The big question.

What retail KPIs should I be measuring in my stores?

Retail is changing rapidly, so looking at Last Year comparable sales growth is no longer enough. Assigning 400+ store KPIs is not the answer either.

Retailers need a new approach to identify the best measurements for store performance.

An easy approach to KPIs.

Determine your own KPIs in three simple steps.

1. Set the direction. Decide your goals and then work out the inputs that'll get you there.

Start by asking: what you are trying to achieve as an output?

Examples include market share capture, sales growth, increased margin.

Then ask: what inputs drive these outputs?

The input for sales, for instance, could be: Footfall x conversion x average basket size (number of items) x average price per item

Then work out: what can responsible teams actually influence?

For instance, with the above, it could be conversion and average basket size for your store ops team.

With an agile stores app, you can rapidly get your goals and KPIs set up. Flexible user permissions allow you to make sure that every single person is set with the right responsibilities.

An implementation can take less than 3 weeks, and it's fully self-serve after that. That's a company-wide digital transformation in under a month.

Technology doesn't always have to be difficult. Good technology makes you powerful. Great technology makes it easy to be powerful.

Our Mission
2. Be scientific. Test and learn, test and learn, test and learn.

You might have heard of something called agile before. It used to apply only to the digital space, but it's now also revolutionizing the way that physical organizations operate, deliver, and improve for their customers. And thanks to Quorso, that means your stores too.

Use the right data to surface granular opportunities under this KPI.

This approach analyzes data down to the most actionable level. For example, if you want to increase conversion of an underperforming category, it will locate precisely where that underperformance is stemming from (like a particular time of day or SKU)

Keep focused.

The truth about KPIs today is that it can be as much about what to ignore, as what to focus on. At Quorso, we ensure store teams only need to focus on action by surfacing to them daily only the top three next-best-actions (we call them Missions) that are algorithmically determined as the most likely to drive sales, reduce costs, cut waste etc.

Capture and track the actions people are taking to see what is really driving improvement.

It's important to capture root causes and understand how impact is being driven so you can scientifically test, measure, and learn your way to success. Guided workflows, testing, and measuring are what Quorso is built around. You no longer need an army of data analysts to interpret what's going on in your business - Quorso automates the complexity and translates it into simple, human actions.

Checklist
3. Consistency x flexibility. Adapt as quickly and perfectly as your customers demand.

Most businesses only revisit their KPIs every 5 years. But things can drastically change for a store, or even the entire business, within the space of a month. That's why adopting an agile approach to your management and operations is crucial to adapt to the constantly shifting context of your business and each of its stores.

Having the right agile store technology allows you to constantly monitor the results of thousands of real-world microexperiments and collectively course-correct towards the positive outcomes that take you closer to your business goals.

And if your business goals need to suddenly change? Well it works the other way too. Within minutes, you can realign each and every one of your stores to the new plan, while still taking into account the unique demands of that store.

Retailers no longer have to choose between consistency and flexibility. Agile stores let you have both.

Four Steps to Success
Tech can help.

Quorso makes this 3-step approach to KPIs quick and easy.

As retail gets more complex, there's no magic bullet or set of one-size-fits-all KPIs for stores.

But what if you could be more flexible? What if you could constantly refine and update your KPIs on the fly?

Retailers using Quorso create new KPIs in minutes and have all their stores working on them immediately. They see every action stores are taking to drive each KPI and the impact those actions are having.

Efforts are focused, impact is measured and goals are rapidly reached.

Agile KPIs in action. See how easy it can be to smash your KPIs.
The features in detail.

Here's how Quorso helps you manage your KPIs.

01
Rapidly set new KPIs.

Focus every store's efforts. Quorso continuously crunches your data to find the top areas where each store is leaking sales, costs, and other KPIs.

Explore features
02
See where you're falling short.

Daily Missions drive rapid action. Quorso nudges each store to take 3 daily Missions, guided by real-time District Manager coaching on tap.

Explore features
03
Gamify your KPIs.

Track, measure, and learn. Quorso tracks the $ improvement from each Mission and team member, flagging issues and scaling what works.

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FAQs.

What's so powerful about Quorso?

Can I overlay broader business initiatives and incorporate KPIs?
  • Yes, absolutely. You can steer Quorso’s Opportunities to align with or to prioritize company initiatives, campaigns, promotions, etc.
  • You can also integrate Quorso with your BI tool, combining the charts you love with the actions that will improve them.
  • Learn more about using Quorso to enhance your existing tech stack here.
What is a Mission and how is it identified?

A Mission is a specific sales improvement opportunity that Quorso has found for your store, and is the suggested area that you should focus on this week to improve overall sales performance. You can do this by choosing to ‘accept’ a Mission.

Quorso identifies Missions by crunching through all of your sales data each week, and finding areas where your store has an opportunity to improve based on how it’s performing vs all of the other stores. Even if these stores vary in size, revenue, and popularity, our calculations level the playing field. To make the comparisons fair, Quorso will:

  1. Only compare you to stores that have the same format as you.
  2. Only compare you to stores that have the same shelf space allocated to the particular product a Mission relates to, relative to its category (e.g. Mushroom Soup accounts for 10% of the space allocated to Soups).
  3. Adjust sales values of the comparison stores to factor out differing store revenues and customer traffic. This will even take into account exceptional events, like storms, local holidays, or Covid restrictions.
What do you mean by accepting a Mission?

When you get a suggested Mission, you should try and understand why this suggestion has been sent to you. Once you have investigated the potential root-causes, you need to decide whether or not there is something you can do to fix the problem and drive improvement. If there is, accept the Mission and log your proposed action.

If there is nothing you can do, you should choose to reject the Mission. That might be because it’s not something that can be fixed in store, or it’s an availability issue that you can’t control, or you’ve investigated it and can’t find any issue.

If you choose not to take action, it’s important to reject the Mission. If you do not, Quorso will try to measure and track the impact of something you have not done.

How does Quorso fairly compare stores that have different shelf space allocations for different products/categories?

Yes it does. To make the comparison fair, Quorso only compares you to other same-format stores, and those that have the same shelf space allocated to the product area in question, relative to the category to which it belongs (e.g. Mushroom Soup accounts for 10% of the space allocated to Soups). Therefore, if you receive a Mission, it is because your current sales for that product or category are lower than would be expected considering your shelf space.

Remember…we also take other factors into account, like store revenue and customer traffic, to ensure you’re being compared fairly.

How does Quorso control for external factors (like storms or the Super Bowl) that affect some of my stores, but not others?

Yes it does. Quorso adjusts the sales of the group of stores you’re being compared to, in order to take account of things like customer traffic and customer demographics. It does this by looking at the performance of the product area that you have received a Mission on, relative to the performance of its parent category sales. Here’s an example:

My store (Store A) sells $10 of bandanas, which accounts for 10% of the Accessories category sales ($100). On average, Stores B-K (with the same Accessories range & space) sell $15 for every $100. In this example, I’m underperforming vs my peers by $5 (5%). Let’s look at 3 different scenarios to show how Quorso accounts for the impact of exceptional events on Missions:

  • Storm Uri hits and this is driving down footfall in my store: Let’s say store A footfall drops and as a result Accessories sales decline by 50%, and bandanas also decline. However, on inspection, I can see they still account for 10% of Dog Clothing sales. If all things stayed the same with my peer group, (e.g. their sales of bandanas stayed at 15% of Accessories sales) then although I have seen a physical reduction in sales and footfall, my proportion of item sales, relative to the category parent, when compared to my peers, would remain the same.
  • It’s the Super Bowl and this is driving up sales in other stores but not mine: Let’s say stores B-K experience a doubling of footfall and Accessories sales, and similarly, my bandanas sales also increase. However provided that bandanas still only account for 15% of Accessories sales and if all things stayed the same with my store (e.g. my sales of bandanas stayed at 10% of Accessories sales) then although stores B-K have seen a physical increase in sales, my proportion of item sales, relative to the category parent, compared to my peers is still the same.
  • My store runs a specific NFL promotion in support of Super Bowl: Let’s say my store doubles its share of bandana sales to 20% of Accessories. If all things remained equal with my peer group, then relative to peers, I am now outperforming them by 5% which in this case equates to a sales uplift of $10. This is a Successful Mission.

In the same way, Quorso takes account of the impact that Covid-19 has had on footfall in different areas.

Here to help.

Want a free KPI consultation?

If you're keen to know more and have over 50 stores, let us know your business goals and our Quorso analysts will respond with a bespoke KPI profile for your stores.