Increase in the average check in a retail store.

Control and monitoring of indicators is necessary not only for large enterprises. If a small store or HoReCa establishment plans to gain a foothold in the market and have a constant planned income, it is imperative to keep track of such a parameter as the average bill. This indicator will provide information about the depth and width of the assortment, the effectiveness of the sales staff.

How to calculate

The average check, the formula of which is simple and understandable even to an amateur, is easily calculated even by a non-specialist. Revenue for a certain period, divided by the number of checks for the same period, will give the desired result. It is important to take into account changes in the purchase price and markup on the goods. If the dynamics is positive, the store is working efficiently, but if it is negative or zero, it is necessary to look for the reasons for the decline. The cash receipt may decrease in amount, for example, during sales. Particular attention should be paid to the products that bring the most income, monitor the behavior of competitors regarding these products and analyze their dynamics in your store.

Determining problems with the average check in the store and how to solve them

The average check is no more than 4-5 items. The share of checks with purchases from 1 to 3 is gradually approaching 50% of total sales. The increase in turnover was less than the inflation rate or in the case when the increase in turnover is observed when new stores are opened. Customers are on the trading floor for a short time, and some departments do not visit at all.

It is necessary to analyze the location of both the store itself and departments, the display of goods, the dynamics of sales during the day. Conduct an analysis of the structure of the assortment, prices, turnover. ABC is carried out - analysis of sales, during which the assortment is considered, the most popular positions, products that are stale, and those that are the most profitable are identified. Assess the need for changes in, if necessary, create routes around the trading floor by installing shelf talkers and hanging signs with pointers for ease of orientation in the store. Create or modify a planogram and, of course, prepare special offers for your customers.

How to increase the average check

1. Increase in the trade margin. In the presence of a unique offer and the absence of direct competitors, this will be the easiest and fastest solution. However, very few companies can boast of such an advantage. For most products there are analogues. Therefore, with an increase in the retail price, it will be necessary to increase the level of service, improve the service. And these are additional costs.

2. Range optimization. The category manager, together with merchandisers, can review the assortment structure, the principles of purchasing policy and merchandising. The task is complex, painstaking and time-consuming.

Tactical ways to increase the average check

1. Using the principle of complementarity. Many items suggest the presence of complementary goods. This principle can be taken as a basis when laying out goods. Thus, when purchasing one product, the buyer will pay attention to the second one, which complements the first one, it is highly likely that he will also purchase it, which, in turn, will increase the average check in the store.

2. Harmonization. Use ready-made solutions, demonstrate to customers which products and how can be combined with each other. For example, in the case of clothes on a mannequin, the buyer has a desire to buy the entire image, and not individual items. In this case, the average cash receipt will increase.

3. Offer for “delivery” goods of impulse demand located in the checkout area. Assess if your store has a small inexpensive product in the checkout node that the customer takes automatically when approaching the checkout. It is also possible to duplicate the display of small but popular goods in the center of the hall, in addition to placing it at the checkout.

4. Availability of gift certificates or discount cards. Close contact with corporate clients allows you to increase the pre-holiday days, as well as attract new customers.

5. Installing a terminal for non-cash payment. Customers paying with a bank card spend more than when paying in cash, therefore, there will be an increase in the average check.

6. Focus the attention of buyers on more expensive goods. Sellers should switch the attention of buyers from a cheap product to a more expensive one gradually. Employees of the trading floor should be interested in selling more expensive goods. It may be necessary to introduce material incentives for employees when they sell a certain amount of expensive goods per month.

7. Inclusion in the assortment of inexpensive goods with a large margin. It is not difficult to offer a cheap product, it will not be difficult for sellers to sell it, and they do not need to be additionally stimulated. Inexpensive goods will attract customers to the store who will buy more cheap goods than originally planned.

Stimulating promotions as a means of increasing the cash receipt

Special offers are another way to increase the average check. Carrying out promotions “Gift for purchase”, “When buying 2 items, the 3rd one is free”, discounts at certain times of the day, sales. Such promotions help to establish a trusting contact between the store and the client and leave a good impression on the buyer. Also, when conducting stimulating promotions, the conversion increases, that is, the number of people who left the store with a purchase increases. An additional opportunity to get the contact details of the client, which in the future can be used to disseminate information about promotions held by the store.

Result

As a result, the turnover at the trade enterprise will increase due to the increase in the number of purchases in the cash receipt. There will be a decrease in the share of small checks and an increase in the share of medium checks, which indicates the effectiveness of both merchandising and the work of staff. In addition, the number of impulse purchases will increase if the assortment and product display are optimized. And at the heart of the positive dynamics is the average check!

The average check is one of the key indicators of business performance. This is one of the main numbers that the owner keeps track of. It makes up profit. However, many entrepreneurs are still confident that the main thing is to lure the client. The issue of him leaving as much money as possible with the company is often ignored. The lucky ones are those who can provide themselves with a constant stream of incoming customers. And what to do in the case when your service or product is not mass-produced and every purchase matters?

Small spool but precious

An increase in the average check immediately deprives you of several headaches:

You begin to work not for quantity, but for quality. Now it is not required to attract a hundred customers, half is enough, but the profitability will be higher;
The motivation of employees increases: the higher the check, the higher the bonuses;
It is easier to develop loyalty programs, to reward customers not for just coming, but for making a purchase from the required amount;
With a regular increase in the average check, your business will be more resistant to inflation and crisis. In simple terms, there is where to go down if necessary.

11 ways to increase the average check

1. Price increase

The simplest and most effective, however, difficult to apply due to the modesty and indecision of business owners. Very often, people feel uncomfortable when they need to increase the price of their services. The main reason is that no one will buy it for a high price. But do not forget that you are selling not just a product, but a value. And now try to set the price of time, convenience, good mood, knowledge. "Priceless" - you will say and you will be right. Increasing the price in no way reduces the importance of your services and products for customers.

You can use a trick from my personal experience - create a separate landing page where your services will cost more, and see what happens. Perhaps the conversion will decrease, but the overall profit will increase. Also warn about a price increase after some time in order to fulfill your promise on the set day. This stimulates sales, as buyers will tend to purchase the product at the old rates.

2. Increase in the number of customers

The more customers, the higher the average bill. Of the total mass of buyers, somewhere around 20-30% of those who generate the main profit always stand out. This segment should be your main focus.

Your key task is to learn how to identify "good" clients at the start of cooperation and direct your attention to them. As practice often shows, we can spend hours persuading a difficult client to make a purchase, and give him preferences for this (discount, bonuses, installments and much more). Or they could devote this time to a client who previously made a purchase without questions and paid the required amount without bargaining. We could spend this time on this client in order to offer him new services and products that he would buy with a probability of 80-90%.

Key question: What do you choose? Courting a “bad” client or making money on a good one?

3. Product quality improvement

The better your product is, the more confidently you will sell it. When I work with executives or sales managers, one of the first steps is to improve the quality and value of the product itself: we identify all the benefits that this product provides.

As a result, there is an inner pride in the product and an increase in its value.

It is very difficult to give a quality product for a penny when you yourself understand its value.

Conclusion: The more you believe in your services / products, the higher the price you will name when selling it.

4. Nice addition

You can increase the value of the product through additional bonuses and gifts. For example, you buy an apartment - finishing or free parking near the house as a gift. You add value to your product, which affects both the final price and the customer's perception of it. You can also offer paid add-ons. At the time of purchase, we are as open as possible to buying something else. For example, along with sales technology, a manager is more likely to buy a CRM from you to automate the work of the department. It is important that these additions are cheaper than the main product and make it more comprehensive and convenient.

5. Creating a deficit

During the presentation of the company's products and services, you can indicate the limit of applications / units of goods. For example, I can consult only 5 people until the end of the month. There are about a hundred potential customers in the hall. If you invited people correctly, then they, one way or another, need your service. This is where the spirit of rivalry and the desire to be among the first lucky ones is born. People are ready to overpay for this, thus you get 5 clients at the exit, who are ready to overpay several times just for the right to work with you.

6. Implementing triggers

The most popular methods include:

7. Product packaging

8. Reviews

Very often, this instrument is not given due attention, limited to the banal: "everything was fine, I liked it." Ask clients to describe in detail what exactly they liked, in what part of the process, how it affected the situation. It is better to arrange it in the form of cases: what was the task, what was done and how it affected the result. Potential customers need to see the real experience and be able to test it! The more reviews, the easier the sales process. Opinion leaders also work well in a particular area: they can be famous people, bloggers, other businessmen whom everyone knows.

9. Sales funnel

One of the most effective tools in any business related to communication with customers. Often managers immediately start selling the most expensive product, and the client is afraid to make a decision. In my work, I always list all services from the cheapest to the most expensive. I understand that a person needs time. I offer one of the services at a low price, then the client understands that he is working with a professional, and is already more actively buying more expensive products. At each stage, you can increase the value of the product and, thereby, raise its cost. The main thing is to choose the right audience and monitor the quality.

10. Up sale and down sale

Up sale - a tool for expanding the product selected for purchase. The client can take a basic package, or can expand their capabilities to VIP. So in car shops we are always offered a more upgraded version of the selected car. The same with new gadgets: every month there is a new, more advanced model.

Down sale - a tool for reducing the cost and packaging of services with the aim of their obligatory purchase here and now. In the case when the client doubts or cannot afford an expensive product, you can offer to break a large service into small ones and start with the basic one. For example, do not spend 100,000 on a sales increase program, but start with an analysis of the current situation in the company, which costs 20,000. So, step by step, the client will buy the service in parts.

11. Expanding the product line

Today people value time and comfort. Why is Amazon so popular? Because everything is there. You can find cheaper, of course, but not in one place. The same applies to information services. The more products and services, the higher the average bill. It is convenient for the client where they can immediately analyze the business, identify growth areas, conduct staff training, introduce new tools, and get results. Expand the assortment and your capabilities at least once a quarter, learn to anticipate the desires of the client. Remember that having bought from you once, the client does not disappear. He is still your potential buyer, who is more likely to buy something after a certain period of time. Don't miss out on these opportunities.

Save at the expense of buyers!

With the right use of these tools, you will no longer need to constantly race for new customers. It is possible to work qualitatively with the existing base and, through an increase in the average check, reach higher business indicators. In my business, a client first buys a small service, and then begins to buy new services, which increases the average check by several times. During our work, we establish warm relations, so when creating new products, I just need to call and offer my idea. My clients trust me and are open to everything new! Build a sales system, be consistent and attentive to your customers!

The retail business these days is like a fight for survival: every day we need to think about how to increase the efficiency of our stores in order to achieve targets, ensure service standards, operational processes are met in order to win the trust and affection of the customer and, ultimately, earn a well deserved profit. One of the key points of this "fight" is the work to achieve the goal of KPI, as the main indicators that our actions are correct, and the stores are managed in the right way.

As a rule, most retail managers, among other KPIs, pay special attention to the average number of items per check or check fill, as one of the main indicators of the ability of the store team to correctly use the sales technique when working with visitors, namely to sell additional products. This publication will focus on one of the successful methods to stimulate the growth of check filling, the effectiveness of which has been proven by two years of practice in Puma retail stores.

What can affect the average number of units sold per customer? There are several answers to this question: this is the product range, the pricing policy of the company, and the solvency and mood of the client, as well as the availability of promotions and special offers in the store. But what is more important is the effective use of sales techniques by sales personnel in working with visitors. This factor also depends on a number of conditions:

knowledge of theoretical methods of offering additional goods;

ability to use them correctly in practical work with clients;

· impeccable knowledge of the sellers of the assortment of their store and the ability to competently combine different products to create a full-fledged image;

motivation of staff to work with additional goods;

Ability to deal with customer objections

It would seem that on all these points it is easy to establish work in traditional ways, such as conducting trainings and meetings, observing the work of sellers on the trading floor, quickly and timely training new employees, working as a manager on the trading floor of the store, as a mentor for his team, on personal example showing the correct work with customers. And it makes no sense to dispute the need for these actions - this is, of course, the basis for meeting the standards of visitor service. But in practice, we very often encounter the fact that despite the significant time spent on training our staff, the above methods do not help to achieve the planned value of the check filling both for the store as a whole and for individual employees. Failure to meet at least one of the conditions for the effectiveness of the application of sales techniques can nullify other attempts to increase the amount of the check by making a complex purchase.

So, a newcomer who knows the theoretical foundations of offering a related product may encounter a psychological barrier in working with a client in practice. On the other hand, an experienced employee may, for a number of reasons, not want to work with a client 100% due to lack of desire or mood, which reduces his personal UPT below the goal. The wrong approach to compiling a harmonious image of several products can also become an obstacle to a successful transaction.

As practice shows, the lack of a systematic approach to controlling all these factors is the reason for their occurrence. To eliminate this gap, it is possible to introduce a tool for comprehensive control of the fullness of the check - a certain form for fixing sales of checks with one position. It may look like this:

The bottom line is that the seller, who has made a deal with one unit in the check, fixes the name of the sold product in this printed form in the first column of the table. Next, he must list the related and non-related products that he offered to the client. In the third column, the employee indicates the customer's objections that led to the refusal to purchase additional goods. Finally, in the last column, the seller writes what actions he took in order to overcome these objections. Immediately after filling out, this form is worked out with the administrative staff of the store or their mentor, so that the seller is given timely feedback on the sale.

Such a scheme of work allows you to simultaneously identify and work out several problems.

First, looking at the second column of the form, the mentor can conclude that the employee is able to correctly select additional goods. As a rule, novice sellers limit themselves to offering a single item of related product, such as socks with shoes, instead of trying to match the client with a complete image from the existing range of products. In addition, when reviewing this sale, the conditions and circumstances under which the seller offered additional units will be considered, which will allow discussion of possible errors in the work.

Secondly, the mentor, based on the form, evaluates the ability of the seller to work with objections when trying to expand the receipt. Working on mistakes in this context will allow the employee to form the skill of correct argumentation when working with doubts.

The problem of the lack of motivation to offer an additional product, as it turned out, is effectively solved by the emerging need to fill out a form for fixing checks by sellers and conduct a “debriefing” with a mentor. Many highly motivated employees will go to great lengths to work with a client to avoid entering a single sale on the form.

The most important thing in the application of this tool is to ensure control over its completion and timely verification with appropriate feedback. The form can be used in several situations. So, if we need to pull up individual lagging employees by the UPT value, we can implement check accounting only for these sellers. At the same time, the duration of filling out the form is limited by the moment they reach the planned values of the check filling.

Another way to apply this method is to implement a blank form for all salespeople. The need for this may be due to a sharp decline in UPT, including for external reasons. Continuous accounting in this case helps to maximize the mobilization of the entire sales team to get the best result from working with customers. But it is worth considering that the long-term use of the form of a permanent result will not bring, but may have the opposite effect of reducing the motivation of employees. Therefore, in crisis conditions, the longest recommended period for applying the single check accounting form can be limited to one month.

As practice shows, the use of the check accounting form with one position allows you to increase the value of the average number of units in a check by 15-20% already in one to two weeks of its use. In addition to the traditional methods of training and control, its application will increase the efficiency of any retail store and use the internal resource for the highest value of the check filling in the most efficient way.

Yaskov Artem

Store group leader

Both successful and failing businesses require careful analytics and calculations of key indicators. You need to know why things are going the way they are, what changing certain points might lead to, what to look forward to in the future, or what needs to be done to get the desired results. One of the parameters that you need to consider in order to get reasonable answers to all these questions is the average check. This is a simple parameter, but it is also extremely important, because it can be used in many other calculations and food for thought in many aspects of the company's operation.

What is an average check

The average bill is the amount that equals the total volume of purchases made during a certain period of time, divided by the total number of purchases during this time. Thus, this is not just all the purchases and orders made, but an average indicator - between all the orders that each customer made during one visit to the store or, for example, contacting the company for ordering services. Why is the calculation of the average check so important? Because he talks about a lot. If you evaluate the dynamics of changes in the average check, you can draw conclusions about how the various changes that were carried out earlier worked: assortment policy, pricing policy, advertising, marketing activities, merchandising - all this can be reflected in the size of the average check. In addition, the average check can be considered in the context of each individual employee in order to determine its effectiveness or find out whether it made sense to conduct training events, etc.

Eventually, calculation formula average check looks like this:

Average check = revenue / number of checks

Analysis of the average check indicator

A simple calculation of the average check does not say anything. The received figures need to be analyzed and done periodically. Tracking the dynamics of the average check allows you to find out the following: quantities, also necessary for analytics of many aspects of the business:

the value of the average check;
average number of checks for a period of time;
check amount interval.

Every marketer should operate with these indicators, because they indicate the general position of the company or store. The period for which you need to analyze the average checks is determined based on how intensively you have or. It can be a month, a week, or even a day if you make purchases very often. The main thing is that one-time calculations do not give anything - you need to observe the processes in dynamics. Scheme or analysis algorithm average checks might look like this:

collection of data from all received checks;
calculation of the above values and assessment of their dynamics;
carrying out activities based on the findings;
reanalysis;
with positive dynamics - work to consolidate the result;
with negative dynamics - the search for new solutions.

And when you repeat these steps regularly, you can draw conclusions about various aspects of your enterprise:

The intensity of the work of cashiers and cashiers. This is true for retail stores. You will know better what time you have the greatest influx of buyers, which day of the week is the busiest and least busy. Knowing every minute when you have a flow of customers, you can optimize the work of cash desks.

Average check amount. A basic parameter that will tell you a lot about who your buyer is, how much he is willing to spend, whether it will be easy for you to enter a more solvent segment.

The work of sellers and the structure of retail space. This may be evidenced by the number of product items in the check: if the goods in the check are monotonous, or some are much more common than others, this is a possible sign that the goods are not laid out in the store in the best way, or the sellers are not coping well. To increase the list of goods in the check, you can revise both the assortment policy and prices, and conduct staff development courses so that related products are sold more often in the store. But, of course, you need to take into account the specifics of the goods in the check: if it was committed, then there is nothing to worry about that it is the only one in the check.

Customer loyalty. Knowing the average value of the check, you can determine from what value it is worth introducing discounts, bonuses or other events that will be designed to increase customer loyalty so that they make purchases from you more often.

Payment form. Sometimes an analysis of how customers pay can give interesting results: the statistics for cash and non-cash payments are different. For those who pay by card, the average check is usually higher.

Seasonality. A very important indicator. Knowing at what time of the year, month, week, day, on the eve of which holidays, you have more sales, the amount of the average check is higher, you can develop marketing activities to stimulate demand on the hottest days. Or vice versa, to increase demand in not the most favorable periods.

Do not miss:

Increasing monthly profits is a challenge that every entrepreneur sets for himself. It doesn't matter what he does. It can be a shop or a boutique, a cafe or a restaurant. But what is the average check, a good owner should know. Moreover, it is his responsibility to convey this information to employees. Only in this way will you be able to build relationships with consumers in the most effective way.

Basics of trade

When starting a business, a person is very worried about profit. This is logical, because it now depends on her whether he can return the money invested and recoup his personal contribution. And sometimes from the very beginning, luck smiles, and customers come all the time. It would seem that success is guaranteed. But gradually the revenue begins to decline. The buyer just got used to your services, and they ceased to be something special.

How to raise profit? Many will say that you just need to find new customers. Yes, due to this, you can increase sales, but how to achieve this? Usually, to implement such a scenario, huge investments in advertising are required. If the budget is already scheduled, then you will have to look for other methods. Here it is worth remembering what an average check is.

Definition

This variable is important for every entrepreneur. At the same time, you can easily calculate it yourself, without resorting to the help of economists. What is an average check? This is the average amount spent by each customer over a certain period of time. It can be a day, a week or a month. The formula is very simple, it's revenue divided by the number of checks.

Whatever period you take, the number will still be indicative. This is the average amount a customer leaves at the checkout. If you increase it, then the income will increase. Let's imagine that a supermarket serves five thousand customers a day. At the same time, the average check is 1 thousand rubles. If you increase each of them by 10 rubles, then the company will receive more profit by 50 thousand rubles. But this is just the price of chewing gum or similar trifles. You just need to find a way to convince the client that he needs it. Now we know what the average check is. How can it be increased?

Working in a supermarket

Each of us regularly makes purchases here and is well acquainted with the structure of these trading platforms. There are rows with products where sales assistants are on duty, as well as cash desks where you pay. You will see the form of the check already at the checkout, but while walking around the trading floor, you quite calmly fill the cart.

Store marketers take advantage of this by placing tempting discount offers, advertising posters and other material that encourages you to make purchases. What can be done here to increase the average check?

Possible options:

Pre-cash zone

And back to the practice of the supermarket. During a walk around the trading floor, you have chosen a product and come to the checkout. Notice how bright it is. Chewing gums, chocolates, cigarettes and other little things just hang around the cash register from all sides. Remember, the customer hasn't received the blank check yet. He can only guess the amount in his mind. And of course, while he is standing in line, the thought may well come to mind that it would be nice to buy a chocolate bar for a child. In this case, nothing critical happens, because the amount will increase slightly.

The next moment is the cashier himself. With learned words, she offers a package. Again taking care of you, and again the growth of the average bill. Seeing that you have bought tea, many will recommend fresh cookies that they brought recently. And so on.

Catering establishments

There are differences here, so we will single them out in a separate category. Sales volumes are equally important for restaurant owners. Therefore, they also do analytics and look for ways to increase profits. But the implementation of the plan will be somewhat different.

The average check in a restaurant can be calculated in several ways. Usually the calculation is done by dishes. As a result, the average check can be considered the cost of the main course, dessert and appetizers, excluding alcohol and drinks. But you can choose another way. For example, the average check can be considered the amount paid by the waiter to the cashier per day, divided by the number of guests served.

How can I increase it

There aren't many options here. Staff need to be trained to work with customers. Sales volumes directly depend on the quality of service. It is strictly forbidden to use rude methods of "sucking in" and deception. Your goal is to keep the customer's loyalty.

Nothing new has been invented here. To increase the average check, you need to sell items from the menu in addition to the general order or offer more expensive alternatives to the selected dishes. And this should happen unobtrusively, as a sincere manifestation of care. The waiter can remind you of bread or crackers for broth, a special sauce for meat, water or another drink.

Check increase methods

Marketers have not deduced the relationship between the average check and profit today, therefore the methods are not new either:

Upselling - offering a more expensive alternative. For example, two guests order sushi each. Why not offer them a set that includes more flavors?
Cross-selling is an expansion of the line of orders. Here the waiter has just endless scope for imagination. Guests can be offered sauces and gravies, salads and snacks, topping for ice cream, additional toppings for pizza.

Waiter job in a cafe

Here, customers are somewhat different from those who entered the restaurant. But for them there enough techniques to increase profits. The average bill in a cafe also depends on the quantity and cost of what visitors bought. There is a great way to sell more just by offering an aperitif. There are certain rules according to which this can be done easily and naturally:

Instead of a conclusion

All these techniques work only in one case: if quality comes first. The products sold must be good, proven, otherwise you will lose a buyer. Food in a cafe should be tasty and of high quality. It is useless to try to increase the average check and save on such basic things.