By Angel Johnson

Six years ago, while I was serving in the military, I launched an e-commerce business selling inclusive, motivational activewear that empowers people of every shape and size throughout their fitness journeys. We offer high-performance, confidence-boosting products in sizes up to 4XL — all designed to comfortably fit and flatter real people’s bodies. We also do everything we can to ensure our products are accessibly priced.

Worryingly, however, Colorado lawmakers are considering a bill, House Bill 1210, that would make it harder for small businesses like mine to offer many of the digital discounts and promotions that help us attract and retain customers. HB 1210 aims to protect customers from unfair data-based pricing practices. As a Black woman and a veteran, that’s a goal I wholeheartedly support. My concern is the bill’s broad restrictions on data-informed pricing would prevent us from offering personalized discounts our customers love — making it harder for us to connect with new customers, keep our sales strong and grow our business.

Activewear is an extremely crowded and competitive industry. We don’t have the budget to hire pricey online influencers or run splashy ad campaigns. But we’ve been able to grow and thrive by running smart, data-informed promotions that appeal to likely customers and help us build enduring relationships with them. Data-powered digital tools help us do things like email coupons to frequent customers, send discount offers to customers we’d like to reengage and offer promotional pricing to people who’ve left items in their online shopping carts. Those personalized promotions are hugely popular with our customers — and critical to our success.

Here’s what our data-informed marketing looks like in practice: Suppose a customer purchased a pair of leggings from us. A few days later, we might send them an email featuring matching tops. The email might also contain a discount offer to encourage the customer to try out the tops. Similarly, if someone spends time browsing through our website’s athletic shorts, we might email them a small discount to encourage them to take another look and make a purchase. Personalized promotions help the customer save money on items they’re likely interested in, and help us make a sale while building loyalty.

These are tried-and-true marketing practices; they’re just updated for the digital age. If you walked into your local activewear shop and picked out a pair of leggings, it would be completely normal for the salesperson — eager to gain a new customer — to point out the shop offered a discount on the leggings if you also bought a matching top, or that running shorts were offered at $30 for one pair, or $50 for two pairs. That’s essentially what we’re doing; we’re just using data to do it. If we can no longer offer those promotions, we’ll lose some of our most potent marketing tools.

On top of that, HB 1210 contains a private right of action — meaning anyone could sue us for an alleged violation. Unfortunately, private rights of action are often an open invitation to unscrupulous lawyers who use them to extract hefty settlement fees from small businesses after threatening to sue. It’s a nightmare for small businesses.

I share lawmakers’ desire to prevent discriminatory data-based pricing practices — a serious issue that deserves serious attention. But I urge them to craft legislation that specifically targets harmful data-based pricing practices. HB 1210 may be well-intentioned, but it’s likely to hurt responsible small businesses like mine, along with the customers and communities we proudly serve.

Angel Johnson is founder and chief executive of Denver-based ICONI.