Neiman Marcus covered its windows and entrance on Ervay Street on Tuesday morning before the unveiling of its 2010 Christmas Book's fantasy gifts. The over-the-top items will remain on display in the windows for a week.
Neiman Marcus takes Christmas Book 2010 to an iPad app
12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, October 6, 2010
By MARIA HALKIAS / The Dallas Morning News
mhalkias@dallasnews.com
Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus has transformed its 84-year-old Christmas catalog into an application for what's anticipated to be this year's hot electronics gift: Apple's iPad.
LARA SOLT/DMN
Neiman Marcus covered its windows and entrance on Ervay Street on Tuesday morning before the unveiling of its 2010 Christmas Book's fantasy gifts. The over-the-top items will remain on display in the windows for a week.
By putting the 2010 Christmas Book into an iPad app, Neiman Marcus is keeping up with its customers, said Gerald Barnes, president of the Dallas-based company's catalog and online division.
That doesn't mean the printed catalog is dead. Neiman Marcus still plans to mail more than 1 million copies to customers, and the entire catalog is viewable on its website.
The Christmas Book has been online since 2006 and now almost all of the company's direct sales are made on its websites. Its Internet revenue increased 10.7 percent last year, while catalog sales fell 19.2 percent.
Last year, about 85 percent of Neiman's direct sales were online, up from 80 percent last year and 75 percent in 2008, according to the company's annual financial report filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For its fiscal year ended in July, direct sales totaled $682 million, or 18.5 percent of its $3.7 billion total sales.
Going mobile
One advantage of an iPad app is customers can browse the catalog from anywhere without an Internet connection once they download it, Barnes said.
Imbedded in the iPad app and the online catalog are videos showing fantasy gifts, such as this year's his-and-hers gift: a 48-by-12 houseboat with 7-foot ceilings and $250,000 price tag. There's also video of this year's car -- a 2011 Neiman Marcus Edition Camaro convertible with a 6.2-liter V8 engine that sells for $75,000.
Other catalogs also soon will be accessible from the iPad app, Barnes said. "Catalogs continue to be a very important part of our advertising. This is how we get into our households."
Mailed catalogs are up slightly this year from just less than a million last year, Barnes said. Before the recession, the company mailed 2 million Christmas Books.
In the brick-and-mortar world, the over-the-top fantasy gifts are on display for a week in the Ervay Street windows of its downtown Dallas store.
Price ranges
About half of the 450 items in this year's 163-page catalog are again priced below $250 -- showing the retailer's sensitivity to cost-conscious buyers.
After skipping the $1 million and up price tag last year, this year the famed book contains a gift costing $1.5 million: International artist Dale Chihuly will transform a swimming pool into an original, private work of art.
The least expensive item is a $15 silver-plated candlewick trimmer.
Neiman Marcus extends its reach with catalogs. About 40 percent of its online and catalog customers in the last two years have been from cities where it doesn't operate a store. And customers who shop both stores and online spend about four times more than single-channel customers.
Last year, Neiman Marcus circulated about 48 million catalogs, down 25 percent from the prior year, as shoppers shifted to the Internet. It also sends out daily e-mails to about 4.7 million customers, alerting them to new merchandise and special offers.
Even before online shopping took over, the Christmas catalog represented only about 10 percent of annual catalog sales.
His and hers
The 2010 Christmas Book marks the 50th anniversary of its trademark his-and-hers gifts.
The first, in 1960, was a pair of Beechcraft airplanes, followed by hot air balloons, camels, robots, windmills and other over-the-top gift ideas. One of this year's fantasy gifts is a $248,000 charm bracelet commemorating his-and-hers gifts from the past.
This year's catalog also includes a coffee table book chronicling the attention-getting ideas. And anniversary ornaments in shapes of past gifts sold will help benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Whimsical gifts have been a tradition since the 1950s when brothers Stanley and Edward Marcus started picking attention-grabbing gift ideas to get the store on national TV -- at the time as new as the iPad.
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NEIMAN MARCUS 2010 HOLIDAY WINDOWS (REVEAL HIGHLIGHTS VERSION) - PLANET PRODUCTIONS - DALLASby PlanetProductionsInc1,861 views
Please add the finished product so we can see the kids going thru the tube! This is abosulutely fantastic! Kudos for allow the children to be part of your window!
ellienc 1 year ago