A major retailer of electronic media wanted to improve conversion rate without adding staff or capital expense to their operation. This directive was the result of findings from a recently completed program that was supposed to find peak performing stores. Those stores were then to be analyzed to identify best practices for improving sales. However, at the conclusion of the baseline period, it was clear that conversion rate across the chain was lower than expected.

ORIGINAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW
In the words of one executive, “We know what sales are, but we really don’t know our top performing stores in terms of converting shoppers. If we can find this, then we can apply those stores’ best practices across the chain.”

The retailer installed Brickstream’s Store Sales Conversion Improvement (SSCI) solution. SSCI employs the latest technology to measure store arrivals by time of day and integrates with the point-of-sale (POS) system to calculate the conversion rate by date and time of day.

Responses to a poll of executives revealed a commonly held corporate belief that conversion rate was in the neighborhood of 85-90%. Eyes were opened within the company when Brickstream reported actual conversion rates were less than 50%. When the numbers were adjusted for multi-party shopping units (couples and families), the conversion rate was still below 65%.

FOCUS ON IMPROVING CONVERSION RATE
Now that they had the data to prove otherwise, it was time to take a step back and see how conversion rate could be improved. The retailer recruited store managers from a subset of their retail locations to participate in a test program to improve conversion rate without adding staff or major capital expense. First, they were asked to lead their team members in adhering more tightly to existing company policies. Examples:
- Monitor and eliminate out-of-stocks and replenish supply regularly.
- Consult with, and up-sell shoppers on the floor rather than at the register.
- Open additional service points before the line gets too long
- Task scheduling to maximize employee-to-customer interaction (re-stock shelves before the customer rush)

The second part of the test asked the store managers to implement changes in the store that they thought would improve conversion. This was the first time that corporate headquarters asked for input from those on the front line to use their knowledge and experience without a lengthy “suggestion box” process. Examples of manager-implemented programs:

- Bundle impulse items at the point-of-sale.
- “Sidewalk sales” on nice weather days.
- Displaying new merchandise at the entrance of the store.

These managers were given access to the Brickstream SSCI reports, providing them with the previous day’s arrivals and conversion rate data. Armed with this feedback, it was very easy to see what worked or did not work nearly immediately.

RESULTS
Conversion rate improvements were seen in just three weeks. Improvements ranged from 1–5% without adding staff or capital expense. For this particular retailer, each point of conversion increases sales by 2%, or roughly $7 million.

OTHER KEY FINDINGS
As mentioned, store managers were directly involved at a subset of stores. A comparison of the results from these stores to stores without store manager involvement shows that the conversion rate improvements were more than double. As expected, the stores with the largest conversion improvements also had the most engaged store management and service staff.

Not only did conversion rates increase throughout the day, they increased the most during busy and high traffic times. Additionally, the incremental sales were for items with higher margins (impulse buys at the checkout).

This test showed surprising success in moving the conversion rate needle. It also showed that there was a strong appetite for this type of information on the front line because the store personnel were empowered to make a difference.