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Put quite simply, in retailing, you can't fix what you don't know. If you don't measure, you don't know. It is a very logical concept but unfortunately not used enough in retailing.
By: Peter Mitchell
By: Peter Mitchell
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If I were to ask retail managers, how many selling opportunities failed the day before yesterday, most of them would not know the answer. The process is simple. Before you ever consider making changes to the way you retail your products, measure what is happening now. This is your starting point, this is what your initiatives, improvements and changes have done for you to date.
When you install your changes to improve your sales, your margins or your conversions, measure where you are at present. This is the only way that you can quantify the changes that you have made. It is always recommended that you make one change at a time so that you can measure the effect of that change. For example, if you made three changes at the same time and your sales rose by 15%, how will you know which was the effective one? How would you know which one you should be promoting more? How will you know which of the changes should be discarded?
Measuring is not carried out in most small retail businesses which means that they are missing out on the opportunity to make more sales and consequently more profits. An example of measuring took place some time ago. It was a six-week piece of research that produced startling results. For the first three weeks the sales force wore brown suits, brown shirts and polished brown shoes. During the next three weeks they wore blue suits, white shirts and polished black shoes. During the second three weeks, sales rose dramatically. This experiment has been repeated many times and it's not surprising that many successful businesses spend a lot of time and money on the appearance of their staff.
What do your staff look like? Would you provide them with a smart uniform for a 10% increase in sales? Unless you measure, you will never know.
The sort of things you can measure include:-
· How many incoming telephone calls a day?
· How many of those are asking for a price of a product?
· How many customers do you approach each day?
· How many customers leave without purchasing anything?
· How many customers come through the door?
· Which days are the busiest?
· Which hours are the busiest?
· How many customers complain about the price?
· Which products are requested that you don't carry?
· Which products move the fastest?
· Which products move the slowest?
· Which products create the most complaints?
You can't measure too much because without the numbers you can't possibly know where you are, let alone know where you are going.
Peter Mitchell is a business consultant who has helped many businesses to lift their labor productivity in the workplace at little or low cost. His practical guide The Key To Productivity should be on every manager's desk and used to install your productivity improvement program. To find out more go to www.thekeytoproductivity.com.
When you install your changes to improve your sales, your margins or your conversions, measure where you are at present. This is the only way that you can quantify the changes that you have made. It is always recommended that you make one change at a time so that you can measure the effect of that change. For example, if you made three changes at the same time and your sales rose by 15%, how will you know which was the effective one? How would you know which one you should be promoting more? How will you know which of the changes should be discarded?
Measuring is not carried out in most small retail businesses which means that they are missing out on the opportunity to make more sales and consequently more profits. An example of measuring took place some time ago. It was a six-week piece of research that produced startling results. For the first three weeks the sales force wore brown suits, brown shirts and polished brown shoes. During the next three weeks they wore blue suits, white shirts and polished black shoes. During the second three weeks, sales rose dramatically. This experiment has been repeated many times and it's not surprising that many successful businesses spend a lot of time and money on the appearance of their staff.
What do your staff look like? Would you provide them with a smart uniform for a 10% increase in sales? Unless you measure, you will never know.
The sort of things you can measure include:-
· How many incoming telephone calls a day?
· How many of those are asking for a price of a product?
· How many customers do you approach each day?
· How many customers leave without purchasing anything?
· How many customers come through the door?
· Which days are the busiest?
· Which hours are the busiest?
· How many customers complain about the price?
· Which products are requested that you don't carry?
· Which products move the fastest?
· Which products move the slowest?
· Which products create the most complaints?
You can't measure too much because without the numbers you can't possibly know where you are, let alone know where you are going.
Peter Mitchell is a business consultant who has helped many businesses to lift their labor productivity in the workplace at little or low cost. His practical guide The Key To Productivity should be on every manager's desk and used to install your productivity improvement program. To find out more go to www.thekeytoproductivity.com.
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