I am awash with catalogues. Two more have just arrived in the post this morning, from The White Company and The Cotswold Company. I have catalogues offering gifts for him, gifts for her, nature gifts, charity at home, charity abroad, museum gifts, Christmas cards a-plenty, clothes, things to beautify the home for Christmas (Lakeland has even managed to make cleaning the oven look like a jolly task), silly stuff, techie stuff, kids stuff, traditional stuff, beauty stuff, ethnic stuff, gardening stuff, eco stuff, jigsaws, food, booze and of course the granddaddy of them all, the Boots Christmas Catalogue. In fact just about the only seasonal item I don't have a catalogue for is indigestion remedies. If I get my act together, I'll be able to complete all my Christmas shopping from the comfort of the settee.

In true print anorak style, I've been paying attention to what's been landing on my doormat and falling out of magazines and the weekend newspapers. The most ubiquitous catalogues in the Francis household thus far are Gifts for the Girls and Presents for Men, from Devon-based M&G Presents. Would love to know what the print run has been on those, and can but hope that the catalogues have been printed here, rather than trucked in from the continent.

I'm encouraged that, despite the rise of the e-tailer and the ever-increasing shift of adspend online, getting products into someone's hands via a tactile medium remains a powerful sales tool. The "flick-to-click" model whereby consumers are spurred into ordering online after receiving a catalogue would seem to be generating a suitably acceptable response. And with a printed catalogue the products are still accessible to those consumers who are unable or uncomfortable about ordering online, and prefer phone or post.

While catalogues nowadays may be smaller in format or pagination, there are more of them. I receive a lot of email marketing from brands that also send out catalogues, but only a handful of companies eschew print altogether in favour of an online strategy alone. Do hope they remain in the minority.