Why are 80% of Visitors to a Store not Buying Anything?

Retailers know their sales numbers but not much more…

All retailers know their daily sales for each store. They also know their margins and they know exactly how many customers they have had that bough something, at any specific day -but they do not know their store traffic and the daily number of visitors to their stores. We know that in average, as much as 8 out of 10 visitors to an average store, do not buy anything – the are “just looking”. Retail people counters are the essential tools to monitor store traffic and to have an actionable benchmarking between the stores.

Only 20% Buy Something

When you talk with a shopkeeper, he or she often claims that most of the people visiting their stores buy something. With some few exceptions (like grocery and pharmacies) we know that this is far away from the truth. Most visitors entering a store has the intention to buy something, but they don’t.

Why do they not buy anything?

There are many reasons but most often it has to do with either the staff or with the assortment, store layout and atmosphere. Engaged and smiling staff are selling much more then their unengaged peers. A tidy and open store layout, smooth shopper flow with good displays of bestsellers that’s easy to pick, will sell more than messy stores with chaotic shelves and general disorder.

To know how many of the visitors that buy something, you need to know how many visitors you have in your stores everyday. People counting is the right tool for store traffic analysis.

Install people counters and you will be able to see how many visitors you have in your stores every day – and how many visitors that actually buy something. In this way, they will also know that some stores -and the people working there, sell to 5 out of 10 visitors, while other stores only sell to 2 out of 10 visitors. A smiling and helpful shopkeeper is often enough to increase sales significantly.

If the retailers make the numbers available to their staffs, we know that the results will improve immediately.

Nobody wants to be on the bottom of the list. If you benchmark performance between stores, you can also establish best practice, regarding the correlation between visitors and sales – or conversion rate as we call it.  

Install our people counters and you will know. Pay back in no time. CONTACT US