Reconsidering E-Tail’s Ideal Shopper

NEW YORK — Internet merchants, most of whom are still desperately searching for their first net profit, can toss out the old book on the most fruitful customers to target.

A just-released study from Jupiter Research topples what had been a longstanding pillar of e-tailing’s foundation: The Internet consultant and market researcher has found consumers who shop across multiple channels of a particular retailer typically are neither the most profitable nor most loyal customers.