per-unit cost low at higher volumes.
What is catalog printing, and why does it still drive online sales?
Fifteen percent of consumers who receive a catalog and then visit the seller’s website make a purchase, according to the USPS Multi-Channel Catalog Study conducted by comScore. Catalog printing is the process of producing a bound, multi-page book of products or services designed to be browsed offline and acted on across any channel the customer prefers.
The same study found that catalog recipients made 16 percent more visits to the retailer’s site, viewed 22 percent more pages, and spent 15 percent more time there than non-recipients. Existing customers were 33 percent more likely to buy after receiving a catalog, and shoppers who had never purchased from a brand were twice as likely to place a first order once a catalog reached them. A catalog does not compete with your website. It feeds it.
That is why a printed catalog works as the anchor of a wider print program. Retailers pair catalogs with direct mail services to reach the right households, then use fulfillment services to warehouse and ship the books on a schedule tied to buying seasons. The catalog does the selling, and the supporting formats make sure it lands in front of the right person at the right moment.
Do printed catalogs outperform email marketing on their own?
Adding a catalog to an email campaign produced a 15 percent lift in sales and a 27 percent lift in inquiries compared with an email-only effort, according to Harvard Business Review research reported by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS Delivers, “10 Reasons Catalogs Drive Results”). The point is not that print beats email. The point is that the two together beat either one alone.
A catalog and an inbox do different jobs. Email is fast, cheap, and easy to ignore. A well-made catalog is slow, tactile, and hard to throw away without a look. When a shopper flips through a printed book on the counter, then opens the follow-up email a day later, the brand has already earned a moment of undivided attention that a subject line rarely wins on its own. Marketers who treat catalog printing as a partner to their digital calendar, rather than a rival to it, tend to see the compounding effect the HBR data describes.
Why do printed catalogs stay in buyers’ memories?
Measured lift for shoppers who received a catalog, against those who did not
Source: comScore study for the US Postal Service, reported in USPS Delivers.
Physical advertising produces stronger memory encoding and greater subconscious desire than digital-only advertising, according to neuroscience research conducted by Temple University’s Center for Neural Decision Making for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS Delivers, “Why Direct Mail Is More Memorable”). Participants who handled printed materials spent more time with them, formed stronger emotional responses, and recalled the brand more readily afterward.
The reason is physical. Paper has weight, texture, and permanence that a scrolling screen does not. A catalog sits on a kitchen table for a week and gets picked up again. A banner ad is gone the instant a thumb moves. When you print a catalog on quality stock with sharp color, you are buying a durable place in the customer’s home and, the research suggests, in their memory. That is a different kind of value than an impression that vanishes in a feed.
Do consumers still want printed catalogs in 2026?
Yes, and the preference is growing. In the 2023 Two Sides Trend Tracker survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, 30 percent said they prefer to read catalogs in print, up from 22 percent in 2021, and 47 percent said the same about magazines (Two Sides North America). Preference for paper rose across nearly every category the survey measured, from books to bills, as screen fatigue set in.
That rebound matters for anyone deciding where to put a marketing dollar. A rising share of buyers is actively choosing paper, which means a printed catalog reaches a receptive audience rather than an annoyed one. The same reasoning applies to related formats such as publication and magazine printing, where readers still value the tactile experience of a well-produced print piece. Print is not a nostalgia play. It is where a meaningful and growing segment of your customers prefer to read.
Perfect binding or saddle stitch: choosing the right catalog format
Catalogs received in the last 30 days convert at meaningfully higher rates, the comScore study for USPS found, which makes production speed and format decisions worth getting right the first time. The two most common catalog bindings are saddle stitching and perfect binding, and the choice comes down to page count and the impression you want to leave.
Saddle stitching folds and staples the pages along the spine. It is economical, fast, and ideal for catalogs up to roughly 80 pages. Perfect binding glues the pages into a flat, squared spine, the format you see on thicker retail books and annual catalogs, and it gives the finished piece a bookstore feel that reads as premium. Walton Press produces both, along with the color consistency that comes from being an Idealliance G7 Master certified printer, a standard that verifies accurate, repeatable color from the first copy to the last.
For higher volumes, offset printing keeps the per-unit cost low while holding color and detail across a long run, which is why it remains the standard for large catalog and magazine projects. Shorter promotional pieces such as brochures can accompany a catalog to highlight a seasonal offer. The right specification depends on your page count, run length, and mailing plan, and a printer who handles binding, finishing, and mailing under one roof can keep all three decisions aligned.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many pages should a printed catalog have?
There is no single right number. Saddle-stitched catalogs work well up to about 80 pages, while perfect binding handles thicker books cleanly. Page counts must fall in multiples of four for saddle stitching because sheets are folded in half. Start from your product range, then choose the binding that fits, rather than forcing products to fit a format.
How much does catalog printing cost?
Cost depends on quantity, page count, paper stock, binding, and finishing. Offset printing lowers the per-unit price as the run grows, so a larger print quantity often costs less per book. The most accurate way to budget is to request a quote with your specifications, since a small change in stock or trim size can move the total.
Can Walton Press mail the catalogs too?
Yes. Walton Press offers direct mail and fulfillment services in-house, so a single vendor can print, address, sort for postal discounts, and ship your catalogs. Keeping print and mail together shortens turnaround and protects the in-hand timing that drives response.
Where is Walton Press located?
Walton Press is at 402 Mayfield Drive, Monroe, GA 30655, and has printed for businesses across Georgia and the Southeast since 1900. You can reach the team at 1-800-354-0235 or request a quote through the contact page.
Ready to print a catalog that sells?
The research is consistent: catalog printing drives online sales, lifts digital campaigns, and reaches a growing audience that prefers paper. The difference between a catalog that gets recycled and one that gets kept comes down to color, binding, and timing. To spec a run built to sell, request a catalog printing quote from Walton Press or call 1-800-354-0235.
About Walton Press. Founded in 1900, Walton Press is a full-service commercial printer in Monroe, Georgia, with more than 125 years of experience in offset printing, bindery, finishing, and direct mail. As an Idealliance G7 Master certified printer, Walton Press produces catalogs, magazines, and marketing materials with accurate, repeatable color for brands across Georgia and the Southeast.
