What's the "average spend" per customer in your store, please?

[2rockfarmers]

I am doing some business planning, and have come to the wondrous task of sales forecasting!

I would be immensely grateful if anyone could share what the "average customer spend" is in your own establishment, if you measure this?

If you are also able to tell me where abouts in the country you are, and your industry sector, that would be very kind.

Thanks as always everyone

 

[kelvin1950]

I think that I'd like to know what industry you're involved in and whereabouts you are in the UK before answering this.

 

[2rockfarmers]

I am in countryside, out-of-town retail (clothing and country pursuits equipment)

But I am interested to know the average spend of any sector, pretty please!

Thanks all

 

[fairdealworld]

That question is surely unanswerable? A very successful greengrocer - such as the one near to my own shop - probably has an average spend per customer of, at a guess, £5, but they have lots and lots of customers and most of those customers visit the shop two or three times per week. so the business is highly successful. Now in contrast if you were a specialist jeweller selling, say, Indian Wedding/Special Occasion Jewellery, you might, I guess only make one sale per day or even not that, but each sale might be worth several thousand pounds.

The concept of average sale has no meaning unless it is linked to the type of goods sold and the area of the country where they are sold.

 

[Pap_sak]

Well, I did run shops like that in London and would say it was around the 35 pounds mark - backpacks, tents, fleeces, sleeping bags, boots give a fairly decent average spend

 

[2rockfarmers]

Yes I know it's rather a vague question, but really it all helps paint a picture for me!

 

[vivid steve]

An average card and gift shop in the UK approx. 1,000 square ft, in an average market town would have retail sales in the region of 350k-400k, with an average sale of £6-£7 (annual average).

 

[Thinehost]

We don't measure this but would guess the range to be £6-10 per customer. We're a gift and coffee shop.

 

[hosker4u]

Its currently under £4, which im not very pleased about. As its a student store the spent little on the lower value items. High Quantity, Low Value.
Retail - Food/Drinks.

 

[Lunazzurra]

An average card and gift shop in the UK approx. 1,000 square ft, in an average market town would have retail sales in the region of 350k-400k, with an average sale of £6-£7 (annual average).

Agree generally with £6-7 average (but I wish I had that sort of turnover!!)

We do keep a record of average spend on a weekly, monthly and annual basis but it has to be taken in perspective of what you are selling.

Up to a couple of years ago our average spend was £7+ and increasing but we are in a highly tourist area and then we took on selling postcards. We sell a lot (and I mean a lot) of postcards at a couple of different price ranges (25p or 5 for £1, and 40p or 3 for £1). Our average spend dropped dramatically to £5ish but we wouldn't be without them now since they consistently account for about 7-8% of turnover with is nothing to be sneezed at.

If, for example, you have 2 sales at £15 each and then a £1 postcard sale it clearly puts the average sale down very quickly down from £15.00 to £10.33 in one go.

So what I'm saying is, it's important to keep and eye on average spend but you have to relate it to what you are selling.

 

[Talay]

Whilst every business will be different, even within the same sector and specialisation, surely every business owner performs even this limited data mining ? If not, why bother counting the money at all !

 

[help4545]

One of my business the customer average spent is £115,000 with 8 to 9 customers per week.

Turnover means nothing.

 

[Doodle-Noodle]

Average customer spend here throughout November was a paltry £13.67.

 

[daud]

Average spend here in the takeaway is £18.

Also depends on the day of the week.

 

[PrestonLad]

One of my business the customer average spent is £115,000 with 8 to 9 customers per week.

Turnover means nothing.

One of your businesses takes a million pounds a week?

Why waste time on your others?

 

[kelvin1950]

One of your businesses takes a million pounds a week?

Why waste time on your others?

Maybe he has very low margins?

 

[mhall]

We geta bit twitchy if our spend falls below £10, we average £13, but in Advent that can easily double.

But it's not the spend so much that is important but the conversion rate. We are pretty sure we can keep the spend up but we have to keep our conversion rate above 90% - and most days it's closer to 100%.

 

[mhall]

We get a bit twitchy if our spend falls below £10, we average £13, but in Advent that can easily double.

But it's not the spend so much that is important but the conversion rate. We are pretty sure we can keep the spend up but we have to keep our conversion rate above 90% - and most days it's closer to 100%.

 

[daveymck]

An average card and gift shop in the UK approx. 1,000 square ft, in an average market town would have retail sales in the region of 350k-400k, with an average sale of £6-£7 (annual average).

Do you have a source for this?

It is in the ballpark of what my research is telling me after looking at the likes of Clinton Cards, Past times etc.

My stall currently has average of £4-£5 pushing £6 on really good day but cant have some of the more expensive stuff that could have in a shop.

Is something would like to open next year but its a big risk investment for an unproven concept so taking time in planning and forecasting.

 

[PrestonLad]

Do you have a source for this?

It is in the ballpark of what my research is telling me after looking at the likes of Clinton Cards, Past times etc.

My stall currently has average of £4-£5 pushing £6 on really good day but cant have some of the more expensive stuff that could have in a shop.

Is something would like to open next year but its a big risk investment for an unproven concept so taking time in planning and forecasting.

Really? You agree with 350-400Kpa. I thought the figure sounded high for a pretty average shop in an average market town.

That's about 1,100 quid a day... even if you're open 365 days.

It's not my field though.

 

[Lunazzurra]

£350-400k sounds high to me as well. Don't forget Clinton's has gone bust and been bailed and only just about surviving and Past Times has been and gone altogether. Not very good examples I'm afraid.

A few years ago we considered buying a quite major local card and gift shop in a large Dorset town. Their t/o was stated as being a potential £250k on the sales paperwork but only £180k on the books. In today's terms, I would fully expect t/o to have reduced by about 5-8% by now for that sector. So £350-400k sounds very optimistic indeed.

 

[Talay]

Sometimes you just need to do some simple maths to realise the quoted figures are absolute cobblers.

If they say they sell £400k and trade 360 days a year, their average daily must be £1111 per day. Now if their average spend is £5 and their conversion is 80%, they need 278 people through the door each day on average.

Profile that out for each day and you're perhaps suggesting over 500 customers on a Saturday. If open 10 hours, that is just under a customer every minute.

Shape that across the hours open and in peak time the till must be ringing perhaps 3 or 4 times a minute.

Is all that practical and observable from the street ?

Go back and add in seasonality if required and suddenly the cracks in the numbers start to appear.

 

[Philip Hoyle]

Average spend per customer is pretty pointless as a statistic. A furniture shop could have an average spend of £1,000 whereas a sweet shop could have an average spend of 50p, yet the annual turnover and profit could be remarkably similar!

One of my clients is an independent village convenience store. Their annual turnover is half a million, and their average customer spend is around a fiver, but that hides the massive range between just a few pence spent by kids and around £100 per week spent on the weekly shopping bill by the regulars.

 

[daveymck]

Really? You agree with 350-400Kpa. I thought the figure sounded high for a pretty average shop in an average market town.

That's about 1,100 quid a day... even if you're open 365 days.

It's not my field though.

350k is top end of my figures (250-280 seems more realistic to me for the right store in right location) but looking at some high street competitors figures the average turnover per store for them

Clintons - £317k
Past Times - £430k
Collectibles - £916k (though these tend to have bigger stores)

Lush £368k
Body shop 284k

A lot of shops were crippled with high rents though for example Past times in the town I am looking at were paying around 65k per year rent plus rates plus staff along with the fact imho their stock went downhill and they were discounting heavily so will have had reduced margins its no surprise they went bust.

There is still a lot of money getting spent on the high street but a lot of the stores are crippled with high overheads, an example our local Jane Norman store was looking at rent and rates of over 200k in a bog standard average shopping centre for not that big premises add in staff costs of what 60-100k thats a hell of a lot of clothes need to sell to make any money.

But its translating national averages to the more local level thats difficult. For the plans and projections I have for what I would do 280k gives net profit margin of 10%, 350k 16% which seem in the ballpark for industry figures have found.

As I said in my first comment though I was looking for a source from the guy as its all fine and well have lovely spreadsheets with ranges and cash flows but a different matter selling on the ground.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Interested where you got your numbers from as except from city centre shops I cannot imagine many run at that amount of turnover

 

[insomniac101]

Working in a coffee shop, the affect of upselling is really surprising!
We are encouraged to boost sales through suggesting other items to accompany what they have ordered, and when the customers can see the products in front of them around 80% buy what we have upsold.

It takes us from an average £4 spend to £7-8 per person!

 

Average spend per customer is pretty pointless as a statistic. A furniture shop could have an average spend of £1,000 whereas a sweet shop could have an average spend of 50p, yet the annual turnover and profit could be remarkably similar!

Not to sure I would agree with that if one adds time and work into the equation.?

 

[daveymck]

Interested where you got your numbers from as except from city centre shops I cannot imagine many run at that amount of turnover

Official turnover figures/number of stores

Anne Summers is 1.2m Ernest Jones runs at over £1m as well Samuals a lowly £700k.

As said in previous post there is still lots of money being spent on the high street everyone focuses online, but clearly conditions are tough and people are being very selective on what they buy.

Even though were failing businesses turnover at Pat Times was £46.5m, clintons £364m and comet was some high figure, but all three were crippled with debts and had high overheads in rent and central services that an independent can be a bit more nimble with.

But whether I can risk 50k+ of my own money to prove it can be done in the niche I have identified is clearly another matter and a bit of a gamble.