A retail conversion rate is the percentage of people who visit your brick-and-mortar store and leave with a purchased product.
It’s calculated by dividing the people who purchase by your overall foot traffic and multiplying by 100.
Retail metricslike revenue per store and total foot traffic might be high on your priority list when determining the success of each store. However, retail conversion rate is one of the most important KPIs for telling you how successful your store is.
So, what is the average conversion rate for retail stores? And how do you improve yours? This guide shares exactly that.
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What is conversion in retail?
Retail conversion rate refers to the percentage of people who convert in-store.
It’s often confused with ecommerce conversion rate, which is the percentage of people who visit your ecommerce store and purchase.
Online conversion rates tend to be lower (around 2.86%), because it’s easier for people to window shop. Potential customers can start and finish their shopping experience in a matter of seconds. Just one annoying pop-up is enough to drive people to close their browser.
In-store shoppers, however, have a more hands-on experience. Because customers can speak to store associates, touch items, and see products they’re thinking of buying in the flesh, brick-and-mortar stores claim78% of all impulse buys.
It also means in-store shoppers are likely to spend more during their shopping session: 71% of in-store shoppers willspend more than $50, compared to just 54% online.
How to calculate retail conversion rate
Here’s a formula to calculate the conversion rate of a brick-and-mortar store:
Number of sales / total number of visitors x 100 = conversion rate
(Remember that the number of sales differs from the number of individual items sold per transaction. Retail conversion rate calculates the percentage of people who’ve converted. So, if one person bought five individual items, you’d still use one as the number of sales.)
Let’s put that into practice and say you made 75 sales on a day when 500 people visited the store. Your retail conversion rate would be 15%.
75 (number of sales) / 500 (total number of visitors) x 100 = 15% (conversion rate)
PRO TIP:If you’re using Shopify POS, view theRetail sales by Point of Sale locationreport and choose the date you’d like the sales data for. Next, selectOrdersunder the Edit column's drop-down menu to see the total number of sales each store processed that day.
What is the average conversion rate for retailers?
Research shows that the average conversion rate for brick-and-mortar stores isaround 20-40%. That’s a good benchmark to compare yours against.
However, it’s worth noting that your retail conversion rate can fluctuate on different variables. If you’re running a flash sale on the weekend, for example, you might see an uplift. On the flip side, if your sales associate calls in sick and you’re one person down, you might see a decrease in your retail conversion rate.
Account for those fluctuations by calculating your conversion rate over a longer period of time—like per week, month, or quarter. That will give a good benchmark for any improvements you try to make.
Why is store conversion rate important?
Make more informed business decisions
转化率提供了洞察你的零售stores are performing.
找到你的平均,没有做任何修改。然后, test the following against your benchmark to see which tweaks influence more customers to leave with an item in hand:
- Store layout:Does your conversion rate increase when you use grid, herringbone, or geometric layouts?
- Product mix:Does pairing items with related items—such as coffee beans with mugs—cause more people to buy because they can purchase several items from one store?
- Discounting:Does your conversion rate differ if you offer 15% or 20% discounts? If not, go with 15%. You’ll increase your profit margins while still making an attractive offer that convinces people to take advantage of cost savings.
More accurate indicator of performance
Retailers should have key performance indicators (KPIs) for each store they’re operating. KPIs are benchmarks for what good looks like. Should you go below that KPI, you know some extra work needs to be done.
Conversion rate is one of the most accurate indicators ofretail store performancebecause it doesn’t fluctuate massively day to day.
Other KPIs, likefoot trafficand gross revenue, for example, can differ significantly depending on days of the week and events happening around town.
A festival happening around the corner from your store might bring $20,000 in retail sales that day. Is that sustainable? Probably not—you won’t increase sales to meet that benchmark consistently. Using that as your goal sets you up for failure.
Retail conversion rates are less affected by dramatic variables. It’s a KPI to help understand how thein-store experienceyou give to shoppers influences their decision to buy—regardless of how big your sample size is.
What factors impact customer conversion rate?
Staff abilities and performance
A brick-and-mortar store’s conversion rate depends massively on the experience customers have in-store.
While staffing might not seem like it has a huge impact on in-store conversions, sales andretail associatesare the people responsible for giving those experiences.
Gap tested this with its staff scheduling study. Prior to the experiment, retail staff had complicated and inconsistent schedules. When those were replaced with reliable weekly schedules, in-store salesincreased by 7%and productivity grew by 5%.HBR estimatesGap earned $2.9 million as a result.
Store layout
Even if you’ve got a small location, the layout of your retail store has an impact on conversions.
Do you pair t-shirts with other t-shirts, or different items of clothing that go with each individual shirt? Mixing stock with frequently-bought-together items can increase average order value. But for the people who enter looking to just browse t-shirts, walking around the store and searching for them can be off-putting.
The space inside your store can have an impact on its conversion rate, too—especially after the COVID-19 pandemic changed in-store shopping habits. Some62% of consumerssay social distancing makes them feel more comfortable shopping in-store. That’s bound to have a positive effect on your bottom line.
Visual merchandising
Did you know that the average shopper makesthree unplanned purchasesin four out of every 10 stores they visit? Showing your products in their best light (literally) withvisual merchandising displayscould convince more in-store shoppers to head to the checkout desk.
Experiment with lighting, arrangements by color schemes, and showing items on mannequins. They might sound like small tweaks, but the smallest of changes to your shopping experience can drive higher conversion rates.
Inventory management
Managing inventoryis one of the hardest things about running a brick-and-mortar store. You don’t want to have too much stock and nowhere to store it (or worse, have it pass its sell-by date). Similarly, you don’t want customers to visit and have nothing available to sell them.
Having a central system to track inventory solves that problem. Withob欧宝appiOS , for example, you’ll see how many items are available in each location. As soon as items are running low, set up an alert to restock.
That way, you never have to turn in-store away because you don’t have a product they want in their size or color.
Checkout process and options
Data by theNational Retail Federationfound the vast majority (97%) of shoppers have backed out of a purchase because it was inconvenient.
Most of those inconveniences happen at the point of sale. Long queues, no self-checkout options, and spelling out an email address in return for a paper receipt could put people off their purchase.
I find it really annoying because they often end up selling me unsollicited emails afterwards. It's also obvious they don't do it for convenience but simply to get leads.
— Benjamin Houy (@BenjaminHouy)July 6, 2021
How to increase your retail conversion rate
- Offer local pickup
- Provide buy in-store, ship to home
- Leverage email cart functionality
- Train and motivate sales staff
- Use shopping technology
- Offer free samples
- Highlight social proof
1. Offer local pickup
Not all visitors to your brick-and-mortar store will visit by chance. Sure, attractive window displays andretail signagecan convince passersby to impulsively drop in. But some people shop in-store because they have a reason to do so.
One of those reasons is local pickup, where customers can buy or reserve items online. They visit the location to collect and pay for the item.
As of April 2020, 35% of retail merchants fulfilllocal pickup orders—a figure accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic. Some 64% of consumers are now interested in this type of buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) orcurbside pickupservice:
So, how do these BOPIS options increase retail conversion rate? The secret lies within impulse buying. Smart product placements convince people to buy more items in-store.
Lululemon, for example, found 20% of shoppers whocollected an online order in-storemade an additional purchase during their visit.
2. Offer buy in-store, ship to customer order fulfillment
Stockouts are a retail conversion rate killer. Not only do you lose out on the sale, but customers can get frustrated if the item they’re interested in is out of stock.
Solve that problem by providing buy in-store, ship to customer order fulfillment. With it, you can complete sales in the store and send orders from either their warehouse or another store location that has inventory. You're no longer limited to selling only what your store has in stock.
PRO TIP:Use Shopify POS’buy in-store, ship-to-customerfeature to complete transactions in store, ship orders to shoppers from your warehouse, and give your store credit for making the sale.
3. Leverage email cart functionality
The sad truth is that not everyone visiting your brick-and-mortar store will convert. There are tons of reasons behind it; some are outside of your control. But that doesn’t mean you have to lose one-time store visitors forever.
Point-of-sale (POS) systemslike Shopify haveemail cart functionalitythat helps recover abandoned in-person sales. Store staff can add items to a customer's cart and send it to them via email. If the shopper buys any products via the email, the store staff (and retail store) is credited with the sale.
This is a double win: customers can purchase items they were interested in when they’re ready to do so. Retailers also collect contact information for future email marketing campaigns.
Bedding retailerSheet Society uses Shopify POSinforma墨尔本商店收集顾客tion. From there, it emails a list of recommended products to complement the item each customer was interested in.
The result? Sheet Society has a 50% in-store conversion rate (compared to 2.4% online). Almost a quarter of those customers return to shop again.
We chose Shopify POS because of the unified customer experience it offers. All the data needed is there on customers, on inventory, and it works across multiple locations. It’s seamless. We’re spoilt, I think, because we never used anything else.
4. Train and motivate sales staff
Did you know that67% of peopleleft a store because they couldn’t find the product they needed? Another 39% left because of poorcustomer service. Both of those elements can be easily rectified by training and motivating your shop floor team.
Invest in a retail training program that helps associates deliver outstanding customer service. That might include:
- Role-playing how to greet customers when they enter the store
- 培训员工取肢体语言线索from shoppers
- Demonstrations ofhow to use your POSto take payment away from busy checkout desks
Motivation is another important factor to consider when developing your training program. If your sales associates are unmotivated, they likely won’t go above and beyond to help customers (and therefore worsen your retail conversion rate).
Incentives—such assales commissionand promotions—could be the nudge they need to deliver A+ customer service. That will stop shoppers leaving empty handed.
5. Use shopping technology
The majority of in-store shopping experiences aren’t as tech-free as we might expect. Research shows that once entering a store,34% of shopperscontinue to interact with the brand through a mobile device.
Help those shoppers make their purchases throughretail technologysuch as:
- Contactless checkout.70% of shopperssay the checkout experience influences their perception of a store more than anything else. If they see long queues or human checkouts, some may turn away. Use contactless payments hardware and amobile POS systemto accept payments anywhere in store quickly and prevent shoppers from having to wait in line to pay for their items.
- QR codes for product descriptions.69% of shopperswould rather use their mobile device for product reviews than ask a sales associate. Help them do that with QR codes that direct people to product pages or landing pages for the products they’re interested in.
- AR/VR technology.If a customer wants to see what an item looks like, usevirtual fitting roomsto remove friction. Queuing for a changing cubicle, changing clothes, and worrying about whether clothing has been sanitised are all concerns you’ll eliminate.
6. Offer free samples
People are wired to love free stuff.
Professor Dan Arielyran a studythat tested how people react to free chocolate samples from two brands: Hershey and Lindt. The latter has a higher price tag and perceived value. Yet when people were asked to choose between a free Hershey chocolate and a dramatically discounted Lindt chocolate, most people chose the free option.
Free samples of productscan increase your conversion rate because it appeals to reciprocity. It’s why35% of product samplerswill purchase the product in the same shopping trip.
If somebody does something for you, you really feel a rather surprisingly strong obligation to do something back for them.
The most famous example of free sampling is Costco. It has popup stations around each warehouse so customers can sample products they have for sale. It partnered with Ziploc to host a four-day sample station in one of its stores. The result? A156% increase in sales.
Once I went to Costco and they were giving out samples of their cake and their tiramisu. It was the best Costco day ever.
— Elizabeth Garn (@GarnElizabeth)July 24, 2019
7. Highlight social proof
Speaking of the psychology behind purchasing, there’s another bias you can use to increase your retail store’s conversion rate: the pressure to be involved in a group. It's why93% of customersfeel user-generated content is helpful when deciding to buy something, and97% use online reviewsto guide their purchase decisions.
The simplest way to appeal to this is throughsocial prooffrom well-known or well-respected people. For example, highlight dentist endorsements for a toothpaste you sell, or images ofsocial media influencerswearing your jewelry.
Retailers can also use scarcity to show products are selling well. The fear of missing out is a phenomenon that69% of millennialsexperience regularly.
If shoppers hear that an item has been bought by several people the same day, it could be the nudge that convinces them to be in the same group—especially if there’s a risk of the in-demand product becoming unavailable.
Boost your retail conversion rate
When you’re evaluating the success of your retail store, conversion rate should be up there on your list of priorities. It’ll show you how many people who visit your store leave with a product in hand.
If you’re not happy with your conversion rate, test tactics to improve it. In-store pick-up options, social proof, and sales team motivation will have a bigger impact than you may think.
Increase conversion with Shopify POS
Remove the friction from in-store sales with a POS system that helps store associates give a better customer experience. Serve shoppers and accept payments anywhere in your store, and say goodbye to lineups at the cash register once and for all.
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