It was the 1990s, and a young Angel Morales had just created an integrated email strategy for one of the nation’s largest direct-to-consumer enterprise solutions (Sigma).  I was so proud of it: my solution included integrated merchandising, automated remarketing, graphical transactional emails, etc.  It was an outstanding set of features…but little did I realize that it wasn’t a “solution.”  That was a lesson I learned the hard way during my first pitch…
 
Terrifying doesn’t begin to describe sitting across from a hardened CMO with two decades of direct marketing experience, who at the conclusion of my “super cool flash presentation” said “Yeah, all that technology is great but tell me how…”

• I can drive my highest value catalog customers to the website instead of the call center
• I can extend the lifecycle of my customers by 10%
• I can bolster my average order value and engineer my high value customer into brand champions
• I can recognize my at risk customers and retain them
• I can extend the value of my loyalty program into email
• I can leverage data appends to prospect new segment within my existing house file

THAT was the day I realized the value of email wasn’t in the technology, but in applying the technology to traditional DM principles.  While working at Sigma over the next seven years, I learned from the best… companies like Sears, Eastbay, specialty merchants like Zip Products, Chaparral Racing, Nancy’s Notions, Woodcraft Supply Corporation, and countless other merchants.  These companies – whose direct business was far more substantial than anything “online” – made me adjust my thinking and my approach to email.  And it was, quite frankly, a humbling experience. 
 
So fair readers, before we dive into ExactTarget’s new transactional eMail, mobile messaging, and other valuable (and cool) technology, let’s take a step back to basics and MAKE SURE we are using our rich customer data (such as RFML) to its fullest extent. We all have this data, but whether or not we use it is another matter…

• Are you deploying dynamic content/promos to reduce costs of retention?  Remember that not every customer needs / deserves our best offers!
• Are you using segments to target and send to disengaged customers?
• Are you using previous purchase activity to align successful historic promotions to new promotional emails (I respond better to free shipping than 5% off)
• Are you using dynamic subject lines in conjunction with dynamic content to align the message to the micro-masses?

Not only is this the foundation of direct marketing, it’s also the foundation for next-generation web analytics strategies. In other words, we all have to build from the basics.
 
Remember, yesterday’s challenges are today’s excuses – and that’s largely all they are.  With ExactTarget’s Fall 2007 Release, we made it easier than ever to integrate.  WE host the data store, WE manage the import process, WE can automate data updates…all you need to do it to throw a file out onto an FTP directory (something a good “geek” can accomplish in a few hours!)
 
Executing on direct marketing basics will result in sizable program impact.  Interested?  LET’S TALK!  Send me an email and I can quantify program impact using the metrics you already have in house.  So let’s see how “going back to basics” bolsters your bottom line.

Welcome to 2008, where the “build” and “features” collide to create solutions.  Here at ExactTarget, 2008 should be an explosive collection of solutions for retail – led by our client’s business objectives and leading industry trends.  Over the next several weeks, I will be posting a flurry of solutions as part of a series on our Retail Email blog.

These will include solutions for:
Hidden treasures of web analytics
Automating abandoned basket emails
Automating check-out abandonment emails
New product alerts by product category (email and mobile)
Price drop alerts (email and mobile)
“In-Stock” notification alerts (email and mobile)
Advanced merchandising powered by SLI Systems, Endeca, Mercado, Celebros
Advanced cross selling powered by Certona, Aggregate Knoweldge
Pragmatic transactional email
Frequency capping by email intent

These programs used to be nearly impossible to execute for ANY Email Service Provider.  So what’s changed?  After a decade working with software companies (many of which were SaaS predecessors) I’ve noticed that there are two types of years: ”build” years and “feature” years.  At ExactTarget, 2007 was one of those rare years in history where “features” and “build” happen simultaneously.

As a “feature" year, it was noteworthy with lots of new “stuff” hitting the ExactTarget application, including enhancements to our:

• Dynamic merchandising solution – Point our application to your website and we’ll syndicate products, cross sells, more.
• Outstanding usability enhancements – Our award winning usability was taken to an even further extreme by streamline your ability to edit content in the context of the email itself
• New transactional email capabilities – All of the power of the ExactTarget email creation process, but with a convenient “single console” for marketers
• And a collection of features far too numerous to mention here!

But a “build year” is just as important.  It’s a year where we take a look at our architecture, our business model, our services organization and say “Will it support our vision for the future?”  Those of you who attended our user conference this fall got a glimpse of just how important that question is to ExactTarget, resulting in:

• A new data center in Las Vegas – This monster data center is up and running in a hot capacity.  This makes ExactTarget the premier ESP when your email is mission critical.
• Significant database re-architecture – It’s not just about performance, it’s about freedom.  From the ability to refresh segments that impact over 8 billion subscriber (last weeks stats), but enhanced security and flexibility
• Unparallel support for custom data — Your world is more than lists of subscriber.  My merchants have complex products relationships, web analytics data, transactional data (from brick and mortar, call center, online, etc).  In what is a remarkable effort, our product team put COMPLETE CONTROL of data into the hands of our customers.
• Support for mobile messaging, voice and RSS were released this year — Moving ExactTarget from the one-to-one emails of today and towards the one-to-one messaging of tomorrow.

The foundation laid in 2007 is sure to result in 2008 being a stellar year!  This is why you will see more innovative solutions from ExactTarget than ever before (and more than any other ESP). The end result will be more sales, to more customers, more frequently…

Friday - I like mine blackened - with some blue cheese crumbles.

While I have never been able to appreciate the comradary that waiting outside a Wal-Mart at 3:57 in the morning can produce, I would imagine it would be a lot like being in combat, which is why I don't do the "Gigantic, After-Thanksgiving Super Sale Blow Outs." A fear of a flaming, crushing death presided over by Earl, the Wal-Mart greeter. That is why I LOVE on-line shopping...and it looks like many of your customers do as well.

Online sales numbers were up a startling 41% over last year’s $174,000,000 to provide a whopping $250,000 worth of spending by 13,300,000 on-line shoppers. Oddly, spending through brick and mortar actually dipped 3.5% - illustrating that crushing, flaming "death by shopping" may be waning in popularity.

 Holiday ecommerce Report - Week 3

The week of Thanksgiving saw some pretty outstanding numbers for ExactTarget customers:
You collectively sent over 315,000,000 emails (of which I received half of at my Yahoo address...);
You executed over 4,000,000 transactional emails;
You executed segment/group refreshes that impacted 8,000,000,000 subscribers (that's billion...with a "B");

It's numbers like this that justify our addition of a hot co-located data center (launched this year), one of the reasons why the über geeks over at Microsoft have been blogging about our architecture since 2005 and why Microsoft and ExactTarget have collaborated to enable email in their CRM offering.

SEND ME YOUR BLACK FRIDAY / CYBER MONDAY stories! I'm looking for fun, exciting, or terrifying tales that I can compile into an annonymous "Absolute Best and Worst of Black Friday". Winners, chosen at random from all submissions, to receive a 72” Kablakistan Plazma TV.

Since 1999, I’ve spent roughly $21,042, consuming on average 1.2 iced venti, 5-espresso shot, skinny, café mochas per day at an average price of 6 dollars, including tip (wow, I hope my wife isn’t reading this).

This would make me a “high value customer” to Starbucks. Should I shudder off the shackles of my Starbucks overlords and start going to other coffee shops, or stop drinking coffee entirely, it would negatively impact Starbucks’ business and could contribute to the collapse of Columbia’s economy at large. So what would Starbucks do if I suddenly stopped buying coffee from them? Would they know?  Would they care? What should they do about it?

This is a prime opportunity for behavioral engineering based on predictive purchasing patterns.  Huh?  Meaning that Starbucks knows my purchase patterns and my value to their bottom line, so how do they get me back on track if I stray? How does Starbucks identify at-risk customers and get them back into their predictable purchase models?

First, Starbucks needs a loyalty program…something that tracks purchases, ideally through all channels. This provides data on time between purchases, be it 90 days, 9 days, or in my case, 90 minutes. Thus, we have “average latency.”

Next, Starbucks would want to QUALIFY that average latency, articulating that enough transactions have occurred to say that our average latency is valid (known as “frequency”). 

Finally, Starbucks would look at recency.  When was the last time I purchased?  If it was yesterday, that’s great.  Starbucks knows I should have purchased yesterday and I’m following my anticipated pattern.  I am consistent, predictable and profitable. 

What happens when I deviate from my pattern? At what point do I become an at-risk customer? If you had a customer who purchased from you consistently once a quarter for two years and has been silent for the last six months, would you want to reach out to them?  What if instead of one customer you were able to identify as at-risk, it was hundreds, thousands? Identification is half the battle. 

Once you’ve identified the at-risk customers, send them a message or offer that will re-engage them.  Sometimes this is an easy process, corresponding with shifts in your merchandizing mix. Sometimes it can be a bit more challenging (like leveraging a data append to identify your customers who may have moved). 

The message is simple once the reason for flight has been established. Starbucks might send a message featuring my favorite drink…something that reminds me “mochas are tasty…caffeine is good.”  If a customer moved to a different city, a list of Starbucks locations in their new neighborhood would be more effective. If the customer doesn’t return in a month…that’s when the big guns come out and an email with an imbedded coupon good for a free drink or a direct mail piece with a dollar-off gift card is sent.

Remember, your customers are exactly that…yours.  Your job is to KEEP THEM ENGAGED. Stretching the life of your customers, even just a few transactions, will have SUBSTANTIAL impact to your bottom line.  Think about you attrition rate, think about your AOV, and do the math…numbers don’t lie.

By strategically leveraging email, you can begin to shape, refine, and redefine what your traditional customer lifecycle looks like.  For ExactTarget customers, this capability is point and click…very little effort to execute very intelligent marketing.

And if anyone from Starbucks happens to be reading this…I’m pretty sure we can work a barter…world class email marketing software/strategy for one Starbucks franchise…in my living room.

Cheers,

AIM

Not for you, analytics amateur
The purpose of this posting isn’t to talk about adoption, it’s not to discuss the fact that many organization who have purchased analytics solutions aren’t using them, it’s not to point out the fact that if you are involved in on-line commerce you should have a dedicated web analytics resource (at least part time).  This is an article for the rest of you.

Many of my retail brethren “get it”.  You are looking at your reports…you are deciphering the difference between top product viewed and top product purchased, you are looking at and optimizing cross sell placement within your product detail pages, you are calculating GROAS on your search marketing spend.  In short, you are turning your investment in analytics into a finely tuned money making machine.  This posting is for you…because even you, my high end web analytics gurus – adopters and embracers – have one more step left…an opportunity tucked away in the minds of the industries big gun consultants, concepts usually reserved for those willing to pay top dollar to take their business to another level. 

Before we understand where we are going, let’s look at where we have been.  Like the first fish that flopped its way onto land, sprouted legs, and walked off to launch the Starbucks brand, Web Analytics is evolving.  In just 6 short years web analytics has gone from being a tool that simply counted visitors and hits, into being the life blood for many merchants.

If you haven’t looked at web analytics solutions lately, you will be shocked.  I have clients using web analytics to do product demand analysis, support product soft launches, assess ALL acquisition efforts (across the web, print, radio, tv), I’ve even got one customer who has laid their web analytics solution over their data warehouse to leverage cross channel purchase activity in the context of their web analytics strategy (or visa-versa).   They can even count how many hits they had to their homepage!! (yes, that’s a joke.  The jokes are bad,  but at least there are a lot of them).

Welcome to the Galapagos – here is your long tail
The most important result of web analytics Darwinian transformation from basic reporting into complex data analysis was the move from aggregate level reporting into a visitor centric data model.  Meaning, web analytics (starting with Omniture) started building a “visitor database”, where profiles started to be generated on individuals, persona’s started to take shape, and suddenly it wasn’t simply about “what” was happening on your site, it was “who” did that “what”. 

The other players in the space have all begun to catch up.  Every major analytics platform can now tell me that a specific person saw a specific product, on a specific date, and that they added it to their basket, but didn’t purchase.  The volume of data is great, but how do we bridge the gap between insight on the individual level, and the action that we should be taking?

We must first understand the data. The most critical thing to keep in mind is that while web analytics data is amazing valuable, it is by design limited in it’s visibility.  Huh?  Alright, most of you reading this are multi-channel…you have an extensive print operation, brick and mortar storefronts, you have loyalty programs, you have a lot of data.  This is where your understanding of your shopper’s TRUE LIFETIME VALUE resides.  It’s the fact that despite the fact that Leslie purchased $3,000 worth of product on-line last year, she returned $2500 worth of it and called customer server 36 times.  Your web analytics platform will have her flagged as a high value customer, but you know better.

We’ve been dating for a while, let’s get engaged
So, what is the value of web analytics?  Engagement.  Say it one time with me…E-N-G-A-G-E-M-E-N-T!  When someone visits your website, it’s for a reason, they have become engaged with you due to a product you carry, a promotion you are running, or brand loyalty.  Your job, Mr./Mrs. Retailer, is to use the fact that your customer has contacted you and to take an action (not literally contacted you, figuratively – a metaphorical “contact” based on the customer electing to visit your site). Action is the key…action is where the dollars are hiding.  To define action, you guessed it, we are going to look to the data.

Recognizing that your website is a vehicle for not simply transactional process, but shopper engagement, let’s look towards the data we should be exploring: 

So…now that you’ve identified the data, what are you going to do with it?  Most web analytics solutions can create a feed. 

Feed (Fe-ed verb)- A process resulting in an export of scenario driven data that includes all in the table above, in addition to any information that may have ever been captured about that customer in an conversion process (capturing an order, email sign up, catalog request, contest entry). 

Your job?  Turn the feed into dollars…so let’s assume that the web analytics company is going to push this data into an eMail Marketing Solutions provider, like ExactTarget.  Hey – imagine that…using ExactTarget as the example….hmmm….must mean we already support this!

Bringing a knife to a gun fight
I had the privilege of consulting with a major electronics retailer on their remarketing strategy…their goal was very simple.  Put the SKU that the customer was most engaged with, but did not purchase, back in front of them in a monthly email promo. 

The email itself was pretty simple.  It featured a large primary offer section (free shipping, yadda) and a grid of 8 products below it.  Now, this retailer’s strategy was to be a little sly…using dynamic content (a process in which content optimizes itself for the intended recipient)– the email would include product that aligned to general interest capture as demographic data (I like computers and digital photography – I’ll see new cameras photo printers, and multi-media laptops).  However one of these 8 featured products was special.

The featured product on the far left was using a new technology called Content Syndication (or Dynamic Merchandising - for our retail clients), which allows me to reach out to the customer website and request a specific product for a specific customer.  In this case, the request was very dynamic.  If the customer was a new customer (not in the DB as a converted customer – showing as a $0 customer), I would request content that included the SKU and a promotions code good for a 10% discount.  The website would return the product, with strike through pricing illustrating the discount, and hard coded message “Hurry, supplies are limited”.  If the customer was an existing customer, no promotion code was carried and the targeted product displayed with standard pricing.  In either situation if the product was NLA or back ordered, the  SKUs would be replaced with a default SKU.

UPDATE:  This is one approach of about 6 unique strategies for product inclusion in remarketing emails.  Other approaches are far more subtle, others overt…all have merit.  Your formula for success is based on your market, your segmentation strategy, and a hand full of other variables.

Is that sorcery…some kind of Voodoo? 
No, simply technology.  This uses a process that ExactTarget developed called Content Syndication.  It allows merchants to use their existing website logic to push products, categories, search results and much more into an email.

Many merchants use Content Syndication to put cross sells into emails, or  to power marketing managed transactional emails…really almost anything you want to accomplish.  There are some merchants who no longer worry about putting product into their email at all, allowing Content Syndication to reach out to your website to pull an “email specials” department directly …and best of all…your design and product availability rules are all maintained.

The take away?
This is an example (one of 30) on how leveraging data in your web analytics solution, combined with your eComemrce platform, and a robust email solution can be used to dynamically include highly targeted product within your email strategy.  The key concept being  - don’t guess about what product your customers are interested in, when your customer are telling you every time they visit your website.  Remember that your web analytics platform will tell you EXACTLY what products they interested in and, using qualitative/quantities SKUs level analysis, will tell you how interested in those product I am. 

And YES…you can do this.  Virtually every merchant can.  Data feeds are largely supported by virtually every web analytics solution. 

Fair and Gentle Reader,

I was recently invited to present on the Masters of Business Online "Get Your MBO" conference in Indianapolis on December 7, 2008. It promises to be something unique...a combination of presentation and discussion around the disciplines that make the web tick. I'm anticipating something between the intimacy of Gary Angel's OUTSTANDING Semphonic sponsored Analytics Xchange conference and some of the more action laden sessions from this year's Internet Retailer Palm Springs. My topic du jour - Web Analytics.

When we look at Web Analytics and thought leadership, Eric Peterson has given us his RAMP - a process for web analytics success. We also have the Web Analytics Association headed by Jim Sterne, providing a host of best practices and on-going research on reporting, vendors sponsored blogs such as (Omniture's) Matt Belikin's blog, and the small list of analytics elites including Aaron Gray, Daniel Shields, Judah Phillips, Avinash Kaushik, and a host of other top rated blogs.

So, what is new to say about analytics? What is an "email guy" doing talking about web analytics anyway? Simple - it's not about email....it's not about analytics...it's about the solutions. As a long time web analytics practitioner and architect, I've never worked with a client whose goals have really been "reporting," but rather the insight that the reporting enables. So with that...I will NOT be talking about web analytics and the incorporation of voice-of-the-customer, I will NOT be talking about Persuasion Architecture via extension of digital asset modeling, there probably won't even be mention of "hits are for twits" in the world of reporting.

My MBO Presenation Outline (below) focuses on UNDERSTANDING the role that web analytics can play in your organization - helping you to understand how the evolution of the industry has fragmented the kinds of tools available, and to help you understand which of these tools you should be exploring to help you realize opportunity that you may not even know exists.

1. Analytics - Understanding your needs
   1. Organizational appetites - driving analytics hunger
   2. What are your goals (long term/short term)
   3. 3 Basic buckets of need/opportunity
      1. Reporting - what's happening
      2. Analysis - why is it happening and to whom
      3. Solutions Enablement - what we are going to do about it
2. Reporting
   1. It's not analytics, it's reporting
   2. Vendors and Tools - what you should look for
   3. Free tools are never free
   4. Getting the value
      1. Implementation - get it right
      2. Staff - Web Analytics Admin
      3. KPIs - to live by
3. Analysis
   1. It's not reporting, it's analytics
   2. Vendors and Tools - what you should look for
   3. It's going to cost you...
   4. Getting the value
      1. Implementation - it never ends
      2. Staff - Web Analytics Practitioner
      3. KPIs to die by
      4. Solutions
4. Solutions Enablement
   1. Beyond analysis, it's a solution
   2. Solutions Examples (with some real world examples)
      1. Automated Re marketing (abandoned check out)
      2. Call Center Integration
      3. Automated Content Targeting
      4. Offer optimization
   3. It's going to cost you...once
   4. Getting the value
      1. Implementation - get it right
      2. Partner Selection
      3. Accountability

This isn't anything new - but yet it is. This is the high level conversation that I've had with the 30+ clients that I've engineered web analytics integrations/implementation for. More often than not...this conversation is never had organizationally, which often times results in unrealistic or misunderstood expectations (in terms of objectives, results, staff requirements, more). Attendees will learn the right questions to ask of their vendors, their partners, their executives and themselves - in order to realize their ultimate business objectives.

For more information on attending, click here.

To get the ExactTarget discount rate, please email my friend Jim Brown, one of the events hosts.

T'was two months before Christmas, and all through your shop,
Your systems were in lock down, your developers manning the mops.

Your customers seemed happy, were not seeing red,
While vision of dollar signs danced through VP heads.

Yet your job is email, and it's so far from done,
With 50+ days left, you need to hit that home run.

So it's now that you ponder, it's now that you ask,
How can I ring some more dollars from my inbox task?

Sometimes there are theories, sometimes just a hunch,
But now here is the answer that you'll like a bunch.

ExactTarget supports Optimost (I've integrated myself)
It's simple, clean testing, available off the shelf!

You create the content in Optimost, variation galore,
But getting it into email? That's so not a chore.

Content Syndication makes the request, assembles content with ease,
Even personalized content and segments are supported (yes, please.)

So why use Optimost, with your capable ExactTarget account?
It's called "experience testing" for insight in a huge amount!

Optimost can push content into email - and onto your site,
For complete experience testing and customer delight.

So if you want to test, from basic to Taguchi
Then...uh...yeah. Not even going to try that rhyme.

My retailer brethren, talk to your Account Managers about how our Strategic Services team can help you extend the amazing value of Optimost for experience testing - from email through your website. I promise it will make your holidays even brighter!

During a recent conference tour in San Fran, I wandered into a video store in SOMA. Admiring the wide selection of obscure cult films of this obviously independent store, I grabbed a copy of Clerks 2 and headed for the register.

"Wanna save two dollars?" the woman behind the counter crowed. "Give me your Blockbuster card." Kind of odd, I thought, offering a discount if I was a BlockBuster member? That's when I noticed behind the register. Torn, ripped, mangled, nailed to the wall for all to see...BlockBuster loyalty/membership cards shunned by their no longer loyal customers.

Loyalty Programs - whether the term fills you with rage or that "grandma's fresh-baked cookies" sensation, there is no denying loyalty programs are here to stay. More and more merchants I consult with are somewhere in the stages of implementing a loyalty program. Once a nightmare to manage, a handful of service providers and payment processors have packaged up "turn key" solutions.

These flexible solutions can provide tiered-levels, points-based systems, dollar value-based systems, flexible expirations, programs customers join, are auto-enrolled, or pay for. As someone who has architected cross-platform solutions from scratch, I give a whole-hearted BRAVO!

The problem is these programs don't explore the lateral opportunities afforded to merchants by extending loyalty program data into email solutions providers. Their email ability ends at welcomes, statements, renewals, and expiration alerts. By embracing the complementary relationship between loyalty provider and email provider, hidden opportunities and big returns are in reach.

How so? Let's start with the data. We'll assume you have an email marketing database bringing in larger volumes of customer data from multiple sources - web analytics, order management systems, POS or your data warehouse. This means you can act on that data. Your loyalty program data is actionable as well, especially as part of the mix.

From current status, to date of last in-store purchase, store location or last product purchased, you have a wealth of information. All you need to do is ask for it to be sent to your ESP (in an automated, secure manner). Why would you do this? For the exact same reason you invested in your loyalty programs technology to begin with.

TOP 10 STRATEGIES FOR DRIVING MORE SALES AND EXTENDED CUSTOMER VALUE THROUGH AN INTEGRATED LOYALTY PROGRAM STRATEGY:

10. Every email should have a dynamic customer center that shows me my points balance, dollar value, expiration date, etc.

9. A loyalty-based call to action - let me know I'm 10 points away from my next certificate.

8. Exclusive offers - I'm in your loyalty program, make me feel loved.

7. Extend into automated re-marketing. I came to your website and abandoned my basket. I am a platinum member - include that fact and offer me double points.

6. Stem brand attrition - dynamically recognizing customers who have not purchased, despite being a member.

5. Automate customer service - Want a button on your website that triggers an email with a copy of the customer's loyalty data? Want to include a coupon? Me, too.

4. Geo-aware emails - customer suddenly buying from a different store than their default preference? Send them an email to ask if they moved.

3. Cross-sells based on in-store purchase.

2. In-store purchase thank you emails. How about throwing in a coupon or online promo code based on customer value.

And the #1 reason to integrate loyalty program data into your Email Solutions Provider....

1. IT'S YOUR DATA! You spent a lot of money to bring your loyalty program to life. You may as well maximize the value. Data integration is cheap and easy and I know your CPM won't break the bank...as a matter of fact, i can't think of a good reason NOT to do this. Can you?

Fair and Gentle Reader,

With as much joy and unadulterated enthisiasm as a child wandering their way down stairs on a snowy Christmas morning to see an ocean of presents drifting beneath the ornament laden bows of a festive blue spruce - I welcome you to the ExactTarget Retail Email blog. 

Emails are like sunbeams casting their radiant warmth into the inbox of each and every one of your customers.  Together we we explore the wonderful world of ...grrr....no...I can't do it.  This is NEVER going to be a warm and fuzzy blog.  That kind of nonsense frankly...well...it makes me a little ill.

 The reality is email is hard.  You are competing in an overly saturated communication channel where the constant screaming for inbox attention is as deafening as sitting in the first row of the Black Sabbath reunion tour.  The key thing it to rise above the noise.  Offer your customers something of value.

Now, you won't be seeing a lot in the Retail Email section about deliverability...nor email optimization...we have other bloggers taking care of those topics.  Oh no, my merchants...we are going to focus on the reason you send email in the first place...SALES. 

This blog is dedicated to driving the evolution of email into explosive new directions.  At times, you'll hear me steal a phrase or two from traditional database marketing, then we will change gears by talking about 1-to-1 merchandising, advanced transactional email strategies, automated customer life-cycle optimization, predictive analysis...and maybe even a great recipe for ceviche. 

Ultimately, we'll exchange some good ideas.  That's my goal with this blog...to inspire and be inspired, take some jabs at industry pundits, and learn a thing or two along the way.  Gosh, who knows, we might even make a new friend or two.

Cheers all,
Angel Morales, Director of Retail Strategies