Don’t look now, but the big boxes are coming after your customers.

Not necessarily the highest of the high-end consumers, who use interior designers or frequent upscale retailers like RH or Arhaus—but both Walmart, from the discount end, and Nordstrom, from the pricier tier, have launched efforts to get more sales in the home category this holiday season.

And perhaps the most amazing part is that each retailer chose print catalogs to get their marketing messages across to potential customers. While the Nordstrom holiday gift book, “All the Gifts! All the Joy,” features products from across the full merchandising spectrum, the Walmart effort, titled simply “Walmart Home,” is all home all the time, ranging from furniture to decorative accessories. And even though the catalog was published for the fall selling season, one has to think there will be residual benefits throughout the holiday shopping cycle.

Of course, print catalogs are nothing new in the home business, much less the greater retail field. Going back a century, these booklets were the foundation of national retailers like JCPenney; Montgomery Ward; and Sears, Roebuck—which was actually just a catalog before it even opened its first stores.

More recently, the publications have been a mainstay at RH, which has released multiple editions (called “Sourcebooks” in RH-speak) that at times have topped out at over a thousand pages. Pottery Barn, West Elm, Crate & Barrel, CB2 and others all drop books at regular intervals throughout the year, with holiday versions being a marketing staple. Even Amazon has used print catalogs from time to time.

But the “Walmart Home” book is a first-timer. According to press reports, it came together rather quickly and represents the giant retailer’s most substantial effort to play a bigger role in the home category.

“This is a strategy [for] making sure top-of-mind consideration, awareness and reappraisal was being done for our customers—new customers and existing customers,” Creighton Kiper, senior vice president of home for Walmart U.S., said in an interview with RetailWire. Kiper, who since taking on the role in July of 2024 has made a number of changes in the brand’s merchandising, said the catalog is aimed at “customers who shop our box for other products, but maybe it’s been a while since they’ve seen our dinner plates or rugs or throws or candles.”

“All customers are looking for some form of inspiration [in] designing, decorating or giving a punch to our room or a space,” he added. “Our strategy is to democratize style, but it’s also to bring style and joy to every space that our customer has, and to do that affordably and effortlessly.”

While Kiper said that the fall catalog’s impression and engagement figures exceeded company expectations, he did not address whether there might be future issues. One has to think if it’s truly a success, this will not be a one-and-done effort.

Merchandise in the new catalog is cross-referenced on Walmart’s website, although there is no digital version of the book online. Featured products run the gamut of the retailer’s home mix, with textiles, housewares and decor getting the most attention—although there is also furniture, lighting and rugs.

Meanwhile, Nordstrom’s catalog is more broad-based, organized largely by price points, and it includes stickers that gift givers can use to adorn their Christmas-morning packages. Over its 100 pages, the book features more than 800 items, from stocking stuffers to luxury goods.

“I’m a big fan of tactile, old school ways of communicating,” Olivia Kim, senior vice president of creative for Nordstrom, told The New York Times. “Catalogs are having such a moment. So it’s nice to reimagine what they could be.” In what may be the real key to retailers doing print catalogs, Kim said: “I love the idea of reaching customers in their home. It lands in a different way, it’s more emotionally connective.”

In an age of digital communications, AI, YouTube and social media, it’s nice to know good old-fashioned print can still do that.

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Warren Shoulberg is the former editor in chief for several leading B2B publications. He has been a guest lecturer at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business; received honors from the International Furnishings and Design Association and the Fashion Institute of Technology; and been cited by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and other media as a leading industry expert. His Retail Watch columns offer deep industry insights on major markets and product categories.