Cabela's Moves from CHAID to CART (1,105 words)

"Much of the equipment we sell is very seasonal," says Karrick. "In the spring, our customers are ready for fly fishing, hiking, camping, boating and other warm-weather activities; in the fall comes deer-hunting season, snowshoeing, ice-fishing and other cold-weather activities. As a result, our data should have indicated a variable for customers who order in the first four months of the year." Karrick used CART to generate trees that shed more light on that variable. "My second analysis showed that seasonal buyers factor in largely, so I was able to refine my spring model to use a variable my initial analysis overlooked."