STORES Magazine - April 2008 - (Page 74)

NUTS AND BOLTS / OPERATIONS Stuck on Traffic Anna’s Linens uses video-based technology to generate “the metric that measures potential” BY REBECCA LOGAN xecutives at Anna’s Linens are counting far more than threads these days. The Costa Mesa, Calif.based bed, bath and home decor chain has been installing trafficcounters at the entrances of all its stores. By the time you read this, management expects to be able to track how many people have walked through any of Anna’s 253-plus doors. E Anna’s executives have crunched plenty of numbers, like sales volume and units per transaction, “but we recognized that we were missing a tool that would allow us to measure a store’s potential, the effectiveness of our marketing and whether or not we had effectively aligned payroll and staffing,” says COO Scott Gladstone. “For us, that was a key gap.” So Anna’s signed up for I-Count, a video-based technology with shape recognition from Sunrise, Fla.-based lion in revenue, 33 percent of companies CountWise. Average shoppers might with revenues of $1 billion or less were mistake the modules for smoke detecresearching traffic-tracking. tors, but they can shed valuable light on Anna’s decision to deploy a Countconversion rates. Wise solution throughout the chain folAnna’s is not alone, of course: 35 perlowed a five-store test during the fourth cent of 168 North American retailers quarter of 2007. The test stores were sesurveyed for a 2007 AMR Research relected based on a variety of factors. port were using some form of traffic“They even picked them based on being tracking technology, and another 32 in hot and cold [climates],” says Countpercent were in the evaluation stage. Wise president Amir Chitayat. “They And the technology is moving beyond wanted to see if it would work in both. the realm of the retail giants, according Of course, they didn’t tell us that until to “Traffic-Tracking Technology Brings later.” New Level of DeOne of the test stores was the mand Insight to Reof highest-volume unit in the tail Operations,” a recompanies with Anna’s chain. Another was a port by Robert Garf revenues of store that Gladstone had long and Heather Keltz. $1 billion or less found perplexing — one that That report found are researching that, while 43 percent shares a wall with a Wal-Mart traffic-tracking of the companies and has a high-volume Ross using the technology Dress for Less on the other side. Source: “Traffic-Tracking had more than $5 bilBoth neighbors were doing Technology Brings New Level great, he says, “but our store of Demand Insight to Retail Operations” was not performing to plan. … We really struggled with why.” The first month of testing showed that, in terms of traffic, the store in question was actually within 6 percentage points of the chain’s highest-performing location. Sales volume, however, was about half. “We realized that our marketing efforts and customer traffic in that store [were] more than acceptable … so we looked at staffing,” Gladstone says. Payroll hours were based on perform- 33% 74 STORES / APRIL 2008 WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - April 2008

STORES Magazine - April 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page More Retailers Bagging Monthly Comp-Store Reports Time-Warner Center's Economy-Defying Results What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Eating Locally Grocery Concept2Watch Restaurants Online Services Marketing Human Resources Product Lifecycle Management E-Commerce: Peer Reviews Drive Online Buyers Kiosks Recycling Operations Payment Systems POS Logistics E-Commerce: Getting Personal Website Management LOEB Retail Letter Arts Update Point of View NRF News Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - April 2008

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