Kevin Hillstrom: MineThatData

The Report Lies To You

2026-08-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

Non-catalog readers, take the day off.

Once again, I share these images to show you just how wonked-up AI actually is. Spelling errors. Missing legs. If it's this wonked-up with a simple cartoon, imagine what else the gurus are trusting that in reality is completely borked?

But I digress.

Last week a member of the #printisback community on LinkedIn decided that #brands need to go back to 1996, as if J. Peterman were about to publish the Urban Sombrero on the cover.

The root of the lie being told to you is called "Matchback Reporting". Matchbacks ignore incrementality. Those who believe in Matchback Reporting ignore reality.

Time for a parable. Remember when I told you a member of the retargeting community took me to lunch, and for the cost of a Caesar Salad wanted me to convince the Management Team at a large retail brand that because 95% of ecommerce customers saw at least one of his ads he deserved credit for 95% of ecommerce orders (over $300,000,000 in annual sales) and he wanted a percentage of each transaction. If he presented those facts to you, a smart cataloger, you'd say "hey, Goober, get out you Lemonhead." Then you'd go back to your cubicle, pull out your Matchback Report, and perform the EXACT SAME ANALYSIS AS GOOBER DID and treat it as Gospel. You'd think that Goober was an idiot, you'd view you as a savvy marketer. And yet? You're the same person, doing the same thing, sans Caesar Salad.

Let's assume that your catalog is active across a four-week period. Let's assume you were going to mail your entire twelve-month customer file. You randomly select 50,000 customers to be in the mailed segment, you randomly select 50,000 customers to be in your no-mail / holdout segment.

You then sum all demand across all marketing channels for the four weeks when the catalog is active. Compute an average (i.e. divide each sum by the 50,000 customers in the segment). You'll produce a table that looks like this:

This is the way test results generally look. If you don't mail a catalog, your call center is quiet as 78 year olds cannot call you if they don't have a catalog in their hand. Website / Direct Load is where most demand happens, most of the demand will happen if you don't mail the catalog. Email Marketing is usually not impacted by catalogs, though your mileage will vary. Search is a channel that is clearly impacted by catalogs - catalogs cause customers to search for competing products (both a strength and a weakness of catalog marketing because your dumb catalog drives your smart customers to the competition). Social is almost never impacted by catalogs - completely different audiences.

The magic in the table happens in the Total Demand column.

Your matchback reporting takes full credit for the $5.65 of total demand. It ignores what would have happened if the catalog were never mailed. If the catalog were never mailed, the $5.65 total becomes $4.25 ... not $0, but $4.25.

Here's what the p&l might look like for the $5.65 figure.

Everything looks good here ... you appear to generate $1.54 profit per catalog/book ... in modern parlance you generate a ROAS of 7.53. It's the 7.53 figure that the #printisback community on LinkedIn like to refer to ... it's a much higher number than that 3.88 figure you get for paid search or 2.97 for paid social or ... wait ... they never quote email marketing because email marketing has the best ROAS, period.

Remember - your holdout group did $4.25, not zero. Take the control / holdout group average ($4.25), divide it by the mailed group average ($5.65), and you get 75%.

This means that 75% of what is outlined on the matchback report is a lie. A fabrication. It would have happened had the catalog not been mailed ... and you know this is true because in the table YOU DIDN'T MAIL THE CUSTOMERS IN THE HOLDOUT GROUP!!!!

We cannot run the p&L on the $5.65 that is likely reported in your matchback report. We have to run it on the incremental total ... $1.40 ... which is (1 - 75% = 25%) of the $5.65 total.

The p&l changes, friends.

This is where things get really dicey. The incremental outcome (a loss of $0.18 per catalog) is REALITY. The matchback-reported totals column of $1.54 profit is FANTASY.

On LinkedIn, the #printisback community communicates FANTASY results to you, misrepresenting the outcome as reality.

It's pretty obvious why they'd do this.

$5.65 per book / $1.54 profit = Best ROI, which means you should hire them.
$1.40 per book / ($0.18 profit) = It might be time to shut down your catalog division.

When I communicate (via analysis of thousands ... seriously ... of catalog mail/holdout tests across 36 years) what a smart catalog brand should be doing, I'm generally derided by the #printisback community, and for good reason. I want you to do what is most profitable for your business, they want you to do what is most profitable for their business. Do you see the distinction there?

So, yes, the #printisback community is probably right ... I'm not one of them as they tell my clients.

But I'm on your side. I want you to be as profitable as possible. Matchback reports lie to you, and somebody has to communicate that to you.

Feeling Special

2026-08-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

I gave a presentation in 2016, in front of about 1,500 people. I spent nearly an hour explaining to the audience how running an ecommerce brand would become comparable to running a sports franchise.

The audience was not impressed.

I do recall a pair of Associate Athletic Directors working for FCS Colleges reaching out to me to suggest I "had it right" - they suggested their world was heading in this direction as well. My industry didn't agree, these people who weren't in the industry believed in the thesis.

Here we are, in 2026.

As you can see, AI has a way to go. That's a catastrophic effort at creating a cartoon for me. And you need to see the cartoon to understand AI limitations. How will you know when AI completely butchers your marketing efforts? It's going to happen, and it's going to be spectacular.

Last year I stood in a luxury store with an Executive. The Executive told me to watch the customer. The customer was spending somewhere north of $5,000 ... and she had a glow that reached from Phoenix to El Paso. It was the kind of glow an Eagles fan might feel after beating the Cowboys 34-28 on a last-second touchdown pass.

The customer felt special.

The theoretical Eagles fan would feel special.

It isn't hard to see the future of ecommerce bifurcate.

AI-Agents shopping on your behalf at AI-Marketplaces. That's cold and boring and sterile.
Brands who make customers feel special.

To get back to the sports analogy, you're probably going to hire a General Manager at some point in the future.

AI-Marketplace Director reports to this person.
AI-Agent Director reports to this person.
Ecommerce Director reports to this person.
Creative Director reports to this person.
Website Operations reports to this person.
Digital Marketing Team reports to this person.
Merchandise/Marketing Communicator (Director) reports to this person.
Analytics Team reports to this person.

The General Manager (GM) brings everything together. She's not unlike Billy Beane in Moneyball. She has three major job functions.

Partner with merchandising/inventory leadership to put the best products in the best situations to have the best outcomes ... similar to what a baseball GM does with A / AA / AAA / Major League players. There's a development plan for each player. There needs to be a development plan with winning/new merchandise that is marketing-driven.
Lead the company into the future with AI, setting aside all the hype and grifting, focusing on what matters to customers.
Make customers feel special. This doesn't mean offering somebody 40% off. This doesn't mean triple-loyalty-points. This likely means creating digital and offline events that fill an emotional need with the customer. This isn't fundamentally different than six Saturday home game afternoons during the College Football season.

There are going to be new companies that create the AI-Marketplaces of the future. We have no idea who those companies are (they likely don't exist yet or they have 11 employees), we don't know what AI-Marketplaces will look like. We don't. Anybody who tells you they know is a Thought Leader. We will need a General Manager position to cut though the grifting that will happen or is currently happening.

The GM needs to also make customers feel special.

Spend An Hour With Me. And Daniel. And Aaron. On Monday

2026-08-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

Join Daniel/Aaron from Orita.ai and I on Monday at 4:30pm EDT / 1:30pm PDT as we talk about ecommerce and bridging the gap between Executives and those of us with facts that need to be acted upon.

Click Here, now!!

In 1992 Your Promotion From Analyst To Manager Was Published in DMNews

2026-08-12T20:10:00.000-07:00

By 1994 my promotion wasn't published anymore. By 2026 you self-published your promotion on LinkedIn (and earned 77 "likes").

But 1992?

In 1992 you'd submit org structure changes to DMNews so that you could communicate to the entire Catalog Industry just how sophisticated your intentions were.

"LL Bean announced today the promotion of Shannon Ellison to Director of Circulation. She brings with her nearly eight years of experience. Ellison mentioned that she's '... looking forward to partnering with our printer to bring perfect binding to the Christmas catalog'. At press time, LL Bean has not decided whether the Christmas catalog will be 256 pages or 260 pages."

These announcements meant something. There was actual gossip ... "do you think LL Bean could go to 264 pages, I mean, Ellison likes a meaty assortment from what I've heard." I recall our restructure in 1992 to a "Customer Planning and Development" framework (or maybe we left that framework, I don't know). We announced a new Director and new Managers. My goodness, the stimulating conversations as LL Bean and Lands' End held an "exchange" meeting (to exchange names with each other) in room 318 at the Marriott during the Catalog Conference, with 18 people (including 6 actual employees from LL Bean and Lands' End paired with 12 kind vendor-supporting staffers) sitting around two queen beds negotiating the trade of 1.6 million names at $0.005 each.

Twenty years later? All of it ... gone. All of it. Replaced by Google.

Imagine everything that exists today ... gone in 2046. It's going to happen.

Viable Assortment

2026-08-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

Here's one of the optional analytics that I might add to a Top 12 project ... I call it the "Viable Assortment".

Viable Assortment = The Number of Items/Styles You Sell That Generate Enough Volume To Be In The Top 90% of Your Sales Assortment (Annually).

The items in the bottom ten percent of your assortment are just rubble ... stuff that is being cleared out, stuff you sold three years ago and 17 customers still love it.

The items in the top 90% of your assortment are your "Viable Assortment". It's what customers care about.

Here's a company that is failing. Here is their "Viable Assortment".

End of 2025: 1,206 Items, Price = $18.20, Average Sales/Item = $15,520.
End of 2024: 1,158 Items, Price = $15.21, Average Sales/Item = $19,892.
End of 2023: 1,335 Items, Price = $15.72, Average Sales/Item = $18,471.
End of 2022: 1,573 Items, Price = $16.34, Average Sales/Item = $16,273.

Weeeeeeee!

Among the Viable Assortment, this brand jacked up prices (or introduced expensive items ... hint hint), driving down Sales/Item in the process. And compared to three years ago, we see that the Viable Assortment is 20% SMALLER than it is today. Bad. Not smart. That's 370 fewer items generating at least $15,520 less ... that's $5.7 million that evaporated due to a smaller Viable Assortment.

Do you measure your Viable Assortment?

It can be part of the "bonus analysis" that is included in the Top 12 Project ... contact me now (kevinh@minethatdata.com) to take advantage of the introductory offer for prior clients and blog subscribers ... offer ends August 15.

So You Aren't Selling

2026-08-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

This comes up from time-to-time ... "don't talk to me about selling my business, I'm not remotely interested in selling my business.

Fair enough.

However.

What do you want your business to look like in three years?

Example. You currently manage a $60,000,000 brand that earns 5% pre-tax profit. Yes, three million dollars of pre-tax profit is nice. No, you're not happy with that level of performance, for obvious reasons. When your vendors charge you more and sales don't increase, you no longer earn 5% pre-tax profit, do you? In other words, what does you business need to look like three years from now ... what does "healthy" look like in the context of your brand?

Do you still want to be a $60,000,000 business? Unlikely. You probably want to be a $75,000,000 business in three years. If that's the case, how many new customers do you need to get there? How much does merchandise productivity need to improve to get there? Are there marketing channels you under-utilize ... should you "utilize" them better, and if so, what is the roadmap to get there? Do you need to personalize the assortment of your home page and landing pages to please customers with specific merchandise preferences, or do you let the customer hunt-and-peck their way to what they want to buy? Do you have enough newness in your merchandise assortment to please your loyal customer base so they keep spending $$$ with you? How long do you have to hold on to winning product so that you extract maximum profit from each winning item ... is it two years, five years?

If somebody were considering buying your brand, they'd ask all of these questions ... you'd have to have answers to the questions, credible answers, not theory.

Here's the thing ... if you identify what you want your business to look like in three years, you'll take steps between now and three years from now that get you to where you want to be in the future. It's a strategic plan of sorts. You're essentially going through the process that somebody who wants to sell their brand for $$$ goes through years prior to selling.

The $60,000,000 brand earning 5% pre-tax profit might fetch an imaginary $15,000,000.
Spending three years to get the brand to $75,000,000 and 10% pre-tax profit might fetch an imaginary $35,000,000 at the same multiple ... might fetch a higher multiple as well.

You're probably saying "this doesn't matter, we're not selling, Goober". Ok. How many of you have a bonus structure? Say you are a Director at your ecommerce brand earning $150,000 a year and a 30% bonus if you meet your financial goals. Do you want to earn a half-bonus of $22,500 for a middling business generating 5% pre-tax profit, or do you want to earn a full-bonus of $45,000 for helping get your brand to 10% pre-tax profit?

For most of you, there is a financial incentive (via bonuses) to view your business as if you were getting it ready to be sold in three years.

Or ... keep doing what you've been doing.

Top 12 Analysis: Impact of Pricing

2026-08-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

One of the analyses I run in a pricing project is measurement of customer response by price point. If inexpensive price point customers are willing to buy expensive price point items in the future, you're in good shape? If not? You need to maintain price integrity.

I'll run logistic regression models (#oldschool) of next year's response within price point bands ... always a fun and informative analysis!

The table shows the increase in rebuy rates ... for instance, if a customer buys from the low price point band, each item purchased there increases your probability of buying in the future regardless of price point band ... but adds the most in low prices and average prices.

Interestingly (in this case) if the customer buys from the highest price point band, the customer is most likely to keep buying in the highest price point band next year, though the purchase does help increase odds of buying in all price point bands.

There are companies I analyze that have all sorts of odd outcomes ... low price point customers that refuse to move up, high price point customers who buy from everything, average price point customers who default back to low price point bands. Regardless, it's important information you need to learn for your brand.

It's one of the Top 12 Analyses you respond to when we work together on a project! You have a few days left to take me up on my Top 12 offer. Contact me now (kevinh@minethatdata.com).

Alternate Facts

2026-08-06T20:10:00.000-07:00

Midland Paper thinks you need to read this article (click here). They included the article in a newsletter this week.

Is there a rise in Slow Commerce? I asked one of the AI apps to tell me about Slow Commerce. Surely if it were a trend, AI would know about it, right?

Here's another AI application.

In 2026, there is an abundance of data showing that catalog marketing was harmed deeply by ecommerce, then had the doors blown off of it by the paper/printing industry, who constrained supply, raised prices, and fired my clients ... pushing the marketing channel to the brink unless you have the marketing budget of a Zombie Retailer or Amazon.

If an abundance of facts/data doesn't align with your worldview, it's fashionable to create alternate facts. You see it in politics every day.

Thing is, Midland Paper doesn't need to peddle opinions dressed up as facts. They have clients. They have success stories.

If they think Slow Commerce is a trend, why not show an example? Show people what Trader Joe's is doing - even if you don't directly work with them. They sent me sixteen pages of homespun commerce today.

There's even a crossword puzzle at the back of that thing. Old school.

I realize it's a lot more fun to get on an airplane and meet with the creative folks at a Zombie Retailer ... they're willing to waste tens of thousands of dollars on branding, not expecting a penny of sales in return. Who wouldn't like that kind of business? Of course, maybe that's why they're Zombie Retailers, but that's a story for another day.

For today, no need for alternate facts when reality is delivered from a company like Trader Joes.

Top 12 Analysis: Merchandise Gravity

2026-08-05T20:10:00.000-07:00

This one is always a classic ... every one of you manages customers who ultimately gravitate toward specific merchandise categories or exhibit behavior that becomes actionable from a targeting standpoint.

I use what is called a "Factor Analysis" to reduce complicated customer behavior into actionable segments. The computer produces a visualization for me ... the visualization is what so many of you have enjoyed over the past twenty years, making the visualization one of the Top 12 Analyses I perform.

So many fun associations!

Customers buying for the first time lean to one-item orders (duh), which skew to expensive items. Yup.

Customers buying from Merchandise Category 02 tend to buy items below their average historical price point. This brand is discounting within that category, it's something I'd have to discuss with Management to understand if they were liquidating items or ... well ... just to figure out if they had a plan.

As customers become loyal (3rd / 4th / 5th / 6th-9th purchase) they align with new merchandise. Guess what? This one comes up frequently. Give your best customers want they want for crying out loud!!!!

My Top 12 Offer ($12,000 instead of $19,000) is valid for prior clients and blog subscribers through August 15. Contact me (kevinh@minethatdata.com) for details.

Top 12 Analysis: The Most Popular Table I've Ever Created

2026-08-04T20:10:00.000-07:00

I started creating this analysis (Class Of Reporting) for clients back in 2012, rolled it out more formally in the 2013-2014 timeframe.

In nearly every project where this table provides enlightening insights, clients talk about the table ... a lot.

It's not all great talk. I shared the table with an Owner about a decade ago. A few weeks later the Chief Merchandising Officer calls me ... "your analysis got me fired". No, the analysis didn't get him fired, he got himself fired because the analysis revealed the fact the merchant was unable to effectively manage a merchandise assortment.

Through the years, the analysis remains relevant and actionable. In 2026, you'd be amazed how few ecommerce brands look at their business this way.

The merchant is failing this brand. New items went from 3,146 three years ago to 2,180 in the past year. This tactic "can" work if new items are more productive. In this case, they're not more productive. New item demand dropped from $14.6 million two years ago to $8.1 million in the past year. Unacceptable.

Look at the price of new items in the past year ... $20.80 vs. $15.23 the year prior. Chaotic management of pricing tiers.

These trends repeat all the time.

These trends get marketers fired all the time. The marketer does nothing wrong (well, the marketer should run this analysis), sales decrease, traffic decreases, and the merchant blames the marketing team for not generating enough traffic. The story has nothing to do with "traffic". It has to do with mismanagement of the merchandise assortment.

When one drills down by category, more truth is revealed.

This is the most popular table in my project work ... by far ... it's not even close. It can be yours, part of the Top 12 Analysis ... with pricing locked in at $12,000 through August 15. Contact me now (kevinh@minethatdata.com) for details.

Top 12 Analysis: Customer Life Cycle

2026-08-03T20:10:00.000-07:00

Here's one of the analyses that "some" clients really appreciate. What you see below isn't the full analysis, it's a portion of the table with easy-to-understand metrics.

Every business has a "DNA", a hard-written code that dictates where the brand goes. The brand depicted above possesses the classic "discounting" DNA. It's a lazy, stupid brand (it's from my "Beans: The Internet's Largest Variety Store" study).

As the customer matures, AOV increases from about $42 at a first order to $48 after ten orders. On the surface, this should be a good thing. It's not. We can see that the increase in AOV is manufactured. Look at Average Margin Value (margin dollars per order). We start at $29, loyal customers finish at $31. AOV increases by 14% as the customer becomes more loyal. AMV increases by just 6% as the customer becomes more loyal. The brand (like so many) is creating empty calories ... discounting to get the customer to spend more, not pushing gross margin far enough in the process (and hint - that's what matters).

Look at the percentage of an order that is represented by new merchandise.

1st Order = 40%.
11th+ Order = 63%.

A first-time buyer wants to purchase what is trusted (or what Google trusts - which is an interesting distinction). A loyal buyer wants to be excited by newness. This should shake you to your core, causing you to re-evaluate everything you do from a marketing standpoint.

Look at the percentage of an order that is represented by full-priced merchandise.

1st Order = 79%.
11th+ Order = 66%.

We can see that the brand gives away more to loyal buyers, which marketing pundits LOVE to do. Of course, marketing pundits are WRONG, but that's a story for another day.

I have a client who acted upon this information ... they trigger their email campaigns based on the knowledge gained in a Customer Life Cycle analysis. No batch-and-blast for everybody. Just smart merchandising to individual customers.

My offer stands ... act by August 15 and you get my Top 12 Analysis framework for $12,000. Contact me now (kevinh@minethatdata.com).

Top 12 Analysis: The Life Table

2026-08-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

Recall that I've collected the twelve analyses that you consistently get the most use out of ... these are the analytics you take action on, they are the analytics that you ask the most questions about on video conferences.

We'll start with the Life Table. The Life Table measures how customers convert from a first purchase to a second purchase ... 2nd to 3rd purchase ... 3rd to 4th purchase ... 4th to 5th purchase.

It can be hard to interpret a nerdy table ... so let's look at a graph that measures when this brand (Beans - The Internet's Only Variety Store) converts a first-time buyer to a second purchase. Tell me what you observe.

Do you see the problem?

I sure do!

Anytime incremental monthly rebuy rates (i.e. chance of buying in month six given the customer has not purchased in months 0/1/2/3/4/5) dips below 1.0%, the customer is unresponsive/dormant.

When does a first-time buyer become unresponsive?

Three Months After a First Purchase!

That's unacceptable!

There are two reasons for this ... both can happen at the same time.

The brand sells merchandise that is repurchased seasonally, negating timeframes when other brands are able to convert the customer to a second purchase.
The marketing team does not implement the right tools to convert the customer to a second purchase (i.e. batch-and-blast campaigns with the same presentation to all customers, poor paid search campaigns, poor organic social efforts).

We can also see that this brand fails to push customers to loyal status. Look at the original table at the top of the post, measuring rebuy rates after a year.

1x Buyer: 15.5% Rebuy Rate.
2x Buyer: 25.5% Rebuy Rate.
3x Buyer: 34.8% Rebuy Rate.
4x Buyer: 44.7% Rebuy Rate.

Rebuy rates need to exceed 60% after four purchases.

The Life Table quickly points out problem spots in the customer development process. Is it any wonder this is one of your favorite analyses??

Contact me (kevinh@minethatdata.com) for your own Top 12 Analysis (introductory offer of $12,000 lasts through August 15).

May Your Customers Love Your Brand As Much ...

2026-07-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

... as these customers love REI.

How would you measure if your customers "love" you?

If your customers love you but not enough to cover your rent, does brand "love" matter?

If your customers shop your gas station twice a month and a different gas station twice a month, does brand "love" matter if 24 transactions a year net you a ton of profit?

In a project a few years ago, the Executive went off about the fact that I defined a "Loyal Buyer" as one who has at least one twelve-month purchase and at least five life-to-date orders. "You don't know what Loyal is, and you shouldn't go around telling us how to define it. Our customers love us!!"

A tiny piece of your soul just kind of goes into hiding on those pithy arguments that some people like to have. We shouldn't take the definition of "loyal" too seriously, and we shouldn't strive for our customers to "love" us. Instead, we should take care of customers and we should realize the point where our customers generate self-sustaining profit.

New Project: My Top 12!

2026-07-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

A podcaster asked what my most popular projects are?

Interestingly, a look back at the work I've performed over the past three years showed a series of individual analytics within projects that clients consistently responded positively to. There were close to a dozen individual "pieces" of projects that professionals enjoyed.

Which got me thinking ...

... what if I combined the most popular stuff y'all respond to, and create one project out of all of it?

Let's do that!!

My Top 12:

My Elite Program Analytics that I run for Elite Program Subscribers 3x/year.
Life Table Analysis that shows the path your customers follow from a first purchase to loyal status.
Life Cycle Analysis - illustrating what your first-time buyers purchase vs. what average / loyal customers evolve into from a merch/channel standpoint.
Class-Of Reporting (most popular), demonstrating potential missteps in your merchandise assortment strategy over time. This analysis consistently provides the most discussion in my video conferences.
Primary / Secondary Merchandise Categories - I'll explain the categories that run your customer ecosystem. Each brand has 1-2 categories that either attract new customers or become that "gravity" that ties your loyal customers to your business. I cannot score all customers as normal within the scope of this project, but you'll understand what drives your business.
Price Point Analysis - I will measure the impact that higher prices have on repurchase metrics and/or spend per repurchaser. Very relevant in the post-COVID / Tariff environment we operate in.
New Customer Quality Analysis Over Time - Many ecommerce businesses went down the Paid Social rat hole and were left with a weakened customer file comprised of unresponsive customers. We'll figure out if that happened to your brand.
12 Month Future Spend For New Buyers by Channel/Season/Category - You won't get the scoring equations (that costs $$$) but you will learn which channels, which seasons, and which categories contribute to quality new customers.
Reactivation Potential - I will describe whether your business should "lean into" customer reactivation as a meaningful growth opportunity. You won't receive the scoring models my clients usually receive, but you'll understand if you have customers willing to be reactivated.
Five Year Demand Forecast (2nd most popular) - I will show you where your business is headed based on a segmentation of customers and prior repurchase activity.
Multi-Year Marketing Budget Study - This high level analysis evaluates marketing spend by channel for the past three years, comparing your brand to a typical client. Are you over-spending, under-spending, or have what I'd call an "imbalanced spend" by channel?
Mystery Analysis - Based on customer behavior, I will add one (1) analysis to the eleven outlined above. If you have merchandise problems, I'll draw into my Categories analysis. If you have loyalty problems, I'll dive into the Life Cycle analysis (etc).

Ok, that's a lot!

How much does this cost?

Pick Any Two Aspects Of The Project = $5,000.
Blog Subscribers and Clients: $12,000 through August 15.
$19,000 For Everybody Else - $19,500 after August 15.
$34,000 For A Deep Dive Within Each Of The Analyses.

I mean, for $12,000 you're getting an awful lot, aren't you?

I'll also include a one-page summary that outlines what I learned ... beyond the normal writeup/analysis.

You've got a little over two weeks to act, to get in the analysis queue. Contact me right now (kevinh@minethatdata.com) to reserve your spot. Click here for file layouts.

P.S.: If you are rebuilding your business, you'll need this analysis to point you in the right direction.

Times Change

2026-07-28T20:10:00.000-07:00

Times change, folks.

Did you know that somebody at a catalog agency works on the Amazon Toy catalog?

It has to be a fascinating feeling ... for a quarter century you watched Amazon systematically consume an "industry". You watched, mostly helplessly, as catalog brand after catalog brand either went out of business, were rolled-up within umbrella companies, or reduced circulation to the point of not even being a catalog brand anymore. Your agency competitors contracted or went out of business.

Then it got worse.

Remember back in 2022 when the catalog brands that still existed couldn't even get paper? The VP from Midland Paper mentions here the 50% decline in catalogs in "recent years". My estimates suggest 80% of all circulated pages have been removed from commerce in the past twenty years.

Somehow you worked through all of that. And then you're given a new assignment. It's your job to work on the Amazon Toy catalog.

Jarring!

You've fought against the incessant encroachment of Amazon on catalogs for decades. Now you help them complete the task, helping Amazon further contribute to the contraction of what used to be an "industry".

Catalogs are alive at Amazon, and they're alive among Zombie Retailers like Saks.

We should expect this to happen. As costs soar out of control, the brands that can support catalogs are those with hyper-loyal customers, brands that could care less that costs to put catalogs in the mail increased roughly 25% over the past three years +/-.

Years ago I joked that in the future the only catalogs in the mail would come from Amazon, who would mail (literally) everybody because they were the only brand that could still afford to mail catalogs, the only brand that doesn't need to prove ROI.

My joke could come true.

Times change.

Rebuilding

2026-07-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

I watched a program on linear television (#gasp #oldschool #luddite). A pair of perfectly wonderful sisters were running a restaurant that was unprofitable. The sisters didn't want to change. They served gigantic meals at unrealistically low prices ... paired with ridiculous monthly rent, they were flying their plane into the side of the mountain.

Something had to give.

They had to serve less food.

They had to raise prices.

They had to reduce expenses (i.e. fewer people).

In other words, this restaurant needed to "rebuild". They were like the Arizona Cardinals, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Utah Jazz, the Vancouver Canucks, the Wisconsin Badgers Football Team.

Our Country needs to rebuild. No need to go further.

A generation of ecommerce businesses (founded 1995 - 2015 ... think legacy brands like Stitch Fix) are ready to rebuild, if they haven't already begun to rebuild. They're like that house you built in 2011 ... it needs to be painted, floors need to be replaced, appliances don't work, bathrooms are tired. We know this is true when growth stops. We know this is true when merchandise productivity erodes. We know this is true when email marketing hasn't fundamentally changed post-COVID. We know this is true when somebody says "Facebook isn't delivering quality names".

My catalog clients? Forced to rebuild. It's like your Hall of Fame quarterback just retired, except in your case your paper / printing / postage partners keep increasing costs to the point where the discipline they love is ending because of their cost increases. You get to rebuild as a digital marketer.

Like the NFL Team rebuilding after losing a Hall of Fame Quarterback, it can be hard to understand "what" needs to be rebuilt. A great quarterback covers a multitude of sins. Now your defense is on the field more often. Your new quarterback holds onto the ball too long, making it look like the offensive line is bad. Are they bad?

If you are rebuilding, you likely need analytical guidance, so you can tell if your defense / offensive line / etc. is in need of fixing. Same thing in ecommerce. You have to know "where" your rebuilding efforts need to be emphasized.

Share of Demand by Advertising Channel Detective

2026-07-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

This one came up in the past year. I noticed a problem with a business.

Regardless of the attribution method (they're all wrong and yet they're called "truth" by so many in the industry), it's pretty easy to play detective and identify a business that is not healthy.

Healthy Business:

40% of Sales Happen Organically, Without Aid of Advertising.
20% of Sales Happen Via Email Marketing.
20% of Sales Happen Via Search Marketing.
10% of Sales Happen Via Social Media (Paid + Organic).
10% of Sales Happen Via Other Marketing Channels.

Unhealthy Business #1

10% of Sales Happen Organically, Without Aid of Advertising.
15% of Sales Happen Via Email Marketing.
35% of Sales Happen Via Search Marketing.
15% of Sales Happen Via Social Media (Paid + Organic).
25% of Sales Happen Via Other Marketing Channels.

Unhealthy Business #2

5% of Sales Happen Organically, Without Aid of Advertising.
65% of Sales Happen Via Catalog Marketing.
12% of Sales Happen Via Email Marketing.
15% of Sales Happen Via Search Marketing.
1% of Sales Happen Via Social Media (Paid + Organic).
2% of Sales Happen Via Other Marketing Channels.

Whether you are trying to rebuild your business or are looking to buy/sell a business, this is a good guideline for you to reference. Unhealthy businesses generate very little demand/sales organically (without the aid of marketing). Healthy businesses did the marketing years ago, earned trust via the merchandise they sell and consistently good customer service, resulting in ongoing sales that do not require marketing.

Unhealthy businesses possess two key attributes.

Marketing is required to generate sales. Less marketing, less sales.
One marketing channel is responsible for more than half of annual demand.

Again, most of you are not looking to buy/sell a brand (if you are, I'm the person to evaluate the health of the business ... kevinh@minethatdata.com). Most of you are looking to rebuild your business or maintain it. Use what you've read this week to rebuild/build your business.

"Cheating" Detective

2026-07-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

In the 2016-2018 timeframe Private Equity folks asked me to evaluate a business that they felt was "cheating".

What does "cheating" mean?

It means the brand was somehow boosting net sales in a manner that wasn't ideal for the future of the business.

When I reviewed ad spend, I didn't see anything unusual.

8,500 lines of code later, my detective work paid off.

13-24 Months Ago = 15% (numbers disguised here) of sales from discounted/promo items.
Past Year = 55% (percentage disguised here) of sales from discounted/promo items.

In other words, Management decided to make it look like the business was surging, when in reality Management was cheating.

At this time, Management had not provided Private Equity with their p&l ... you can't hide from the p&l of course ... discounting leads to lower gross margins, which would have set off alarm bells.

If you are selling your business or rebuilding your business, best not to cheat. Do the hard work.

Playing Merchandising Detective

2026-07-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

In the 2016-2018 timeframe, I was asked to evaluate a business that was simply bumbling along. I was told to figure out how a company with a reasonable annual repurchase rate (35%ish) could struggle to grow, even though customer acquisition efforts were being managed properly.

This is when you have to become a Merchandising Detective.

Very few clients manage merchandise consistently over time.

It's easy to see when the CFO demands higher gross margins. I'll see an immediate price per item purchased increase that is immediately paired with a customer response decrease and/or conversion rate decrease.

It's easy to see when a merchant quits or is fired. The new merchant comes in, has disdain for what the predecessor did while disrespecting what previously worked (see Lands' End 2014-2015ish for examples), leading to a new vision that is "trend right". Sales plummet and it takes 2-5 years to dig out of the mess. Nobody wants to hear that message, but that's frequently the message you deliver when playing merchandising detective.

It's easy to see when the paper / printing folks interact with unsuspecting catalog merchants. Costs increase by 20% or 25%, the unsuspecting catalog merchant cuts pages, the pages that are cut are not supported via digital marketing, and sales decrease ... then the paper / printing folks belittle the merchants for "being stupid". It's a common story post-COVID.

If you are planning on selling your business (catalog brands) or rebuilding your business (many ecommerce brands are in the rebuilding stage right now), you'll need a stable merchandising base. Take two years and build your merchandising foundation. This isn't the time to hire a "maverick" who takes risks. You need the smartest people possible to put together a multi-year plan to put your business on stable ground.

Playing Detective

2026-07-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

This is way back in 2016. The Private Equity firm wanted to buy a catalog brand. Their initial review of the data showed that the brand "bumbled" along for several years ... and then eighteen months ago the business surged. "Tell us the scheme this brand employed" was the mission.

What "scheme" did the brand employ? What is your guess?

Did you make a guess?

It took me all of four minutes running this business through 8,500 lines of code to reveal the reason. They juiced up their customer acquisition efforts for about a year, then let all those new customers pay off handsomely via well-analyzed customer lifetime value metrics while throttling back customer acquisition, thereby making the p&l look utterly robust.

This is the kind of stunt you can pull off when you mismanage your business for a considerable period of time and then the owner wants to buy a yacht at the same time that a smart marketer/analyst figures out the secret to success. When executed properly, Private Equity pays a higher multiple for the business.

Of course, it begs the question ... why wasn't the brand smart enough to do this in the decade prior? If it was smart enough, the business would have sold for 2x - 3x what it sold for.

The best time to properly manage the inflow/outflow of customers was ten years ago.

The second-best time to properly manage the inflow/outflow of customers is tomorrow morning.

A Healthy Business Metric

2026-07-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

If I asked you the following question, would you be able to answer it?

For every twelve-month buyer you earned through the end of 2025, how many marketing dollars will you spend speaking to the customer in 2026?

I'm willing to bet the following:

Fewer than 1 in 2 readers could come up with a credible estimate. And a credible estimate is a good thing ... it will immediately tell you if you have a marketing problem.
Fewer than 1 in 40 readers have actually measured the metric (email me kevinh@minethatdata.com) if you have actually measured the metric ... we'll determine if my estimate is correct.

Why is this metric important?

The metric is a measure of business health.

The best businesses generate "some" volume from marketing, especially via their customer acquisition efforts. These businesses frequently have a 10% ad-to-sales ratio. The brand might spend $5.00 per year marketing to the twelve-month buyer ... with most marketing dollars spent acquiring customers AND the merchandise is so compelling that the customer willingly purchases on her own with minimal prompting (AND the prompting is email / organic social which costs next to nothing).

Many profitable ecommerce businesses generate considerable volume from marketing. These businesses frequently have a 20% ad-to-sales ratio. The brand might spend $12.00 per year marketing to twelve-month buyers. They spend a lot of search and paid social, and unfortunately those dollars reach indecisive twelve-month buyers considering shopping from the competition ... the marketing dollars are a tax the brand pays because their merchandise isn't compelling enough. Vendors and Agencies will tell you that the marketing expenditures lead to increased profit. They tell you this for a good reason ... "they" increase their own profit. The higher level of ad-spend most likely leads to more profit dollars for you, sure, but it is at a sub-optimal rate, a tax you pay for not having compelling merchandise.

Then we have those catalog marketers with ad-to-sales ratios between 25% and 30%. They're disconnected from modern ecommerce. The acquire half or more of their customers via traditional lists and co-ops. They send 20 catalogs a year to their twelve-month buyer file. Their email marketing metrics look awful (and worse, an agency convinced the brand to attribute email orders to catalogs). They cut-and-paste catalog creative on Instagram then say that Instagram "doesn't work". Paid Social is considered a "waste". Paid Search orders are attributed to Catalogs. These brands spend $20 per year marketing to their twelve-month buyer file, making it very difficult to achieve a robust business that yields a 10% pre-tax EBITDA.

If you are trying to sell this business ... good luck. Few people want to purchase advertising-dependent businesses. Even fewer want to buy advertising-dependent businesses catering to 72 year old customers via paper.

Are you spending $5.00 per year per twelve month buyer?

Are you spending $12.00 per year per twelve month buyer?

Are you spending $20.00 per year per twelve month buyer?

When A Business Has Long-Term Potential

2026-07-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

There are things that are somewhat easy to fix.

When I see a business that needs 300,000 new/reactivated customers and is only acquiring 200,000, I usually see a marketing problem that can be fixed. The client may not see the problem that way, but it's a tactical issue that can be resolved.

Businesses that have long-term potential have a signature other businesses don't have. Long-term potential businesses acquire customers that generate plentiful downstream profit. I can also tell if the business has smart marketing/analytics employees ... if the business acquires customers who generate plentiful downstream profit, smart employees compensate by acquiring customers at a loss (or as a proxy their customer acquisition efforts have an unnaturally low ROAS).

Business Without Long-Term Potential.

Customer Acquisition ROAS = 4.00.
Profit on Acquisition Transaction = $2.00 per customer.
Year 1 Downstream Profit per Customer = $4.00.
Year 2 Downstream Profit per Customer = $2.00.
Year 3 Downstream Profit per Customer = $1.00.

Business Without Long-Term Potential, Managed for Short-Term Profit by Smart Marketers/Analytics Professionals.

Customer Acquisition ROAS = 8.00.
Profit on Acquisition Transaction = $12.00 per customer.
Year 1 Downstream Profit per Customer = $4.00.
Year 2 Downstream Profit per Customer = $2.00.
Year 3 Downstream Profit per Customer = $1.00.

Business With Long-Term Potential, Well Managed by Marketing/Analytics.

Customer Acquisition ROAS = 2.00.
Profit on Acquisition Transaction = ($10.00) per customer.
Year 1 Downstream Profit per Customer = $15.00.
Year 2 Downstream Profit per Customer = $11.00.
Year 3 Downstream Profit per Customer = $8.00.

The first business is one you don't want to acquire. Management doesn't know what they are doing. Marketing/Analytics don't understand the importance of profit.

The second business is worth considering only because smart people work there. It's the same business! However, the marketing/analytics folks generate enough profit acquiring a customer ... they understand that the customer doesn't have long-term potential ... so they optimize the business to make it profitable today. The buyer is purchasing "smart people" in this instance.

The third business is one that Private Equity or smart professionals want to purchase. ROAS isn't low because it's low ... it's low because marketing/analytics over-invest in new customers, losing money on the acquisition transaction to net out handsomely over three years. The owner of the first business would gladly lose $10.00 to profit $34.00 over three years ... but she can't do that because she sells merchandise that customers don't want often enough to generate future profit.

All of these dynamics are determined by "what" the brand sells. If you sell something that can be purchased year-round and the customer wants to buy it 2-3 times per year, you have the third business. If you sell something the customer only needs once every-three-years, you are managing the first business or the second business.

The first/second business cannot be fixed by the marketing/analytics folks ... it can only be optimized. The first/second business has a merchandising problem - the business is selling merchandise that customers don't want often enough to generate sufficient profit.

If you are wondering ... yes ... consultants see the first/second business every single day. Try telling the Chief Merchandising Officer that he isn't selling merchandise that customers want often enough to generate sufficient profit.

Alarms Go Off In My Head

2026-07-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a must read if you think AI isn't a bubble that is going to explode and wreak havoc (click here).

This is the quote that caused alarm bells to go off in my head: "This kind of mythology only grows in an environment deliberately deprived of good information."

There it is!

Ecommerce is misled by the mythology of conversion reporting, failing to understand customer relationships because Shopify shows conversion on an item among loyal buyers is 9.4%.

Catalog marketing is misled by the mythology of the matchback report (and for some bizarre reason an obsession among paper / printing folks on neuroscience).

Email marketers are misled by the mythology of open rates (a tactical metric but not a revenue-generating metric).

Social media marketers are misled by the mythology of engagement (a tactical metric but not a revenue-generating metric).

Search marketers are misled by the tyranny of ROAS (a revenue limiting metric).

Every one of us (myself included) deliberately deprive ourselves of good information in an effort to believe in the shared mythology that motivates us in our daily work but causes us to fail, to perform in a sub-optimal manner. We believe in a false marketing idol of some sort.

We don't have to do that.

Selling Your Business

2026-07-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

When I talked about Private Equity last week (click here), I didn't expect to get the feedback I received ... from some of you about buying/selling businesses.

So, yes, if you are thinking of selling your business or buying a business, I still perform evaluations of ecommerce brands. I'll point out everything positive I see, I will perform an analytical biopsy on that odd looking patch of skin, I'll forecast out where the business is likely to head over the next few years.

If it is a catalog-centric business, there's nobody on Planet Earth who is better positioned to discuss what the future holds for that business than me.

Contact me now (kevinh@minethatdata.com) if you are thinking of buying/selling an ecommerce business.

Yes, You Need To Experiment With Merchandise

2026-07-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

Here's what I frequently see. A client launches new items in 2019 ... a class of items. I then measure the sales of these items by year thereafter.

2019: $25,000,000.
2020: $40,000,000.
2021: $31,000,000.
2022: $23,000,000.
2023: $16,000,000.
2024: $10,000,000.
2025: $7,000,000.

Not only is this what I frequently see, this is just the way things work for the vast majority of clients. It's just how business works.

This is why you have to constantly replenish your assortment with newness ... why you must constantly experiment with new product lines or extensions within your existing product categories. You have no choice.

Put on your lab coat, grab a beaker, and start experimenting.

Two things.

1 - It's ok to have no idea what you're doing. You're experimenting. Try things. Something is going to work. In no way am I saying you should be reckless. Don't discontinue stuff that works great to fund your experiments. Nope. I see it all the time in my work. Be smart about keeping the stuff that works and squeezing every last penny of profit from it.

2 - For the marketers in the audience, it's your job to amplify the experiments performed by your merchants. Support your co-workers. Give their new items exposure in email, on the socials, on your home page.

It's time to start experimenting.