New / Returning Visitors metric

Its a good metric / segmentation.

Its not a great metric / segmentation.

Its got everything to do with the webchannel and less to do with your customers (if you're multi-channel)

Is a new visitor

1. someone who's found you via Search but never heard of you before and never been on your site.
2. someone who's used your brand term to find you but has never been on this particular site of yours.
3. someone whose purchase in your bricks-and-mortar shops religiously for the past ten years but who's only just found out how to use the internet.
4. someone who clears their cookies because they are wanted by the FBI.
   

Lets not forget, the technology has its limits - dont be guided by it and be prepared to ask the right questions. For the record I've always be willing to use qualitative data (surveys) on a sample of new customers to find out in particular what proportions I have in my technically "new" segment.