Catalogs take to the web.(Holiday.shop)(internet shopping)

Is there a more convenient way to shop than by curling up with a favorite catalog? Attractive photos, fast and efficient toll-free calling, customer service that includes 24-7 ordering, knowledgeable salespeople, no-questions-asked returns, overnight shipping, and gift wrap have made catalog shopping a snap.

Now the masters of direct marketing are taking their acts to the World Wide Web. At least in theory, they should offer the best of the Internet because they already cater to at-home customers, have the warehouses and shipping systems to deliver the goods, and are easy to find. Just add a "dot com" to a well-known name, and voila.

But are the catalog web sites as good as their paper cousins? To find out, we pitted the catalogs of 25 of the best-known specialty merchants against their online stores in five product categories where consumers are likely to seek holiday gifts: clothing, food, home furnishings, sporting gear, and gadgets.

Two tireless CR shoppers thumbed through each catalog and logged on to its corresponding web site to assess how easy it was to find and compare the merchandise. They ordered gift items priced, whenever possible, below $25 from both the catalog and the web site to evaluate customer service, ease of ordering, and shipping. The resulting web-site evaluations are the first of a series that will be regularly updated on Consumer Reports Online, at www.ConsumerReports.org, in a section called "e-Ratings." The section will also incorporate data from BizRate.com, which independently tabulates consumers' experiences with online merchants at www.bizrate.com.

With few exceptions, both the paper catalogs and the web sites delivered the goods--as ordered and on time. The shopping experience was another matter. All the paper catalogs were uniformly easy to page through and order from--just what you'd expect from a highly refined shopping medium. Twelve of the 25 web sites, however, were not worth the bother unless you didn't have the catalog. (See the Ratings on the facing page.) Among the problems encountered: lack of information about security, return policies, and shipping costs; skimpy product offerings; organization that made shopping tedious; and Kafkaesque ordering procedures. Our analysis also convinced us that consumers who shop online should be mindful of assaults on their privacy. (See "Prying Eyes," page 26.)

To thumb or to …