Retailers’ assumptions don’t always prove true.

That’s what happened to Destination XL Group Inc. after it dug deeper into the data it collects about its customers.

The multichannel men’s apparel retailer groups its more than 40,000 SKUs into two broad categories, which Sahal Laher, the retailer’s chief digital officer and chief information officer, calls basics and fashion. Basics are staples the retailer carries all year, while fashion pieces change with the seasons and are typically more expensive. With each season change, DXL might know the type and amount of popular fashion items it will soon have in stock—from apparel manufacturer Polo, for example—but it cannot ship them immediately.

For years it promoted those products—which it thought would attract sales because they were hot and new—by giving them high visibility on the home page and in search results. But it recently found many men abandoned their carts when they saw the products wouldn’t ship for a couple weeks. In fact, the cart abandonment rate for products that wouldn’t immediately ship was about 90%, Laher says.

“Our guy is a need-based shopper,” Laher says. “He is usually shopping for an event or for something that he needs soon.”

That realization led DXL to adjust. Now it only gives marquee space to items it can immediately ship. The move helped drop its overall cart abandonment rate by…

 

 

To get immediate access to the rest of this article and thousands more, sign up for a free Strategy Membership using the Join for Free button below. If you’re already a member, please sign in.

Want to read more? Unlock Free Strategy Membership