Do or die: why retailers need a great learning platform to survive – Part 2

In my last blog I discussed the difficulties UK retailers are facing and how a Wharton University study found that knowledgeable sales reps can increase sales by 23%.In my last blog I discussed the difficulties UK retailers are facing and how a Wharton University study found that knowledgeable sales reps can increase sales by 23%.

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure” – Peter Drucker

Before delving into associated costs of training and learning platforms, I’m going to explain how to measure the productivity of your retail sales reps so that you see the ROI you’re getting from any investment you make in them.

First, let’s get our metrics clear:

Traffic – the number of shoppers that come in-store on any day or fixed period over which you are measuring activity

Conversion – the numbers of those shoppers that make a purchase calculated as follows: number of store sales/store traffic

e.g if store traffic is 100 and 25 make a purchase, your conversion is 25%

Average Transaction Value – ATV

So, if those 25 shoppers purchased £2500 worth of goods, your ATV would be £100

Shopper Yield = Conversion x ATV

Our shopper yield is therefore (25×100) = £2500

You can see how shop 2, with a marginal increase in both conversion and ATV, manages to increase its sales by over 20%

On average, UK employees generate £118 000 each. A 23% increase in this figure means an extra £27140 per employee, per year.

An award-winning learning platform will cost at absolute most, less than £100 per year per employee. Even if you then spend another £400 on specific content or external courses, your ROI would be 54.28. For every pound you invest in learning, you’re getting £54.28 back.

Don’t follow Toys R Us and Maplin – it’s time to invest in learning now.

If you’d like to find out how, please enquire here

Alternatively, why not read our blog on ‘Do or die: ‘Why retailers need a great learning platform to survive Pt 1’