The obvious elements include the location of a shop and the range of goods offered. However, we will not discuss that, as it depends directly on the owners.

Employees

Undoubtedly, the staff is most important. The success of sales depends primarily on employee engagement. Vital elements include: clearly formulated tasks, transfer of knowledge concerning the company’s strategy and customer service methods, as well as a transparent remuneration system which incentivizes active and effective sellers.

Tools

In the case of a chain, as opposed to a single shop, the increasing number of outlets make it more and more difficult to ensure direct control over the shops. In this situation, benchmark ratios become more significant. Natural information covers: turnover, margins, costs and other components. The most frequent sources of knowledge in this respect include financial and accounting systems, storage systems as well as human resources and payroll systems. Most retail chains use integrated IT solutions which cover most areas of the “shops’ life”. However, very often they are limited to the commodity and financial turnover. This results primarily from the need to protect the goods assigned for sale and funds obtained as a consequence of that sale, i.e. warehouse and cash register.

In the case of commodity turnover, thanks to effective IT tools it is easy to optimize stock balances so that shelf warmers ratio is as favourable s possible. By analysing the on-going and historical sales it’s not difficult to create primary and supplementary orders. Proper analysis allows for adjusting the offer as regards the range of goods, but also with respect to the colour scheme, sizing options, intended purpose and type of the customer.

As for the aforementioned qualities, good selling systems offer a wide range of reporting.

Incentivizing customers

In the age of customer-oriented market, where the customer may choose from among many offers made by sellers, special importance is placed on solutions that incentivize customers. Discount schemes, customer cards, loyalty systems are aimed at convincing customers to make purchases in particular shops. These solutions are widespread and have transparent rules.

The main problem faced by managers is to answer the following questions:

·        Could my regular customers buy even more?

·        Could I have a larger group of regular customers?

·        What information measures could I introduce to stimulate customer activity?

Incentivizing employees

Sales systems are often equipped with mechanisms that allow for assigning sales assistants to receipts. This solution provides for easy settlement of the sales and rewarding active sales assistants.

The introduction of work time registration solutions allows for controlling the diligence of employees by comparing the reported work schedules with real time of work.

Registering the number of customers entering the shop and comparing it with the registered sales provides very important information in the form of sales conversion rate (CR). In this case, a competent sales assistant will serve customers more effectively, which will translate into the sales.

Also customers passing by the shop can be registered. Comparing this value with the number of customers who enter the shop and the conversion rate (CR) provides new level of information.

An efficient sales assistant will ensure that the customer is offered some additional, supplementary goods, which can be seen in the units per transaction (UPT) ratio. By offering goods to customers, a shop assistant has an impact on the average sales basket (AB) as well.

Collecting and processing of the aforementioned control parameters allows for more effective management and earlier response.