Coastal towns are characterized by a particular economic cycle. The summer season opens up a market for shops and often keeps them engaged for twelve to sixteen weeks, while the rest of the year, one may expect a much slower locals-only market or even a closure scenario. The short window actively puts pressure on every decision retailers make about ways to attract and convert visitors.
Digital catalogs have emerged as one of the best methods for drawing visitors before they arrive and keeping them connected after they have gone. They accomplish something very difficult to achieve with merely a website or a social feed - they offer a browsing experience similar to actually walking around a shop, which is precisely what vacation shoppers desire.
Generally, shore town retailers have either never used catalogs or if they did, they hardly ever considered the audience when producing them. The ones who succeed in this area, see the catalog as something that can enrich the overall vacation experience and not just a piece of marketing.
Visitors planning a trip to a shore town usually spend a lot of time imagining what the town will be like before they actually set foot in it. They look through rental listings, read restaurant reviews, watch Instagram posts from previous visitors, and ask their friends for recommendations. The whole time leading up to the actual visit is a marketing opportunity that most retailers ignore.
Those retailers who are present during pre-arrival planning can really set themselves apart. A beautifully designed catalog distributed through local visitor bureaus, rental company welcome emails, or regional "things to do" content can reach a visitor two or three weeks before their trip. When the visitors get to the town, your shop is most likely already on their list.
In fact, this is even more important now since the decision-making window has shifted online. Two decades ago, visitors discovered shore town shops by simply wandering the boardwalk. The reality is they have probably Googled "best shops in [town name]" before they even consider packing their bags. If you do not show up in that search, or in the accompanying content, you are essentially invisible until somebody walks by your store.
Looking for a vacation is not the same as doing your typical shopping online. Potential travelers who are already thinking about their trip will be more interested in getting new ideas, rather than being efficient. They may end up looking through more items, spending a longer time on the pages, and even discovering new things they weren't initially searching for, provided that the way those items are presented is appealing.
Digital catalogs therefore, have a great advantage here. A turning-the-pages visual storytelling-type of presentation matches the browsing mood rather than fighting it. Think about it: a standard e-commerce grid can hardly shake off its transactional aura even if the products are very attractive. On the other hand, catalogs bring the feeling of flipping through a magazine, which is much closer to the vacation-planning state of mind.
Seasonal products, in particular, need this kind of presentation. The impact of a beach cover-up laid out neatly on a white background versus the same cover-up styled in a sunset picture on a sandy deck is quite significant. Shoppers are not simply acquiring a garment. They are buying into the image of themselves that they envisage on a holiday, and the catalog is the place where that image is stimulated.
The most difficult aspect of managing a shore town business is during the slow season. Stores that depended solely on summer walk-in customers were simply shutting down during the winter in the past. Nowadays, a catalog-based method allows businesses to keep getting money through mail orders by sending products to past visitors who want a part of their vacation at home.
A fall catalog aimed at summer tourists and promoting the idea of "bringing a little of the shore home" is surprisingly effective in most cases. A person who spent an enjoyable week in your town in August will be quite pleased to receive a catalog in November reminding them of it. They can end up buying gifts, getting items they regret not buying in person, or even ordering in advance for the next summer.
The email lists created during the peak season are an essential asset that enables this to succeed. Every visitor who subscribes to your list in July is a potential off-season catalog recipient. If your email collection is disorganized during the high season, you are losing the opportunity to get in touch with those customers when the boardwalk is deserted.
These towns by the sea have a natural advantage that inland retail areas often do not - the entire town is the product. Visitors are attracted to the place itself, and each business profits when the place is attractive. This creates cross-promotion opportunities that do not exist in most other retail situations.
Shared catalogs with several shops in the same shore town can be more successful than any individual shop's catalog. Visitors planning a trip want to know what the entire experience offers, not just one store. A joint catalog featuring a boutique, a surf shop, a local bakery, and an art gallery, shows the real attraction of the destination.
Tools like Publitas make this kind of collaborative catalog practical to produce and share. Merchant associations, business improvement districts, and town visitor bureaus can put together a seasonal catalog featuring member businesses, which then gets distributed through every participating shop's email list and social channels. Reach compounds in a way that no single business could achieve alone.
If your visitor leaves town after spending one week there, they can still be your customer for many months. Ways of constantly keeping in mind should be your concern. However, many coastal retailers lose the chance of maintaining the busy potential customer, as showing up in town is one of the most expensive customer acquisition costs.
A post-visit catalog even delivered by email two weeks after customer departure catches them phase when the vacation feeling is still fresh. Nostalgia is a strong purchasing motivator, and research published in Harvard Business Review on the science of customer emotions has shown that emotionally connected customers are significantly more valuable than those who are merely satisfied. A catalog that brings back the memory of the times spent in your town can lead to sales of products that the shopper might have contemplated in the first place but didn't actually buy.
Surprisingly, anniversary catalogs one year afterward are very effective in shore town settings. "Summer is coming again, here are what's new this year" is a natural way of re-engaging visitors who might be thinking about where to go for their next trip. Also, it facilitates a purchase before they even arrive, as visitors who pre-shop often come in with a list.
Shore town retail will forever be influenced by the calendar, but a well-executed catalog marketing strategy can drastically reduce the impact of the season. Visitors who only mattered for twelve weeks a year can be made relevant for the whole year, and the town itself becomes a brand that visitors continue to purchase from even when they do not have the opportunity to visit.
Those retailers who decide to invest in digital catalogs generally experience the impact in their off-season sales numbers first, then in their pre-arrival foot traffic, and eventually in the depth of the relationship they have with their returning customers. It's taking a longer time to develop than a single viral Instagram post, but what it creates truly lasts.
