This may seem like a simple question, but I have found a case example that is really difficult for me. It is an archival piece from around 1900, when such information was kept by register books or file cards.
Usually customer lists from sales departments or stores are an information tool for marketing and current accounting. The example in the appendix may have had a more special purpose:
Only two categories are displayed: one number (probably the customer number) and the name of each customer. I only found this one piece of paper. The headline shows that it was the first page of a longer list. The paper cut is located on the right hand, i.e there can’t have been further columns and categories on a conceivable adjacent page. So, this listing structure seems to be complete.
What was the purpose of a customer list, if neither the numbers nor the customer names were listed consecutively numerically or alphabetically? And why do some numbers appear twice or three times with different names, but often with the same city?
Apparently this was a list for a specific purpose. How was it worked out? What was the information base?
I have only a vague idea what it might have been. The flow logic of the lines could be chronological, perhaps from the order book of the previous year. Thus, it could have served to compile statistics on the number of active customers. However, I have doubts as to whether this was the usual method for producing such statistics. And if so, the list must have been of limited value as an only intermediate document for the final statistical result. Why did just this composition survive?
Does anyone have any alternative ideas on the case? I would be happy about any ideas, including vague, tentative or hypothetical ones.
Customers who may buy again vs. customers who are unlikely to buy. The possible repeat customer list.
Yes, this gives some sense ... Is "repeat customer list" a common technical term?
Very intersting document. In my opinion, it is a list of the so-called "fond de commerce". It is a case of b2b business, thus the comptoir have stable relationships and trades with each customer. The translation in english would be "stock in trade". I am not sure that there was another book aside, but it is more alike if there was a classifier with cards, each one corresponding to the customer with the list of sales was made to (quantities, qualities etc.). About "stocks in trade" there is a good chapter of Alessandro Stanziani "Le capital intangible : le fonds de commerce et son nantissement" in the book Le capitalisme au futur antérieur (2011).
To Michael: Buying patterns ... an interesting idea ... The numbers in the present document vary in a range between "700" and more than "9000". The comptoir sold only some more than ten items (of iron) .... So, the item hypothesis is not the strongest. ... About 10.000 customer in France would fit more to the range of numbers. - But of course this is also only a guess. - Don't hesitate with further ideas ...
To Marco: Just to get you straight: What do the column numbers mean to you? And by what criteria did a firm get an entry in this list. - I interprete the "fond de commerce" as the better proportion of the total number of customers. (Right?) Is there a difference to "repeat customer list"? Is it maybe weighted by the order sizes or profit values?
Thanks Holm for the reply. The column with numbers should be the id of the customers cards. If you look at it closely, you see that the n. 1527, F. Berte fondeur de Roubaix is repeated two times. In my opinion, this meant thta the accountancy listed in this book the customers when there was a trade, the numer refers to another classifier in which details on each trade, orders and general situation of customer, are reported... it looks also like there is a kind of geograpghical order (on the top, two from Vosges, below a bulk from Lyon etc...): maybe it is the same of a "repeat customer list", but I think that even one-trade customer are listed in.
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