Improve Incremental Sales When You Use A Customer Counting Device


Retail Traffic Counting –3                                                                                                  WC Blog 736
Customer Counting Device – 4
Improve Incremental Sales When You Use A Customer Counting Device

      You may not have given much thought to retail traffic counting in the past but after reading an article in cnbc.com, by Sarah O’Brien, 23 Feb. 2018 titled, “Consumers cough up $5,400 a year on impulse purchases” I found some statistics that will make you reconsider it. According to the article she cites a survey that was conducted by Slickdeals.net in which they studied 2,000 consumers. On average the consumers were making three impulse purchases a month that could equate up to $450 for the month. If this is the average American it can translate to approximately $5,400 a year. Now let’s think about this. If you are the owner of a small or even medium sized retail store and you can get each customer to spend an additional $5,400 a year there are TWO things you need to do. First, keep your checklanes, displays and endcaps full. One of the top items on your manager’s daily tasks should be filling these areas that drive impulse sales. Second, you need to get more people into your store. The problem is that if you don’t know how many customers are already visiting on a daily basis you can’t know if you are seeing increased patronage or how many are not making purchases.

      The CEO of Loss Prevention Systems, Inc., Bill Bregar recognizes the importance of knowing how many people are leaving a store empty handed and that is why he recommends HIS clients incorporate a Customer Counting Device. His company focuses on theft prevention but Bill’s high-level experience as a former Director of Loss Prevention makes him keenly familiar with ALL aspects of a business. His goal is to make businesses profitable whether it is through theft prevention, improved hiring practices like the Applicant Management Center his company now offers, pre-employment background checks and drug testing or retail traffic counting. He also knows the ins and outs of product placement and how impulse purchases drive incremental sales. Through his experience Bill has learned that customer counting can lead to increased profits.

     In case you are concerned about the difficulty of installing a counting device, don’t be. If you are already protecting merchandise with a Sensormatic security pedestal the Integrated EAS Traffic Counter can be fitted to many existing towers. Preventing theft and adding sales is a win-win for store owners.

     Some people would argue that you already have a good idea of how many people are visiting your store based on the number of transactions in a day. Unfortunately you can’t measure what doesn’t happen. If shoppers walk in and leave without a purchase you have no way to measure that if you only rely on sales data. A customer counting device DOES count how many people walk in and how many people leave a store. Use that information to compare to your sales data to get see how much you may really be losing. I would even suggest that based on the information from the CNBC article you multiply the total number of non-purchases by $450 to get a picture of how much you could be potentially losing per customer each month.

      Another way is to get an idea of how many lost sales are taking place is to track abandoned shopping carts in the store. The problem with this method is distinguishing if the abandonment was related to theft taking place or someone just leaving an empty buggy and continuing on to buy just one item. Another problem with this method is that you have to track the buggies and/or the merchandise. Why bother doing all of this counting when a retail traffic counting device can make the job simpler and more accurate?

     I can hear it now, if addressing the problem is as easy as filling empty spaces why don’t I focus on that? The reason is that a customer counting device can also help you determine if sales promotions or advertising campaigns are effective. Supposing you spend $1,000 a month on a new billboard sign, how do you know if more people are coming to the store, by sales increases? Maybe, but then we are right back to the earlier point I made how many potential sales did you miss? Maybe you could have used prior traffic counts to improve staffing to get more service on the salesfloor when it would have been more effective.

     Fill your endcaps, your checklanes, displays and clip strips to drive impulse buys. Know how many people are visiting and walking out empty handed then strategically move products to grab their attention when they enter and before they leave. Knowledge is power and knowledge is attainable with a customer counting device at your doors.
For more information about retail traffic counting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.

You may not have given much thought to retail traffic counting in the past but after reading an article in cnbc.com, by Sarah O’Brien, 23 Feb. 2018 titled, “Consumers cough up $5,400 a year on impulse purchases” I found some statistics that will make you reconsider it. According to the article she cites a survey that was conducted by Slickdeals.net in which they studied 2,000 consumers. On average the consumers were making three impulse purchases a month that could equate up to $450 for the month. If this is the average American it can translate to approximately $5,400 a year. Now let’s think about this. If you are the owner of a small or even medium sized retail store and you can get each customer to spend an additional $5,400 a year there are TWO things you need to do. First, keep your checklanes, displays and endcaps full. One of the top items on your manager’s daily tasks should be filling these areas that drive impulse sales. Second, you need to get more people into your store. The problem is that if you don’t know how many customers are already visiting on a daily basis you can’t know if you are seeing increased patronage or how many are not making purchases.
     

The CEO of Loss Prevention Systems, Inc., Bill Bregar recognizes the importance of knowing how many people are leaving a store empty handed and that is why he recommends HIS clients incorporate a Customer Counting Device. His company focuses on theft prevention but Bill’s high-level experience as a former Director of Loss Prevention makes him keenly familiar with ALL aspects of a business. His goal is to make businesses profitable whether it is through theft prevention, improved hiring practices like the Applicant Management Center his company now offers, pre-employment background checks and drug testing or retail traffic counting. He also knows the ins and outs of product placement and how impulse purchases drive incremental sales. Through his experience Bill has learned that customer counting can lead to increased profits.
     

In case you are concerned about the difficulty of installing a counting device, don’t be. If you are already protecting merchandise with a Sensormatic security pedestal the Integrated EAS Traffic Counter can be fitted to many existing towers. Preventing theft and adding sales is a win-win for store owners.
     

Some people would argue that you already have a good idea of how many people are visiting your store based on the number of transactions in a day. Unfortunately you can’t measure what doesn’t happen. If shoppers walk in and leave without a purchase you have no way to measure that if you only rely on sales data. A customer counting device DOES count how many people walk in and how many people leave a store. Use that information to compare to your sales data to get see how much you may really be losing. I would even suggest that based on the information from the CNBC article you multiply the total number of non-purchases by $450 to get a picture of how much you could be potentially losing per customer each month.
     

Another way is to get an idea of how many lost sales are taking place is to track abandoned shopping carts in the store. The problem with this method is distinguishing if the abandonment was related to theft taking place or someone just leaving an empty buggy and continuing on to buy just one item. Another problem with this method is that you have to track the buggies and/or the merchandise. Why bother doing all of this counting when a retail traffic counting device can make the job simpler and more accurate?
     

I can hear it now, if addressing the problem is as easy as filling empty spaces why don’t I focus on that? The reason is that a customer counting device can also help you determine if sales promotions or advertising campaigns are effective. Supposing you spend $1,000 a month on a new billboard sign, how do you know if more people are coming to the store, by sales increases? Maybe, but then we are right back to the earlier point I made how many potential sales did you miss? Maybe you could have used prior traffic counts to improve staffing to get more service on the salesfloor when it would have been more effective.
     

Fill your endcaps, your checklanes, displays and clip strips to drive impulse buys. Know how many people are visiting and walking out empty handed then strategically move products to grab their attention when they enter and before they leave. Knowledge is power and knowledge is attainable with a customer counting device at your doors.

 

For more information about retail traffic counting, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.