Daniel Cotlar

Everyone in business has to sell. In the long run, it's what keeps you alive and growing. Yet there are times I hear clients say they're willing to give up sales to support the brand. Are you kidding? Never! That's evidence of grave dysfunction between creative and marketing.

A mountain of data and no time to analyze it is a familiar predicament for most catalogers, and the advent of e-commerce analytics has only piled the mountain ever higher. Several online and multichannel merchants offered their Web analytics strategies during a panel at last week’s Mid Market eTail conference in San Francisco. Following are several analytics questions thrown out by the panel’s audience and the answers provided by the merchants. Q: What metrics do you need to build an accurate purchase history? Adam Silverman, senior manager of e-commerce, The Wet Seal: First, recency, frequency and monetary value. We need to know the difference between a