DirectMag.com had a very interesting article today on Bath and Body Works and how they have built a huge email database containing more than 10 million addresses in 24 months. This is a significant accomplishment and Bath & Body Works should be commended for their efforts. What struck us about the article was that Brian Beitler VP of Customer Marketing was able to identify that each customer email address is worth $18 to the company. He further noted that when a customer is drawn into the store they spent $24 to $25 dollars. These are very exact numbers indicating they are the result of research not simply an educated guess.

When we work with customers we do our best to get them thinking about the exact dollar impact reducing out of stocks would have on their organization. Until a dollar figure is associated no initiative will be given the priority it deserves. Clearly Bath and Body Works understands this and they have communicated to their staff the importance of gathering emails in real dollar terms. It's our hope that more vendors and retailers will take a very numbers driven approach to improving their business. The data is readily available on what is happening at the point of sale, so why not take full advantage?

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