By Nicole Leinbach Hoffman

Have you ever wondered how some stores tend to have multiple units per purchase while others tend to process mostly single units per transaction?

The items per transaction can truly make — or break — a store’s sales goals. After all, the more the merrier… right? When it comes to retail and more specifically, retail sales, this truly is the case. But beyond just wanting to have more units sold per transaction, let’s explore how to achieve this.

Understanding the Value of Increased Items Per Transaction

Cathy Wagner founded Retail Mavens, a retail consulting firm supporting mainly independent merchants. She said that “items per sale is an average we look at for our clients by calculating the total number of items sold and dividing it by the total number of transactions during a specific period. It tells us on average how many items you sell with each transaction you make.”

There are many variables related to why some stores sell higher units per transaction than others, but the No. 1 consideration will always be to increase store revenue. If a customer has already decided to spend money at your business, why not increase the opportunity to have them spend more? Plain and simple, that is the end goal. But it is not as easy as that sounds.

“It’s all about customer service. It’s not about pushing items on customers,” Wagner said.

To help understand ways to increase the average units sold per transaction at your store, consider the three factors below.

Introduce Items That Fit With the Purchase Being Made

There are many items that complement each other. Batteries are one example of how this works. They are an obvious extra to sell to a variety of SKUs, including battery-operated candles, select children’s toys, and some holiday décor.

But batteries are usually not the first thing customers head to in most gift stores or stores in general. Keeping this in mind, how can you make this additional unit an easy addition to a purchase that may need it?

Leveraging both your displays and merchandising, make sure batteries are an easy grab for customers to seek. Even a small sign that says, “Need batteries? Just ask, we have them in stock!” can be effective.

Some customers may overlook these efforts. So, it is important to train employees to ask customers who are purchasing some­thing that needs batteries if they need them. And then be sure to have some close to the checkout area, so it is a quick and seamless addition to the sale in progress.

Batteries aside, what else in your store is a natural addition to the many items you sell? Eyeglass holders near eyeglasses, gloves near scarves, matches near candles, greeting cards near birthday novelties … you get the idea. Just make sure you are leaning into merchandising and your staff to help make these additional transactions come to life.

Identify Standards That Help Customers Identify More SKUs

Customers often do not know what they want or what they need. But do you know who does? Your sales team does.

They should know every item available for sale, where those items are located, and the optimized ways to communicate about these items to your customers. Taking the time to train your team about items in your store positions them to support customers more confidently and likewise, more confidently support customers to purchase more than they intended to.

Do not discount the advantage your team has in supporting your goals of strengthening store sales. The team representing your store wildly impacts your overall store success. So, be sure they recognize you want them to thoughtfully support customers in their store experience and your goal of increasing the average units per transaction.

Look at Store Data to Understand Each Transaction

The best part of technology is not just the ease it brings to businesses but the clarity it brings as well. Take time to review the data generated from your point of sale and other technology that brings your store to life.

The clarity of data that comes to life when reviewing historic data, such as average units per sale, can be life changing to store operators. Make it a priority to not only review this data but also analyze it.

For example, do you notice some items naturally always get sold with multiple SKUs while some do not? Are you able to identify if certain sales associates outshine others when it comes to multiple items per transaction?

What other details can you over analyze to help you better optimize your SKUs being sold? And yes, that is the key … over analyzing.

Being proactive is key to being profitable, so looking ahead to how you can strengthen the details that help encourage multiple SKUs per transaction is the goal. From store signage to staff communication, merchandising, and displays, no detail should be overlooked.

In Conclusion

Whether your in-store traffic is down, or you simply want to maximize customer spending when they are in your store, it is important to position you and your team to be in control of how increasing your average unit per transaction works to your advantage. Consider these final tips to help achieve this.

  • Look at your current average items per transaction using your point of sale or other inventory management system to gain a stronger understanding of actual inventory being sold. Reflect on the average units sold per transaction, consider where there is an opportunity to improve, and identify items to help you achieve this. Allocate time and dollars to introduce these items to your store and then identify the best merchandising placement of these items to help increase units per transaction.
  • Schedule a staff meeting to collectively make it a team effort to strengthen increased units per sale. The right inventory and merchandising are a great effort, but those two alone will not get this job done. Also be sure to get your entire team involved and train them on when to incorporate customer service into introducing additional items per sale. From just because items to items they may need due to a purchase tak­ing place, make sure your team understands the difference. A wonderful way to achieve this is to role play with scenarios that support a variety of customer purchase scenarios.
  • Do not settle for less, and while you are at it, make it a challenge. In other words, do not let time slip away and you forget this was a top priority. Make it a daily objective to review these goals and even set achievement markers for your team to help encourage them to meet them. Make it fun and even competitive. For example, the team member with the highest units per transaction each week could win a gift card to your local coffee shop, with a grand prize winner each month to a local bakery or other place of your choice. Get creative but also get bossy … so to speak. It is time to make this happen, and some incentivizing rewards can go a long way with team members.

With the new year just around the corner, there is no better time than now to want more out of every transaction in your store. From the right items to the right displays to a team ready to help make this happen, I am wishing you a year of profit and success — with multiple SKUs per each transaction along the way!

Nicole Leinbach Hoffman is the founder of RetailMinded.com, a well-respected retail industry resource that has been recognized worldwide for its leading business insight since 2007. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, the UK’s Telegraph, CNN, the Today show, and countless other industry resources. Additionally, she has supported American Express’s Small Business Saturday as a spokesperson and is the author of the book Retail 101: The Guide to Managing and Marketing Your Retail Business, published by McGraw-Hill. With a core concentration on small businesses and independent retailers, she welcomes you to connect via Instagram at @ RetailMindedWorld and Twitter via @RetailMinded.