Montgomery Ward Mail-Order Catalog

Montgomery Ward's catalog is a direct ancestor of e-commerce: a distant customer chooses from a published list, orders without seeing the goods, and receives them by freight or mail. Ward bought in volume and sold directly to farm families, cutting out the rural general store and its markups, and offered a money-back guarantee to earn trust. The catalog grew from a single sheet into a thick book. The core problems of a modern DTC brand all appear here, from product listings and order taking to picking, packing, shipping, and returns, and the satisfaction guarantee is a forerunner of today's return policies.

• Pick and PackTaking items off the shelf and boxing them
• Return WindowTime allowed to return an item
• Return Merchandise AuthorizationRMAApproval number issued for a return

• Aaron Montgomery Ward1843–1913 · Mail-order catalog pioneer
• Richard Sears1863–1914 · Co-founder of Sears, Roebuck

• First Transcontinental Railroad1869 · Rails from east and west meet at Promontory Summit
• Sears, Roebuck Catalog1888–1993 · A watch catalog grows into a US mail-order giant
• Rural Free Delivery (RFD)1896 · The Post Office starts delivering mail to farms for free

• Quill Corp. v. North Dakota1992, overruled 2018 · 1992 case requiring physical presence for sales tax

1. Montgomery Ward britannica.com
2. Montgomery Ward chicagohistory.org