As a business owner, you are bombarded with information from the moment you open your doors. Not only are you managing thousands of inventory items, but you’re also overseeing your store’s revenue, profits, and customer details. It’s enough data to make anyone’s head spin. But the real challenge comes down to knowing which information you need to take action on. Let’s take a look at what some Key Performance Indicators (or KPIs) look like for a typical liquor store.
Sales Per Square Foot
While you might not realize it, your brick-and-mortar sales per square foot is one of your best tools. It is important to review this KPI because it can help ensure that you are using most of your sales space and assets. It helps you make inventory and layout divisions. If you have multiple liquor store locations, it can help you determine which store is most profitable. If you’re not sure how to find your sales per square foot, simply divide your sales by the number of square feet at your store location. To help ensure that you are utilizing this KPI, you should calculate your sales per square foot whenever necessary, such as when you need to compare your store’s current performance to last year’s sales, or when it is time to re-negotiate your location’s rent.
Foot Traffic
Measuring your foot traffic can give you tons of great insight into the success of your store. You might think that it would only be useful as a tool to understand your customer’s habits and peak sales times. However, it can also help when it comes to staffing and marketing. The easiest way to measure this is to use a people counter. There are many advanced digital tools out there like mobile tracking and video surveillance that merchants rely on for this information. Analyzing your foot traffic can help you determine which parts of your liquor store are getting the most and least traffic. It can also help you determine which banners are best for your store: do you see more traffic when your promotions are in the window or on shelves to generate more sales? Keeping track of your foot traffic can only benefit your store. To save yourself from manually counting everyone that comes through your door, you’ll need a register that can help you manage it all with in-store tracking tools.
Conversion Rate
Your conversion rate is the number of times customers actually made a purchase in the store. The calculation is found by dividing the number of sales transactions by your gross traffic. For example, imagine you counted 100 visits and 45 of them made a purchase—this brings you to a conversion rate of 45%. You should measure your conversion rate on a fairly regular basis, especially after you’ve made significant changes to your liquor store POS or marketing practices. Your conversion rate can help you determine if the change was beneficial to your business and help you make better decisions in the future.
Sales Count
It goes without question that the number of in-store transactions you complete is an important KPI to your business. The number of your transactions is crucial to understanding your marketing strategies, customer service, and possibly even your customer experiences. When tracked properly, it can help you indicate time frames when your store is busier and when it is slow. How often you should track your sales count depends on the traffic of your store. If you prefer to track it monthly, then by all means, track it monthly, but some merchants track it weekly and even daily if they feel the need for it.
Now that you know where to look, the next steps are on you! Take a look at where your business is and determine which of your KPIs make the most impact. If you are in need of a system that can help track all of these key points, then it is time to reach out to the Cobalt Payments team. Our skilled agents can help set you up with the perfect liquor POS system to help you manage your business. Give us a call to schedule a demo or to get started right away! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain for your business by making the switch.
