Know your numbers: the five figures every retailer must track
You do not need an accounting degree to run a profitable store. You need five numbers, updated weekly, and the honesty to act on what they tell you.
Ask a store owner how business is, and the answer is a feeling. Ask a retail CEO, and the answer is five numbers. The difference between the two is not scale — it is discipline.
Number one: daily sales, yes — but against footfall. Sales per bill tells you whether customers are buying more when they come; footfall tells you whether more of them are coming at all. Different problems, different cures.
Number two: gross margin. Not revenue, not profit — margin. It is the honest measure of what your buying and pricing decisions are earning you, and it should be calculated by category, not just in total.
Number three: stock turns — how many times a year your inventory sells through. Slow turns quietly eat your cash while looking perfectly tidy on your shelves. Dead stock is not an asset; it is money wearing a costume.
Number four: your largest expense after rent — usually people — measured as sales per team member. It tells you whether you are building a productive team or simply collecting salaries.
Number five: cash runway. How many months can the business pay its bills if sales dip? Retail fails on the day cash stops, not the day profit does. Track these five weekly, and your store stops being a feeling and becomes a business.
Harsshad Retail Business Strategist · Founder, Retail B School