MLV: Merchandise Profile

Every item you sell has a profile.

For a company I recently analyzed, here's a sample of profile attributes for Item #1:

• Customers who bought the item last year have a 70% chance of buying again next year.
• 46% of the customers who bought the item last year spent at least $500 last year.
• 41% of the customers who bought the item last year bought it via a discount/promotion.
• 11% of the customers who bought the item last year purchased it via the call center.
• 31% of the customers who bought the item last year purchased it online, no marketing channel attributed to the order.
• 12% of the customers who bought the item last year purchased it via email marketing.
• 28% of the customers who bought the item last year purchased it via search.

Here's a sample of profile attributes for Item #2:

• Customers who bought the item last year have a 38% chance of buying again next year.
• 13% of the customers who bought the item last year spent at least $500 last year.
• 86% of the customers who bought the item last year bought it via a discount/promotion.
• 9% of the customers who bought the item last year purchased it via the call center.
• 42% of the customers who bought the item last year purchased it online, no marketing channel attributed to the order.
• 4% of the customers who bought the item last year purchased it via email marketing.
• 29% of the customers who bought the item last year purchased it via search.

The goal of every item we sell is to cause customers to become more loyal, and therefore, cause customers to come back and buy again.

Item #1 above does a great job of this.

Item #2 above doesn't do as good of a job as Item #1, does it?

It you have two items, and one item does a great job of fostering customer loyalty while another item harvests short-term margin dollars but does not foster customer loyalty, which item would you prefer to feature?