Modern Channel Index (MCI)

When applied to merchandise, the Modern Channel Index (MCI) teaches us an awful lot about how customers interact with merchandise.

Here's some data ... the x-axis depicts how "old" the average customer buying an item is, in years (1.00 = all new customers, 2.20 = average customer is 2.20 years old).

The y-axis measures the "MCI" or "Modern Channel Index" for the top 500 items. A value of 1.00 represents highly modern channels (like mobile) ... a value of 0.40 represents old-school channels (like your call center).

Tell me what the relationship indicates?

We learn that "older customers" tend to lean toward "older channels".

We learn that "newer customers" tend to lean toward "modern channels".

You might say to yourself, "duh".

But here's why this matters ... you have been taught to leverage an "omnichannel" strategy, where every item is featured in every channel. And you wonder why the thesis behaves in such a tepid manner, right? Well, certain items align with modern channels, while legacy items tend to align with legacy channels.

It turns out that each channel serves a "purpose" ... and possesses merchandise that uniquely defines the channel.

More on this tomorrow.