Catalog Growth Powered by Religion, Auto, Education Categories

Catalogs for the categories of religion, automotive, and education have increased as much as 60.5% (religion) from 2004 to 2008, notes Oxbridge Communications, bringing the total number in their 2008 National Directory to 12,230 catalogs.

Together, the top categories helped drive a nearly 15% increase (from 10,668 catalogs in 2004):

Among the highlights:

• Automotive catalogs increased from 389 to 593 (+52.4%).
• The number of education catalogs went from 400 to 528 (+32%).
• Food, religion, home, and sports categories replaced the following categories from the 2004 top ten list:
  • Manufacturing (-48%, from 469 to 244 catalogs)
  • Computers (-27.5%, from 313 to 227)
  • Crafts (-23.8%, from 298 to 227)
  • Office (-13.2%, from 296 to 257)

Online catalogs also continue to grow, said Trish Hagood, president of Oxbridge Communications, publisher of the The National Directory of Catalogs. There are now 1,868 online-only catalogs and 10,543 print-and-online catalogs listed in the 2008 directory, she noted.