Noticed Sales Ticking Upwards?

Why it matters to know "Why?"

How to pick up the pace even more

Many retailers now are being buoyed by gradual upticks in sales. 

If you are one of those, we encourage you to give some thought to "Why?" your business is experiencing sales increases.

You will find that it will be for one of these three fundamental reasons.

• More customers, or  
• Higher prices, or
• More items-per-transaction 

But, The ROI suggests that, when you analyze your results, you will quickly eliminate reasons 1 and 2.

"More customers"? That's a stretch.

Few places are experiencing growth in population. Plus, with the proliferation of online shopping, while your customers don't need to be geographically close, they also have many more choices when they are ready to buy. Your competition may be growing faster than the market of customers.  

Higher prices? Just not in the cards these days.

This is not an environment where many margins are increasing.

Inflation likely will not be a major factor. Plus, not only are retailers expanding online, so are many vendors, so price pressures continue to be downward. 

So, what IS driving sales increases? We think you will find that it is is all about transactions: 

• more items-per-transaction; or,
• more transactions

Whether at the grocery store, gift shop, lawn and garden center, sporting goods store, or wherever they are shopping, many customers are giving themselves permission to buy more, or to replace ("Finally!") those things they've had for several seasons.  

• Shoppers are feeling some more confidence, and have a decided case of "frugal fatigue". Enough already, they're saying. There are things we have not bought for a very long time.
• Shoppers are increasingly purposeful in their shopping. When they go to a store (or a website), they have an intent to purchase. The traffic you do receive should yield higher conversion rates.

And all that is very good news. These are shopper behaviors that you can focus on, and increase!

• Your sales staff can focus on add-on sales, to increase the items-per-transaction.
• Your buyers can bring in more "impulse items" and more complementary products that lend themselves to add-on sales.
• Your sales staff also can work on improving their conversion rate of "just looking" browsers to actual paying customers.    

Of course, be grateful for sales increases. Who wouldn't be?

But by analyzing and discovering "WHY?" sales are increasing, you can make them even better. Jump on this chance; it's unique!