Have you ever seen someone walk into your store, look around, and walk right back out without purchasing anything? We all have. And, here’s the bad news. You’re not going to make any money from window-shoppers. What you need to do is learn how to improve your conversion rates.
What is a conversion rate for retail?
Your conversion rate is the percentage you get when you divide the number of purchases by the number of people who came into your store. In order to figure this out, you will need to get a counter installed at your door (if you don’t already have one).
Working out your conversion rate sounds trickier than it actually is. All you’ll need is a customer counter (sometimes called a ‘people counter’ or ‘footfall traffic sensor’) and a point-of-sale system that can show you the total number of sales you have made in any given time period. Here’s how to do it:
- Gather footfall data for a month.
- Take the total number of sales completed during that month.
- Divide your total sales by the total number of visitors.
- Multiply that number by 100 (to get the percentage).
Example: You have 2,000 visitors to your retail store across the month of June. In that time, you make 400 sales. 400 sales ÷ 2,000 visitors = 0.2. 0.2 x 100 = 20. In this example, your conversion rate would be 20%.
Once you figure out your current conversion rate, you can set yourself a goal and start using the following techniques to achieve it.
How to increase conversion rates in your store:
Improving your conversion rate can be done quite easily by focusing on optimizing your store layout, employees’ processes and behavior, and providing retail offerings to your customers to have them in a buying frenzy. Here are our favorite ideas:
1. Set up your store for success
Focus on how your store is set up. Where are the displays? How long does the queue usually look? Does the store look packed to the rafters? Or, is it easy to find things?
2. Hide your queue
Customers can be easily spooked if they see a lengthy queue. The good news is that there are a number of ways to fix this.
3. Staff according to traffic
Many stores will schedule their staff according to hours where the most sales are made, rather than the amount of traffic walking through the door.
4. Your employees play a huge role in boosting conversions
This point is part and parcel of the previous point. Not only do you need to be well-staffed, but it’s essential that you train your employees well.
5. Free samples or drinks
Whenever a business offers you a free sample, you feel obliged to do something for them. This isn’t just our opinion, but rather that of Dan Ariely, Behavioral Economist at Duke University.
6. Use social proof
Social proof means showing your customers that other people have bought or want to buy your products.
7. Create the feeling of scarcity
Scarcity is a well-known psychological trick to increase an item’s perceived value.
8. Get customers to invest time with you
The more time a customer spends in your store, the more likely they are to purchase something.
9. Have a backup plan for products you don’t have in store
Give your customers no excuse not to spend money with you.
10. Offer flexible payment options
Sometimes, a limited budget is the only thing keeping a customer from purchasing.
Boost Conversion Rates in Your Store
Understanding conversion rates is crucial for any retail business. Attracting consumers is only half of the battle; the other half is converting their interest into a purchase. These strategies will help you enhance your retail store’s conversion rates and boost your business’s success.
Professional Sourcing Solutions is a staffing agency based in Ontario, Canada that specializes in retail staffing. Book a free consultation to learn more about how we can help you with your staffing needs.
