Using Analytics to Understand Retail Customer Behavior

David Cost, Vice President of Ecommerce & Digital Marketing at Rainbow Apparel, joins the podcast today. Since joining the company in 2015, he has grown Rainbow Apparel's ecommerce business over 400% and has plenty of thoughts to share that led him to this success.

Michael asks David if he thinks the retail apocalypse is coming, and David explains why he doesn't think that it is. He talks about the shift he has seen in retail throughout his life and then gives an overview of the positive state that Rainbow is in. We hear about the conditioning that consumers have gone through in retail, which has taught them to never pay full price for an item.

When asked about omnichannel marketing, David shares his belief that terms like these have been made up by retail insiders. He states that thinking of stores and brands this way is not the way that consumers do, therefore causing a gap. David discusses what Rainbow is doing to eliminate any difference between their online and in-store experience.

David shares the metrics that Rainbow looks at on a monthly basis and says that he tries to determine if the value of a customer changes based on where advertising money is spent. He then provides details on the split between Rainbow's online and offline advertising and talks about an aspect that the company struggles with.

After briefly discussing the challenges of hiring digital marketers with the right combination of technical and marketing skills, the conversation comes back to the conditioning of customers, and David gives examples of how successful clothes retailers do business. He shares that offering promotions too often never ends well.