demand generated via promotions. This is such an important way of looking at a business,

freeze the file as of exactly twelve months ago. Then, I identify all the customers purchasing exactly two times in the year prior to that. Finally, I measure how these customers performed in the next twelve months

free to define your own "comp segment" however you like,

loyalty killers should not featured at the front of a catalog, and should not be featured in email marketing campaigns.

Short-term profit, which almost everybody optimizes to a fault, focuses on exploiting existing customers with existing best sellers to increase profitability.

Email has been compromised, becoming the go-to channel for customers looking to get the best deal.

Items simply do not graduate to high productivity status, items achieve their potential quickly, then begin their slow decay.

"exactly two purchases in the prior twelve months".

When a business shifts to a discount-centric model, demand pours out of some timeframes (January - October in this case), into other timeframes (Christmas in this case ... and Cyber Monday in particular). This business is just moving deck chairs around on the Titanic, moving demand out of full-price timeframes into promotional Christmas / Cyber