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

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

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

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.

1. The brand sells merchandise that is repurchased seasonally, negating timeframes when other brands are able to convert the customer to a second purchase.
2. 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 ...

... 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!

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

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

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.