5 Metrics Every Retailer Must Track

Retail metrics is ever-changing, but there are some things that remain the same. If you are a retailer in 2019, here are 5 important metrics you must track to remain competitive and profitable.

1. Traffic – When we speak of traffic in retail, that could mean foot traffic or web traffic. In your brick-and-mortar stores, it’s important to know how many people walk in the door as well as how many you see at the register. That’s not as easy to measure as traffic to your web store online. Nevertheless, measuring traffic in store as well as on your website is very important so that you know how many potential customers you are drawing and how many you are selling to.
2. Average sale per customer – Knowing how many customers you are selling to is important, and knowing the total volume of sales is important. But do you know how much each customer is buying, on average? That can tell you whether the amount of money you spend to attract each customer is paying off dividends.
3. Number of items per purchase – How many items is each customer purchasing? If your customers are only buying one or two items per visit, it may mean you need to do some upselling. Do you have any convenience items at your cash register? These are usually small-dollar items that customers toss on the counter in the last minute as you ring them up. A few of those a day and the sales add up.
4. Gross margin – Take your revenue and subtract expenses. It’s important to know how much you are actually making on your products. Gross margin measures that before you account for other expenses.
5. Conversion rate – Just like traffic, conversion rate is important because if you have high traffic and few sales, you have a low conversion rate. Something isn’t working right.

With the right e-commerce solution, you can monitor retail metrics in real time. You need a robust solution that can gather the right intelligence and allow you to track your key performance indicators well enough to act on them at the right time.