Multichannel orders muddy the waters; matchbacks are your chlorine

By Mark Swedlund

Ten years ago, we knew all the media the customer had seen from us (namely, a stream of catalogs), and they willingly provided our telephone operators with information about the precise vehicle from which they were ordering. Now we’re lucky to be able to precisely measure half our sales.

On the Internet side, at first we figured that we’d know exactly what banners or keywords drove customers to our Web sites and be able to precisely determine the amount to spend on advertising — and where we ought spend it. Catalogers have been delighted to find new customers placing orders on their Web sites, driven from Google paid search terms and other Web media.