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Featured Stories

InStore Magazine
"Conversion - The metric to look at", February 2012

POS and other sales tracking systems mean store managers now have a huge pool of data to base their decisions on, but few of them look at conversion, in part because it’s historically been hard to track.





 

maternity 360
"did she come-buy?", january 2012

Thoughtful retailers of every size across every imaginable category are starting to measure traffic and something called "conversion rates" in their stores to find ways to manage their business better-sell more and spend less.





 

Corp magazine
"Five ways to drive customer conversion rates in your stores", january 2012

Driving conversion rate is the third trick every retailer needs to learn – it’s another source of sales opportunity that most retailers today completely overlook. 



axcess news
"3 ways retailers can avoid the black friday blues", November 2011

Having associates focus on converting as many prospects as possible will deliver the best result.
 
ed hardy retail
"Retailers Ready to fight for Black friday customers", November 2011

The name of the game on Black Friday is quick, efficient sales. This isn't the time to upsell or cross-sell. Just sell hard and sell fast.

 

LAS Vegas Review Journal
"Retailers Ready to fight for Black friday customers", November 2011

"The sad reality is that many retailers squander this precious day by being ill-prepared and even worse, if they don't have store traffic and conversion data, they won't even know had bad they missed," retail analytics expert Mark Ryski said.

 

Retail Online Integration
"50 Best tips of 2011", October 2011

By comparing online to offline traffic, you can begin to understand the dynamics of web-to-store behavior.

 

Retail touchpoints
"is ticket or traffic driving in store sales?", October 2011

Whether same-store sales are up or down, analysts and other stakeholders want to know what drove results.

 

Retail Online Integration
"Batter Up: Why most retailers are confused about traffic", October 2011

If you've listened in on an earnings call for a major retailer lately, undoubtedly you've heard the question, "Was it ticket or traffic?".

 

Business news network
"The close: North American retailers", October 2011

What drives same store sales? BNN asks Mark Ryski, author of "Conversion: The Last Great Retail Metric and founder of HeadCount Corporation.

 

Cross-Channel Retail Executive Summit 2011
"Online Gain, In-Store Pain: Why Brick-and-Mortar Stores are Critical to Online Success
", September 2011

Mark Ryski appears at the Cross-Channel Retail Executive Summit to discuss how aligning in-store and online traffic and conversion metrics not only connects the channels but places the store squarely in the middle of a comprehensive all-channel strategy.


 

Retail Solutions Online
"The trouble with traffic - what retailers can learn from baseball", September 2011

"To say that transaction count represents a reliable proxy for store traffic is analogous to saying that hits are a reliable proxy for at-bats in baseball. Yes, the two stats are related, but they are not proxies — not even close."

  

Garden center magazine

"Score the sale", August 2011

"Don’t think of conversion as merely some business metric, but rather a simple measure of how well the whole store is doing at helping people buy."


  

National Association for Retail marketing services
"Converting traffic to sales", August 2011

"Driving increased store traffic is an admirable goal, but it is not the same as increased sales transactions."


 

toy book
"Guest blog: Five ways to drive customer conversion rates", August 2011

"Everyday people visit your stores with the intent to buy, but leave without making a purchase. Getting your store to capture even a few more of these lost sales can have a significant impact on your store’s overall result."

 

business news Daily
"5 ways to turn shoppers into buyers", July 2011

"When it comes to your business, attracting customers is only half the challenge. Once you've got their attention, how do you turn their interest into a purchase?"

 


 

Business Excellence Magazine

"Retail: The third trick", July 2011

"If you don’t track traffic or measure conversion rate in all your stores today, simply put, you are missing out on an entirely new way to drive sales."

 

Retail Solutions Online
"Guest column: 5 ways to drive customer conversion rates in your stores", July 2011

"It's time to start getting the sales needle to move in a positive direction."

 

Travel goods, Fashion & Accessories Magazine
"You won't find the answer in the till", May 2011

"Retail marketing investments can be measured, but not by sales results alone."


 

Ernst & Young
"Entrepreneur of the Year 2007: 34 Stories of Success", September 2007

"Getting my book published was a significant highlight because people started really listening."


National Post
"Converting retail browsers into buyers", July 2007

The point at which a browsing customer turns into a buying customer is a puzzle that retailers and technology companies are continually trying to decipher.


Ottawa Citizen
"Traffic counting can help stores track down lost customers", June 2007

"What this is about is retailers understanding how well they are performing with regard to how many people come through their stores," retailers need to know not only how many sales they are making, but why.


Edmonton Journal
"HeadCount aims to boost sales", May 2007

Head count reports to retailers on their success in converting shoppers to buyers. It also suggests optimal hour-by-hour staffing levels and other management responses to boost sales.


Canadian Retailer
"Counting on numbers", Jan/Feb, 2007

For London Drugs Inc. in Richmond, B.C., analyzing store traffic is a key part of maximizing staff efficiency in 68 locations, according to Clint Mahlman, Vice-President of Retail Operations and Distribution.


Edmonton Journal
"Studying patterns improves sales", December 2006

Although Digital is Alberta's largest Rogers Wireless dealer, Kipnes wondered whether his stores were attracting as many shoppers and closing as many sales as they could.



Edmonton Journal
"Employee sharing, more technology seen as way to better use scarce staff", December 2006

Ironically, Ryski says, high traffic with low staffing can cause a crowded store's sales to decline and tempt an uninformed manager to reduce staff -- when adding staff would boost sales, profits, and customer satisfaction


Alberta Venture
"Counter Intelligence", September 2005

"Retail businesses are so focused on finical results; its like as long as sales are going up, it's okay. Well, no. You may be under-performing"


Retail Connections
"Does Your Advertising Work?", April 2005

The problem with using sales as the sole measure of advertising effectiveness is that sales is the end result of a long chain of processes, of which advertising is only one. And quite often, that focus on sales results can lead us to some erroneous conclusions.


Retail Connections
"Why Count Customers?", October 2004

Yet despite this wealth of data, most retailers are still missing an essential piece of the performance puzzle. The problem with exclusively sales-oriented information is that it can only tell us what happened, not how it happened. This distinction is critical to our understanding of how to change outcomes in the future.


Edmonton Journal
"HeadCount tracks retailers' traffic to validate sales and advertising", May 2004

“This is not about spending more,”Ryski says. “It’s about spending differently — making sure that each location is the best it can be.”