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In a recent dataset, here's the percentage of new merchandise sold by marketing channel.

• Catalog Call Center = 36% New.
• Online = 33% New.
• Comparison Shopping Engines = 22% New.
• Email Marketing = 29% New.
• Natural Search = 28% New.
• Paid Search = 29% New.
• Affiliates = 29% New.
• Online Orders via Call Center = 28% New.

There's a trend here that I frequently observe:

• Online marketing, and Google in particular, drive traffic that likes established winning products.
• The most expensive channels (catalogs + call center) have the highest rate of new merchandise.

In a modern world, you want to align the best products with the most expensive marketing channels, so that the best product can pay the freight!

In a modern world, you want to align your new merchandise with the least expensive marketing channels (Email, Employee Influencers, Instagram/Social, Your App, Home/Landing Pages), giving them as much exposure as possible at the lowest possible cost.

Keep that in mind as you design your tactics for 2019, ok?

P.S.: The Google-thing is discouraging. Folks on Twitter tell me this is common ... that Google funnels traffic to products that "historically worked", which of course increases #engagement for Google. But that may not be what is best for you. If you don't give new merchandise enough exposure today, you won't have enough existing/winning items tomorrow.

P.P.S.: In this same analysis, the highest sales rates among winning items were in Natural Search and Paid Search. Again, Google is funneling traffic for winning items, and is not providing the same exposure for your newer items. You've got to find a way to give new items exposure at a low-cost / no-cost.