Retail is growing rapidly, with constant changes in consumer behavior. Retail chains need an accurate way to track the number of customers and sales, so that they can obtain valuable information and comparable figures.
Why is reliable information important?
The number of visitors and sales figures are the most stable and fundamental indicators we can use to measure how each store is performing. Customer counters allow us to make data-driven decisions based on facts, so that we can improve results in the retail industry.
What is meant by the number of visitors in the store?
The traffic figures into a store, measured by one or more customer counters, represent the total number of opportunities the staff in a store have to make a sale. 75-80% of your store's customers don't make any purchases. In order for the visitor count to be as accurate as possible, we need to exclude employees from the counting system. To increase the total number of visitors, we depend on engaging in activities and campaigns. This usually incurs a direct cost, and it is crucial to measure this against the activities and campaigns.
How many customers visiting the store make a purchase?
There is a way to measure how many people make purchases in the store, namely the conversion rate. Conversion rate = number of customers making a purchase / number of store visits. The average conversion rate in stores is around 20%. Conversion rate is one of the few objective data we have available to measure performance in retail stores. A small increase in the conversion rate results in a significant overall increase in revenue. This can be achieved without direct cost, only through increased focus and sharing of data from customer counters.
Some stores have high sales while others don't. Why is that?
To figure this out, we need to focus on conversion. The conversion rate of each store indicates how it is performing compared to other stores in the chain. This is the only objective data we have to compare stores. It is natural to look at the key factors of stores with high traffic and those with the highest conversion rates. This includes examining their approach to personal sales, mechanical sales, and other factors.
What do you gain by using customer counters?
By simply focusing on the conversion rate, it increases. Chains that make counter data available and share it with employees quickly experience an increase of over 30% from the starting point. Very few stores want to be below average. By announcing the customer counter information in conjunction with sales training and gamification, retail chains can experience further growth. Over time, it is possible to achieve an increase in the actual key metric by over 10%, which would correspond to a revenue increase of 3,000,000 NOK for a store selling goods worth approximately 10,000,000 NOK annually.
Do you have a challenge with traffic?
Traffic figures can provide a better overview of the challenges a region or stores may have. For that, you need accurate data to rely on. Our customer counting solution from Link Retail can help you with exactly that. With AI technology, we can exclude employees when counting and segment customer profiles as needed. This allows us to confidently say that we achieve 95% accuracy over time with our customer counter.
