100 Entrepreneurs Who Changed The World
41. Aaron Montgomery Ward (1834-1913)
“Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.”
Aaron Montgomery Ward was an American salesman and entrepreneur hailing from the windy city, Chicago. He made a fortune by bringing the inner-city shopping to rural customers through mail order. By utilizing mail order to sell general merchandize, Ward was able to rapidly expand his retail business. He opened the first mail-order house and began widely mailing his catalogue out. The catalogue was printed through the most advanced methods of the time and featured actual pictures of the merchandize for the customer to peruse. Montgomery Ward & Company’s catalogue revolutionized American retail, along with their main competitor, Sears Roebuck. Ward used ingenuity and marketing to take sales to a whole new level, and in doing so he became very wealthy.