Aaron Montgomery Ward
Aaron Montgomery Ward was an American merchant who issued the first general mail-order catalog in Chicago in August 1872, selling directly to rural customers by mail.
What they did and why it matters
Ward invented the remote, catalog-driven retail model that e-commerce fulfillment descends from. His first catalog was a single sheet listing 163 items, and customers ordered by mail and received goods by rail and later by parcel post. Selling direct cut out local middlemen, but it required a central warehouse, order processing, and a returns promise, Ward's 'satisfaction guaranteed', to win trust from buyers who could not see the goods. Modern direct-to-consumer brands face the same core problems of order handling, shipping cost, and returns that Ward's business solved for the 1870s.
Related people
Events
Sources
- Aaron Montgomery Ward (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org
- Montgomery Ward (Chicago History Museum) chicagohistory.org