FREEPORT – If your mailbox is stuffed with catalogs, that’s what the catalog retailers want to see this holiday season.

More catalog retailers like Freeport-based L.L. Bean are moving toward the day when the bulk of their sales are made online. Yet the number of catalogs mailed to U.S. households has been climbing during the past couple of years.

Even though some of the sales materials will get tossed, catalog retailers are counting on consumers thumbing through enough of them to drive sales.

L.L. Bean expects to ship 50 million more catalogs this year than it did two years ago when it mailed out 200 million.

“It is the best way for us to get lasting impressions in front of our customers,” said spokesman Rich Donaldson. Most customers hang onto the catalogs for weeks as reference materials, making catalogs far more valuable than television, radio and Web-based marketing and advertising, all of which Bean also undertakes, Donaldson said.

Catalog retailers are hoping for a better season than last year when L.L. Bean and others resorted to free shipping amid worries about consumer confidence slipping because of Hurricane Katrina, high energy costs and the war in Iraq.

“Last year, it was very tentative at this time,” said George Hague, senior marketing strategist at J. Schmid & Assoc. Inc., a catalog consulting company in Mission, Kan. “We’re seeing a more solid early season.”

Consumer confidence slipped a bit in October but seems to be holding, and many catalog retailers are anticipating healthy sales this season.

The National Retail Federation projects that holiday sales will grow 5 percent to $457.4 billion. The Direct Marketing Association projects catalog sales will increase roughly 7.5 percent to $144 billion for the year.

At L.L. Bean, which expects to finish the year 4 percent ahead of last year, the gears are already turning as the company shifts into holiday mode.

The 635,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution center where items are shipped is abuzz with activity and the beeps of electric-powered trucks.

Overhead, conveyors are carrying flannel shirts, boots and other merchandise; below, workers pack the items after they slide down chutes.

On a recent day, 110,000 items were shipped. That’s roughly half of what’ll be sent out when sales peak in a couple of weeks.

Ramona Cox handles about 1,000 shipments a day at her work station. Whether it comes from online or catalog doesn’t matter to her. Either way, she has to move it out.

“I just keep on packing,” said Cox, who was surrounded by winter coats, turtlenecks, gloves and backpacks. “You usually go home tired, but it’s enjoyable. You’re sending the products to the customers to make them happy.”

The days of people questioning the future of catalogs are long gone, and more and more companies are using them. Even bricks-and-mortar stores like Toys R Us and online auction house eBay have begun shipping out catalogs in recent years.

Those who predicted the demise of catalogs as online sales took off a few years back overlooked a key fact: You can’t make sales if you can’t reach your customers. So L.L. Bean and others can’t afford to cut back on catalogs.

“You’re not supposed to rely on the customer to contact you. You need to contact your customers,” Hague said.

Overall, catalog distribution has grown from 16.6 billion in 2002 to 19.2 billion in 2005, according to the Direct Marketing Association. The typical American will receive 13 of them this year, DMA spokeswoman Laura Colona said from New York.

L.L. Bean decided to boost its catalog shipments even though its online sales will officially overtake catalog sales next month. And it doesn’t come cheap. Catalogs cost roughly 60 cents each to produce and mail, Donaldson said.

By year’s end, catalog sales and online sales will each account for 40 percent of sales; retail accounts for the remaining 20 percent, he said.

Catalog companies like Bean report seeing a spike in online orders when their catalogs are shipped out. Hague said his company’s research shows that 50 to 70 percent of online sales are actually driven by the catalogs, Hague said.

The change is similar to the one experienced by mail-order companies with the growing popularity of the toll-free number in the 1980s. Soon, catalog retailers were hiring operators to take telephone orders.

“The catalog is driving them to the Web site. How’s that different from driving them to the phones?” Hague said.

The reality is that all channels are intertwined. Consumers might get an e-mail alerting them to the pending arrival of a catalog; they might take a look at the catalog; then they might go to the Web site to make their order, Colona said.

Pretty soon, all those shopping channels will be busy.

Retail stores today will have their Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving that starts the holiday shopping season. The equivalent for catalog and online retailers will come a couple of days later on Monday, when shoppers get back to work.

Like other retailers, Bean relies on holiday sales in November and December for a big part of overall sales – roughly a quarter of the projected annual sales of $1.5 billion.

When the orders begin coming fast and furious, the company will go into “code green.” That means all hands on deck are expected to assist in getting out the orders.

Last year, folding tables and chairs were hastily set up as workers from marketing, advertising and other departments joined in the effort. “It’s desperate,” said Donaldson. “You’ve got to get those orders out the door.”

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