How to increase your average sale in a small shop

Getting a new customer through the door costs time and money. Getting an existing customer to add one more item costs almost nothing. That is why the average sale, the typical amount spent per transaction, is one of the best numbers to improve.

It is also easy to work out: total sales divided by the number of transactions. See how to read a sales report. If a day brings $900 from 60 sales, the average sale is $15.

Before changing anything, write down your current average sale for a normal week, and your best-selling products. Notice what people buy together. Cooking oil and rice. Bread and butter. A phone charger and a cover. Those pairings are your starting list.

Ask your cashiers too. They see baskets all day and know which items people mention at the till.

Where a product sits changes how much it sells. A few simple rules do most of the work.

• Put staples at the back. People will walk to the milk or bread anyway, so let them pass other products on the way.
• Put related items together. Pasta sauce beside pasta. Batteries beside torches.
• Use eye level for the products you most want to sell. These are usually high-margin or new lines. The bottom shelf is the hardest to sell from.
• Keep the best sellers always in stock. An empty space where a best seller should be loses the sale and the top-up items. See reorder points.
• Keep the floor clear and the path obvious. If customers cannot see the products, they will not buy them.

Change one display, then watch the sales of that product for two weeks. Move it back if nothing moves. Your sales report will show best sellers and slow movers, so you can pick the items worth giving prime space.

A bundle is two or more products sold together at a small saving. It makes the customer's decision easy, and raises the basket size.

Worked example. A customer would normally buy a $4.50 oil. You offer oil, rice and a seasoning together.

Sold on its own, the oil earns $1.50 gross profit. As a bundle at $9.00, you give away 50 cents, but you sell the customer $9.00 instead of $4.50. Your gross profit is $9.00 - $6.30 = $2.70, which is $1.20 more than the oil alone, and the average sale doubled for that customer.

Test the sums before you launch: bundle price minus total cost must be higher than the profit on the one item you would have sold anyway. Bundle things that go together. Do not bundle slow stock with nothing else going for it. See slow-moving stock for better ways to clear it.

The few seconds a customer spends waiting at the till is the best selling time in the shop. Small, cheap, easy items at the counter get added in without much thought.

• Sweets, gum, mints, lighters, batteries, phone chargers, lip balm.
• Items under a low price that feels like an afterthought.
• Products with a good margin. Counter space is small, so use it for the lines that earn the most per unit.
• A few seasonal items, such as sunscreen or umbrellas.

A counter display of five items at $1.00 each that adds one sale in every ten transactions across 60 sales a day is six extra sales and $6.00 a day. Not much, but it is about $156 a month for almost no effort, and if the margin is 40% it is around $62 of profit.

Keep the counter tidy. A cluttered one slows the queue, and then costs you sales.

A short, friendly suggestion is the cheapest way to raise the average sale. It only works when it is helpful and not pushy.

• Be specific. "Do you need batteries for that torch?" works better than "Anything else?"
• Offer one thing, once. If they say no, move on.
• Suggest what goes with what they are buying. Charger with the phone. Filter with the oil.
• Mention what is new or on offer. Keep it brief.
• Make it easy for cashiers. Give them two or three standard suggestions for the week. See how to train a new cashier.

A cashier who suggests one add-on and has it accepted one time in ten, on 60 sales, sells six extra items a day.

• Pack sizes. Offer a larger size at a slightly lower unit price. Customers spend more, and you sell more per sale.
• Minimum for a benefit. For delivery or a free item, set a threshold slightly above your current average.
• Pricing. Prices such as $2.99 or $4.95 can nudge buying. See how to price products.
• Availability. Nothing lowers the average sale like running out of what people came for. Use low-stock reminders.

1. Record this month's average sale.
2. Pick one idea, such as a counter display.
3. Run it for two to four weeks.
4. Compare the average sale and the gross profit, not only the sales.
5. Keep what works. Drop what does not.
6. Move on to the next idea.

Always check the profit, not just the sale. A discounted bundle that raises sales but cuts profit is not a win. Shopkeepa reports the average sale, best sellers and gross profit where costs are known, so you can see both. It is in development: join the early access list. See sales and profit reports.