RFM Turned Upside Down

At this point in time, it’s become conventional practice for catalog response rates to include all orders placed on the Web if that customer was mailed a catalog. Unfortunately, basing future mailing decisions on such response rates can be disastrous.

Misleading Response Rates

Assuming that orders placed on the Web site resulted from a catalog mailing can be misleading. While it’s true, for the most part, with respect to prospects mailed, it may be far from the truth when it comes to past customers. It’s just as the argument made by the retail store management that suggests those customers would have come into the store, anyway. Well, at least a portion of them.