Cabela's 2013 Annual Report Download - page 16

6
growing significantly. As a result, we continue to utilize best-in-class technology to improve our customers’ digital
shopping experience and build on the advances we have made to capitalize on the variety of ways customers are
shopping at Cabela’s today. In 2013, we launched the new Cabelas.com mobile website making the Cabelas.com
desktop version available on smart phones and tablets. Customers now have the same information and services
as Cabelas.com and the same shopping experience as they have on the desktop site. Cabelas.com and the mobile
website also run off a single operating platform, allowing us to manage the desktop and mobile sites using one
system. We continue to enhance our social marketing initiatives and now have over 2.9 million fans on Facebook.
Our omni-channel marketing efforts are resulting in increased customer engagement across multiple channels
and a more consistent experience across all channels. Our goal is to create a digital presence that mirrors our
customers’ in-store shopping experience.
We use our customer database to ensure that customers receive catalogs matching their merchandise
preferences, to identify new customers, and to cross-sell merchandise to existing customers. Many of our
customers read and browse our catalogs, but purchase merchandise and services through our website and retail
stores. We use the catalogs to prompt customers to go to retail stores and our website or to our call centers to place
orders directly. We also utilize our marketing knowledge base to determine optimal circulation strategies to control
our catalog costs while continuing to grow our merchandising business.
Catalog and Print Distributions. We have been marketing our products through our print catalog
distributions to our customers and potential customers for over 50 years. We believe that our catalog distributions
have been one of the primary drivers of the growth of our brand over the years and serve as an important marketing
tool for our Retail business. In 2013, we mailed more than 130 million catalogs to all 50 states and to more than 165
countries and territories. Our master catalogs offer a broad range of products while our specialty and micro-season
catalogs offer products focused on one outdoor activity, such as fly fishing, archery, or waterfowl, or one product
category, such as women’s clothing.
In the past, our direct marketing processes were heavily driven via the catalog production cycle and most of
our marketing efforts were event based and heavily focused towards print media. Changing to a more customer
centric focus will allow us to better exploit online engagement opportunities, embrace new marketing strategies,
and bring synergies to our Internet channel which inherently has quick-to-market attributes that we can further
capitalize on. Our goal, as we continue to fine tune our catalog print program, is to shift away from our larger
master catalogs to smaller master catalogs with a more seasonal theme, to specialty catalogs, and to micro-season
catalogs; to enhance the product mix in each title; and to create unique, personalized print media to push one
consistent message to the customer. We want to create steady, profitable growth in our direct channels, while
reducing marketing expenses and significantly increasing the percentage of market share we capture through
our website.
Financial Services Business
Our Financial Services segment provides customers with a rewards program that enhances revenue, operating
profitability, and customer loyalty in our Retail and Direct businesses. Through our wholly-owned bank subsidiary,
World’s Foremost Bank (“WFB,” “Financial Services segment,” or “Cabela’s CLUB”), we issue and manage
the Cabela’s CLUB Visa credit card, a rewards based credit card program. We believe the Cabela’s CLUB Visa
credit card loyalty rewards program is an effective vehicle for strengthening our relationships with our customers,
enhancing our brand name, and increasing our merchandise revenue. Our rewards program is a simple loyalty
program that allows customers to earn points whenever and wherever they use their Cabela’s CLUB Visa credit
card and then redeem earned points for products and services at our retail stores or through our Direct business.
The percentage of our merchandise sold to customers using the Cabela’s CLUB Visa credit card, including the
redemption of points, was approximately 30% for 2013.
Our bank subsidiary is a FDIC insured, special purpose, Nebraska state-chartered bank, which limits us to
issuing only consumer credit cards and certificates of deposit of one hundred thousand dollars or more. During
2013, we had an average of 1,688,843 active credit card accounts with an average balance of $2,073 compared to an
average of 1,537,209 active credit card accounts with an average balance of $2,014 during 2012. We define an active
credit card account as any account with an outstanding debit or credit balance at the end of any respective month.