Page 96 - enLIGHTenment Magazine - April 2017

on the mark

Product B
The data you need is the store’s sales volume or

a number of sales for a given period. If you can look
Product A
back and pull last year’s information by year and

Product C
month, you will have a baseline for average sale.
When it comes to items per ticket, use the same

math; the total number of items/tickets sold in a
set period reveals the baseline average of units

per order. Apply the same formulas to sales as-

sociates and compare the two.

Display space is limited and having data
iDenTiFyinG proDucT TrenDs
Product data lets you key in on the performance
on product and vendor performance
of each category. Display space is limited and hav-

ing data on product and vendor performance will will help you be er allocate that space
help you be er allocate that space and strengthen

vendor partnerships. Another bene t is to identify and strengthen vendor partnerships.
trends in style and nish. Keying in on sold goods

that were never on display is a signi cant segment

of product evaluation.
Product trends are critical for retailers and can the salesperson or the greeter. The detail of the

make the di erence between a good year and a information acquired is be er because people
great year. Look for pa erns. Maybe there’s a can discern the di erence between the postman,

unique nish being ordered at a higher rate across a single customer, or a herd of clients that are just

a category; this may be a nish worth adding in one customer. The recorded data can specify the
other areas of the display. Or perhaps a er dis- type of client, the results of the interaction, and

covering an increase in the sale of linear xtures, provide feedback on the product, advertising
you decide to expand the selection.
source, or service.

Another pa ern you can examine is the fre- In all instances, record tra c by the day and

quency of out-of-stock items. Increased stock time segment. One of the bene ts of recording
outs mean you are missing sales. This requires a the time is that the data will indicate high and low

change in the process of how o en or how many tra c times and that can impact sta scheduling.
of the items are re-ordered. A word of advice: ERP

systems can spit out recommendations of what closinG percenTaGe

to buy and how much to buy. For some product Your closing rate is the number of sales made
groups this can work out OK, but in the world of relative to the number of customers you work with

trend spo ing, a human touch is needed.
over a time period. For example, one day a sales
Mark Okun is associate worked with 10 clients and sold two of

inspecT wHaT you expecT
Business Contributor them — this a 20-percent closing rate for the indi-

The linchpin to success when using data is sharing to enLIGHTenment vidual. On the same day, the total store tra c was
with your team what is expected of them and how Magazine and 30, and the total sold was 8. Therefore, the aver-

the information relates to the implementation of President of Mark age closing rate for the store is 26.67 percent. The
plans and strategy. This requires that leadership Okun Consulting & data needed to improve a store’s performance is

follows up on all the initiatives in place. The sta Performance Group. the average closing ratio of sales associates rela-

needs to clearly know what the expectations are.
He has more than tive to the overall showroom performance.
30 years of hands-

DaTa is your lever
on retail experience averaGe sale value
The famous quote from Ancient Greek mathema- training and coaching Trying to increase a business by growing clients

tician Archimedes still applies, “Give me a lever sales associates in the alone is costly and challenging. It requires an even

long enough and a fulcrum point on which to place lighting and furniture greater investment in time than is already com-
it, and I shall move the world.” Consider informa- industries. mi ed. When you sell your clients more at each

tion to be the lever; you can accomplish a great Mark@bravo transaction, there is a small input of additional
deal with it. businessmedia.com
time and no extra cost.


94 enLIGHTenment Magazine | april 2017
www.enlightenmentmag.com