Enhancing Retail Sales: Vijay Kumar

ENHANCING RETAIL SALES
Vijay Kumar
Increase traffic in the stores

Track prospect traffic. This is not the same as transaction counts. Lots of retailers are confused about this. Transaction counts represent the number of people who made a purchase; traffic counts represent the total number of people who came to the store including buyers and non-buyers. Conversion rate is simply calculated by dividing sales transactions by gross traffic counts. For example, if you logged 500 traffic counts in your store and there were 200 sales transactions for the day, your conversion rate would be 40% (i.e. 200/500). As you can see, without traffic counts, you cant actually calculate conversion rate. The fact is, if you dont track traffic in your stores, you cant calculate conversion rate. If you cant calculate conversion rate, well, you cant improve it.
Focus on Conversion
The inventory must be up to date. The staff at the store should know what is on display and what is in the back-end storage area.
Also, broken stocks should be kept well under control so as to minimize loss of sales. The higher the conversion the more profit and loyalty you get
In the above case sales in one store getting an average footfall of 50 on a daily basis, is considered. The average bill value considered is Rs. 1000/- .
The challenge is to increase your conversion and average bill value by just 10%.
You can see the incremental sale achieved is 21% more than what is regular. As a retail store, you may not have influence over footfall, but you can achieve an additional 21% just by team effort, great service and a sharp focus.
Sell higher-price-point products to customers

Customers are price-sensitive no doubt and to address that, we have a reasonable portfolio of products that can satisfy the needs of the customer. At the same time, we also stock aspirational products that are at higher-price-points. The trick is to create a zone for the customer whereby he feels comfortable with the presence of products at both ends of the price spectrum. Eventually, the decision on choosing should belong to the customer. A good salesman should be able to highlight all the necessary elements for sale in a manner that is pleasing, honest and convincing. Most customers will graduate to aspirational products if they believe that the decision was entirely theirs.
Focus on selling the additional product (Collateral-sales)

The advantage of sporting a reasonable width in product line also empowers the sales man to sell co-ordinates. The challenge for the salesman is to ensure that the customer is brought up to date about the range in the store and kept fully informed on the brands. This would induce further buying. Thus, a salesman can achieve higher sales. For example, if the footfall in a store is 300 customers a month and if the salesman can induce 25% of these customers to buy 1 more garment than what they originally planned, an extra sale of 75 pieces is then straight away registered
Sell at least one accessory per 5 bills

There has to be a clear focus on accessories eg. caps, belts, handkerchiefs, ties, flip-flops, etc. Accessories are presently the least focused-on by many of the stores and it is curious that even customers do not give them much importance. However, if you do suggest any accessories to him, say handkerchiefs, caps, belts, undergarments etc., the customer many a time, will not resist. This is typical of a customer not sweating the small stuff in his purchase. At the end of the day, it is a win win situation for both sides.
Here are five ways you can improve conversion rates in your stores.
1. Understand why people dont buy One of the most important things a retailer can do to improve conversion rates is to understand why people dont buy. Long till line ups, cant find sales help, out-of-stocks, poor merchandising, the list goes on. There are reasons why people visit your store and dont buy and you need to understand it. Every store manager should spend some time observing visitors in his/her store. Resist the temptation to help; just observe the behaviors. Watch customers as they move through your store, and it wont take long for you to identify some actions you can take to turn more visitors into buyers.
2. Align your staff to traffic not transactions Sounds simple enough, but is something many retailers overlook. Staff scheduling is tricky at the best of times, but aligning your staff resources to when prospects are in your store will help you maximize your chances of converting more of them into buyers. Pay particular attention to lunchtime, when store traffic can be way up, but staff lunch breaks can seriously drag down conversion rates. Associates need to eat, but customers need to be served. Matching staff schedules to traffic volume and timing in your store will help improve your chances of converting more. 3. look for Conversion Leaks and Plug the Holes Traffic volume and conversion rates tend to be inversely related. That is, when traffic is high, conversion tends to go down or sag. When traffic levels are low, conversion rates tend to go up. Its not hard to understand why this happens. When the store is busy, till lines are longer and its harder to get help from an associate. The opposite is true when
Set Conversion Targets by Store Having goals and targets are important if you want to improve results. If you dont have a conversion target for your store, you need to set one. Its important to remember that every store is unique and conversion targets should be set uniquely by store. One store might be doing well with a 15% conversion rate while another may be underperforming even though it has a 30% conversion rate. The trick is to move your own conversion rate up relative to your stores performance. Make Conversion a Team Sport It takes the collective effort of all staff to help turn prospects into buyers. From the cashiers and sales associates to the merchandisers everyone in the store plays a role. So dont think of conversion as merely some business metric, but rather a simple measure of how well the whole store is doing at helping people buy. A good way to help improve conversion is to ensure all your staff understands what conversion is and that each of them helps influence it. Ask your staff about why they think people dont buy and what the store can do to improve conversion rate. Discuss targets, get them to buy-in and share results. Get them excited about moving the conversion needle and you will significantly improve your chances of actually doing it. Everyday prospects visit your stores with the intent to buy, but leave without making a purchase. Getting your store to capture even a few more of these lost sales can have a significant impact on overall sales results. Improving your in-store conversion rate is not hard to do, but it does take focus and attentionthe suggestions above will help you drive conversion in your stores. If you dont track traffic or measure conversion rate in all your stores today, simply put, you are missing out on an entirely new way to drive sales. You cant improve conversion if you dont measure it. The retailers who are focused on driving conversion rate have a significant advantage over those who do not.
four customer conversion strategies: 1. More Buying Customers: They already visit the store and many even consider buying from you. Increase conversion by breaking down the barriers to making a purchase. 2. Sales From Other Business Units: Influence your customers to visit and buy from your other departments or brands during their visit. 3. Secondary Shoppers: Influence those who accompany your primary shoppers. 4. Circle of Influence: Influence customers to invite their circle of friends to your brand.

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ENHANCING RETAIL SALES

Increase traffic in the stores

Sell higher-price-point products to customers

Focus on selling the additional product (Collateral-sales)

Sell at least one accessory per 5 bills

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