Retail Insights Blog

What leaders get wrong when trying to help stores increase sales

Written by HeadCount | ('Jun 14, 2023')

We often hear from store managers that they are frustrated because head office is telling them to sell more – often setting stretch goals – but nobody is actually helping them figure out how to get there.  The good news is: giving your store teams the tools they need to succeed is a lot easier than you might think. 

Imagine how powerful it would be if each of your managers could quickly spot missed sales opportunities down to the hour of every day? What could that mean to productivity? 

Check out this short video for a practical example of how this works.


You can spot missed sales opportunities with store traffic and conversion insights. Unfortunately, most managers look at their data through the sales lens.

Click through the 3 charts below to see what looking at Sales, Transactions or a view with Traffic and Conversion data would illustrate for you. 

  • Sales Chart: The chart shows sales by hour and there’s not much to see. Sales are relatively consistent throughout the day with the exception of 10:00 AM and 8:00 PM. The opening and closing store hours have lower sales which is understandable.
  • Transaction Chart: If sales transactions are a good proxy for store traffic, you would assume that the peak traffic hour is 3:00 PM. Otherwise the transaction trend looks pretty
    consistent throughout the day. In terms of spotting missed sales opportunities, there’s not really much to see here either.

If this is all the data the store manager has to rely on to try to spot missed sales opportunities, there just wouldn’t be any to spot. So then how do you spot missed sales opportunities? This is where store traffic and conversion data are really important.

  • Traffic and Conversion Chart:  The third chart in the example above shows the store traffic by hour indicated by the blue bars, and the corresponding conversion rates. These are the yellow dots.  This view provides a different perspective on what’s happening in the  store and importantly where the opportunities are. The chart shows that store traffic actually peaked at 2:00 PM, not 3:00 PM like the transaction data indicated. Traffic from the noon hour, right through to 3:00 PM was the highest  of the day for this store.
Store traffic defines the sales opportunity.

If you’re looking to spot missed sales opportunities, you should look for them during the busiest traffic hours, which would be from noon to 3:00 PM. But beyond traffic, the chart also shows that conversion rates drop during these hours. Sagging conversion rates are the telltale sign that the store is missing
sales opportunities.

Shoppers are visiting the store, but they’re leaving without buying.

It’s the conversion sag that indicates exactly where this is occurring. Spotting missed sales opportunities isn’t difficult if you have the right data and it’s presented in the right way.

Curious how we could help you sell more?
 

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