New customer sales is an overrated metric. Most Shopify brands obsess over new customer acquisition while neglecting returning customer data entirely. Jordan Bird identifies two-thirds of brands he speaks with have no retention systems in place once customers are acquired.

Basket analysis reveals which product variants drive your most valuable customers. Brands using Peel's basket analysis report are making live PDP changes based on LTV data, not gut feel. A variant that drives 2–3x LTV compared to your best-seller is worth more than the volume metric suggests.

The data does the hard work of challenging confirmation bias. When merchants have entrenched beliefs about their best products, retention analytics surfaces the truth without the awkward conversation. As Eric Autry puts it: "It's really the data giving them the bird."