Yeti’s CEO Matt Reintjes Shares How Advanced Analytics Are Driving Personalization Efforts
Yeti has experienced some bumps in the road related to its growing product customization offerings, but recent investments in advanced analytics and the supply chain are helping the company play catch up and garner consumer insights that will help streamline processes and elevate customer experiences.
While the U.S. market has had established customization offerings, Yeti is looking to build-out “high-demand” efforts outside the country, expanding capabilities in Canada and even transitioning distribution centers in Europe, Australia, and the U.K. in response, according to the company’s latest earnings report.
“Over the past few years, we worked closely with our existing partners to find ways to streamline and automate steps in the production process to create supplier portability,” said Matt Reintjes, president and CEO of Yeti in a call with investors.
Through these efforts, which also include a new advanced factory outside of China, the company has been able to begin production of some core volume SKUs, invest in “transformative supplier solutions,” strengthen supplier partnerships, and catch up on a backlog of customer orders it wasn’t able to fulfill in Q4.
“Due to the investments we've made in customization that we've talked to you all about, we were able to reduce lead times and fulfill all those orders in the quarter,” said Yeti’s chief financial officer, Mike McMullen.
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Over 70% of Yeti’s product portfolio is now in the scope of circularity programs. Last quarter, the company introduced YETI rescues, a pilot resale program on YETI.com to extend the life of returned or slightly-used coolers. The company’s new Rambler buyback program allows customers to trade in and recycle their drinkware for in-store credit.
- More on sustainability: Q&A: How Puracy Wants to Kill Off Single-Use Packaging
“We will continue to learn from these pilot programs to understand how they can extend deeper across our omnichannel over time. These are directly supporting our ongoing efforts to keep the wild, wild. And we believe these programs can be additive to our customer acquisition and retention efforts.” — Matt Reintjes, President and CEO, Yeti
What’s Powering Yeti’s Customization Efforts?
The company noted several investments across key initiatives, including tech, expanded customization capabilities, and product expansion. But perhaps the most notable is Yeti’s dive into data.
Product and consumer personalization are great assets to have, but it requires deep knowledge of customers. Reintjes said the company’s work with its advanced analytics team has resulted in valuable learnings about Yeti’s consumer base and related shopping behaviors, particularly across the U.S.
“We're learning some things around certain products, in certain product categories, how different groups have affinities for them and how that changes, how we apply not only our performance marketing, but also how we think about creating brand awareness in those geos and demos,” he said.
This analytics investment has helped the company determine where to allocate marketing dollars, and has also been an integral part of the relationship between Yeti’s chief marketing officer and chief commercial officer, informing daily business strategies.
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“We had some great things come out of our advanced analytics team in looking at demographics, in geographies, with affinities for categories and then applying things in front of consumers at that point,” said Reintjes. “And the results we're seeing in those, we're now expanding those results more nationally.”
From deciding whether to invest in top-of-funnel efforts to mid-funnel, the targeted data is providing Yeti with the tools it needs to continue driving customization expansion. And while Reintjes emphasized it’s not always an intuitive process, the company is excited by what it’s seeing so far and he expects these investments to lead to “some really nice opportunities for us.”
