6 Ways to Set Retail Sales Goals (+ 10 Real-Life Examples)

As a retail business owner, you already know setting sales goals and objectives is crucial to the success of your company. Without creating targets to measure your sales performance against, it will be difficult to continually scale your brand. 

Whether you’re struggling to meet your current retail sales targets, are achieving your goals and looking for ways to surpass them, or you have no idea where to start with setting your sales goals, this article will help you outline specific and measurable actions you and your associates can take to reach your goals.

Let’s get started.

What are sales goals?

Defining sales goals is more than just throwing out a number and hoping you reach it. It’s important to hone in on specific key performance indicators (KPIs) and sales metrics that will help you reach your business goals. You’ll also want to make sure your goals align with historical sales data and the resources available to you.

For example, your leading sales goal might be to increase annual sales revenue by 30% year over year. One way to achieve this may be aiming to raise your average order value (AOV) by 50% in 2022. 

But you need more than one main goal to succeed. By making and achieving small goals quickly, you and your team will feel more motivated and confident to build up to your larger, overarching sales goal.

Why do you need sales goals?

Without a clear set of sales goals and an action plan, you and your employees won’t know what target to work toward. If you don’t know where you’re heading, you’ll likely never get there. 

Having clear sales goals contributes to overall business success and will help you: 

• Measure sales performance
• Ensure sales associates feel accountable 
• Create sales targets that you and your staff can visualize 
• Motivate yourself and your team to reach sales goals 

Types of sales goals

There are many types of sales goals that you can set depending on your business model and resources. Here are a few to consider: 

Annual goals

Annual sales goals are set with the intention of reaching them within the next year. Usually these types of goals specify the overall sales revenue target for your retail business within one fiscal year. This way you and your employees can align on objectives and priorities to collaborate on, setting shorter term goals such as quarterly, monthly, weekly, and even daily sales goals to help you work up to reaching your annual goals.

An example of an annual sales goal is to make $500,000 in sales revenue by the end of this fiscal year. 

Quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily sales goals 

Annual goals inform your overarching sales strategy, but setting quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals helps break them down into more achievable steps that you can measure along the way. These types of goals are easier to reach, which will keep you and your staff motivated throughout the year.

An example of a quarterly sales goal could be to make $100,000 in sales revenue during Q2. A monthly sales goal could be to increase monthly sales revenue by 10% month over month during Q3 and Q4. Weekly, you could aim to sell $5,000 worth of product, and on a daily basis you may choose to set individual sales goals for each associate to support your weekly and monthly goals.

When setting quarterly goals, keep in mind for many retailers sales peaks and dips are seasonal. You likely shouldn’t set the same quarterly sales goals for Q4 (holiday season) as you would for Q1.

Individual goals

Setting specific goals for yourself or each of your sales associates provides a sense of ownership and accountability. These goals can be set daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually. But shorter term objectives generally work better for setting individual goals as you can measure them faster. You’ll want to aim to exceed performance metrics from the period before and also look at sales history to set realistic goals. 

For example, your sales goal for week one of December might be $5,000, and your goal for week two will be to increase that number by 10% to reach a weekly sales target of $5,500. 

Team goals

Involving your entire team in setting sales goals can boost employee engagement and also provide insights into what your sales staff can realistically manage. This will help increase the likelihood of achieving them. You can do this by holding quarterly, monthly, and weekly meetings and encouraging all employees to participate in providing feedback and setting goals. Doing this will also promote teamwork and a healthy level of competition. 

For example, you could decide as a team that next month you’ll set a $150,000 gross sales target and, if there’s five of you, you’ll each aim to sell $30,000 worth of merchandise that month in the hopes of reaching your team goal. 

Activity goals

Actions you or your sales associates can take during the sales process, disregarding factors shoppers contribute to the equation, are activity goals. They help provide a level of control over improving performance. 

Activity sales goals may include the number of: 

• Conversations started through a virtual clienteling app
• Post-purchase email campaigns sent
• Engagements with potential customers on social media 

For example, you could set an activity goal to start at least five virtual shopping conversations a week next month.

Stretch goals

Pushing yourself and your team to exceed initial sales goals are what we call stretch goals. Usually these types of goals involve incentives or rewards to motivate employees to surpass their quotas. Stretch goals should be challenging but attainable. 

For example, if your sales goal for Q4 is $200,000, you could stretch it to $220,000, and when the team succeeds, reward them with dinner at a local restaurant. 

If you’re creating stretch goals for yourself, it might be something like surpassing your weekly sales goal of $6,000 by 5% week over week and then treating yourself to a massage at the end of the month. 

Waterfall goals 

Waterfall goals allow you to build upon goals over time. Rather than setting much larger new goals, you can raise them gradually week over week or month over month. 

For example, if your goal is to increase virtual clienteling chats week over week, don’t try to go from five to 20 in one week. You could start by raising your goal to 10 next week, 15 the following, and then 20. 

If you set goals too high and miss them it can demotivate you and your team. The waterfall goal setting strategy also ensures that quality isn’t compromised as output is increased, and prevents burnout. 

Sequence goals 

Prioritizing goals by which ones add the highest value when they’re attained is how you can create sequence goals. You can make sure you’re first hitting the goals that affect your bottom line the most. This way, even if you or your associates don’t meet every goal on the list, you’ll achieve the ones that make an immediate impact on your sales revenue. 

For example, you could prioritize your goals in this order: 

1. Make $3,000 in sales this month 
2. Send five email campaigns this month
3. Dedicate one hour each day to engaging with Instagram followers 

How do you set sales goals?

Looking at your previous years’ retail sales history and crunching numbers to determine a growth rate that will help you scale your business is a good start. And taking an annual target and dividing it by 12 to set monthly sales goals may seem like a simple solution, but there are many other factors that go into setting SMART sales goals that are challenging but realistic. 

That’s why, before you set monthly, quarterly, and annual sales goals, it’s crucial to consider all variables including:

1. Everything you need to reach your sales goals (i.e., staff, software, money)
2. Historical sales data
3. Sales channels, new products, and seasonal shopping peaks and dips 
4. Consumer and market trends that may influence sales 
5. Sales promotions and events throughout the year
6. Input from your employees 

Doing this will help you set the right retail sales targets for your business and break your sales goals down into smaller objectives to ensure success.

Then you can use the following strategies: 

1. Set SMART sales goals

SMART sales goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Whether you’re hoping to increase monthly sales revenue, units per transaction, or start more virtual clienteling chats, the SMART goal framework will help you outline, track, and hit your goals. 

Let’s say your overall revenue goal for the year is to hit $500,000 in sales. Here’s an example of how you can break this down quarterly into a SMART goal: 

• Specific. Increase online sales revenue in Q4 when compared to Q3 of the same year. 
• Measurable. Q3 sales revenue was $100,000 and the target is a 15% increase ($115,000).
• Attainable. Increasing sales revenue by 15% in Q4 (holiday shopping season) is achievable.
• Relevant. This goal aligns with your overall sales goals. 
• Time-bound. The deadline is set for the end of Q4 to ensure you stay motivated and on track. 

2. Analyze your sales cycle

How long does it usually take to convert a lead into paying customers? This is your sales cycle. If your business is omnichannel and you sell online and in-person, review this data for each channel. Then you can set goals to lower the amount of time it takes to move a lead through the buying journey to speed up the sales cycle and generate revenue faster. 

3. Identify a collective goal

Setting goals as a team encourages associates to work together to achieve them. It also improves motivation and gives your staff a sense of ownership. You can create an incentive that’s only offered when everyone on the team meets the sales goal. 

For example, all team members must sell at least $1,000 worth of merchandise this week. And if you’re working on implementing virtual selling strategies a goal could be for each person to start at least three virtual clienteling chats this week.

If the goals are met collectively, the reward could be a team dinner, happy hour, or fitness class, depending on what your sales associates prefer. 

4. Use data to set your goals 

Jotting down numbers in a spreadsheet with the hope that you’ll achieve them likely won’t lead you to the success you’re hoping for. But using historical data to predict future business performance ensures the goals you set are both accurate and achievable. The most effective way to do this is to view your store’s sales performance for a period of time. 

Next, organize your sales data by store location, year, quarter, and month. Once this is done, calculate your monthly and yearly growth rate. This will give you a clear picture of how your sales fluctuate throughout the year, as well as whether or not your sales are growing from one year to the next. 

Equipped with that historical information, you can create annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and even daily sales goals. Share those goals with store managers and have them set daily, weekly, and monthly goals for store associates to ensure your store’s performance trends in the right direction.

5. Calculate your break even point

Your business’ break even point is the point at which you’re selling enough to cover your fixed and variable costs. You’re not profiting and you’re not losing money. Knowing how to calculate your break even point will help you identify how much you need to sell before your business starts profiting. This is key when setting sales goals. 

6. Avoid confusing sales goals and objectives with metrics—they’re not the same thing 

Sales goals and objectives are long-term overarching goals that drive your overall retail business growth. But analyzing shorter-term sales performance metrics is vital to make sure you’re on track to reach your annual goals. 

Setting key performance indicators (KPIs) or target metrics that you’ll measure performance against will help you define steps and strategies to accomplish your sales goals. 

11 real-life examples of KPIs and metrics to help you reach your sales goals

With any business, the main objective is to increase sales revenue and run a profitable, sustainable business. In retail, there are many strategies and metrics you can target to work toward your annual sales goals. And breaking them down quarterly, monthly, weekly, and even daily will help you measure your progress and inspire you to reach the next milestone. 

Let’s take a look at various examples you can put into action today to help you achieve your long-term sales goals:

1. Increase your monthly, quarterly, or annual sales revenue 

Growing your sales revenue is the heart of your retail business. That’s why it’s important to make revenue targets the foundation of setting your sales goals. These long-term objectives will inform all the other short-term strategies you work on to increase your sales. 

Start with your annual revenue goal and then break it down into smaller time frames to help you feel a sense of achievement along the way. Having a big goal to look forward to at the end of the year is a great way to keep your employees on track. 

SMART goal example 

Increase year-over-year sales revenue by 15% by creating strategies to boost and measure performance on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis.

Building a profitable company that continues to grow requires an overarching sales goal based on revenue and it will connect with all the other KPIs you define. Your sales revenue goal should always be at the top of the list and then you can use the various strategies we’ve listed below to achieve it. 

2. Increase average order value (AOV) 

Increasing your average order value involves strategies such as product bundling, upselling, and using cross merchandising to sell similar or complementary products. The main objective is to increase the average amount each customer spends at your business. Doing this will ultimately lead to higher overall sales volume. 

To calculate your store’s AOV, divide your total sales revenue from a given period by the total number of purchases in the same period.

For example, if you sold $4,000 worth of products last month and there were 150 purchases, your AOV is roughly $26.

In-store, you can use visual merchandising strategies to leverage store layout and a merchandise marketing calendar to regularly refresh your in-store product assortment. This can help improve new product discovery and lead shoppers to spend more during each visit to your retail store. 

Online, you can use post-purchase notifications to upsell similar or complementary products, add a section to the cart page that suggests additional items they may like to add to their shopping basket, or implement a high shipping threshold to encourage customers to spend a certain amount to enjoy free shipping. 

SMART goal example 

Increase your ecommerce average order value in Q3 by 10% by adding an upselling feature to the shopping cart page of your website. Evaluate performance at the beginning of Q4 and make adjustments to improve the customer experience, if necessary. 

3. Increase customer lifetime value (CLTV)

Customer lifetime value is the total amount a person spends at your retail business over the whole period of their relationship with your brand. This is an important metric because it can cost five times more to acquire new customers than it does to retain existing ones. Also, increasing customer retention by 5% can increase sales profits by 25% to 95%. 

You can use this formula to measure CLTV:

Customer revenue per year x length of relationship in years – total cost to acquire the customer = CLTV

Let’s do the math using this example. If one customer spends $5,000 at your business per year over a length of three years and the initial cost to acquire that customer was $45, then their CLTV is $14,955. 

$5,000 (per year) x 3 (years) – $45 (CAC) = $14,955 (CLTV)

But what strategies can you use to increase CLTV? 

First, you’ll want to decide if you want to target a percentage or amount increase in the lifetime value for existing customers. Then you can use customer retention strategies such as loyalty programs, personalized email campaigns, and SMS marketing to continue engaging with customers post-purchase. The ultimate goal is to encourage them to make repeat purchases. Similar to increasing your AOV, upselling and cross-selling are also great strategies to boost your CLTV. 

Raise your CLTV at your brick-and-mortar store using retail merchandising and strategies to improve the checkout experience.

SMART goal example 

Increase CLTV by 15% next year by sending automated post-purchase upselling emails showing related products to online and in-store customers, encouraging them to make repeat purchases. Set up this email flow by the end of this year and review performance on a monthly basis to make improvements. 

Another SMART goal could be to increase CLTV by 10% next year through a customer loyalty program. Implement the program by the end of January and aim to have at least 10 customers join the program each month. 

4. Decrease customer churn 

With increasing CLTV also comes decreasing customer churn. As you’ve already learned, acquiring new customers is far more expensive than retaining the ones you have. That’s why decreasing customer churn is crucial to reach your sales goals. During a given period of time, you may gain or lose customers, either to your competitors or because they have stopped purchasing from your retail business for other reasons. Of course, gaining new customers will ultimately help you boost sales, but losing customers results in customer churn. 

Customer churn happens when your customers stop buying products, stop visiting your store or website, and switch to buying from one of your competitors because of a lower price or better experience. Managing customer churn is vital in retail, as this metric tells you if customers like your products, are satisfied with your customer service, and if your pricing is competitive. High customer churn can also result in shoppers sharing their negative experience with friends and family, and this can lead to a poor image of your retail business. 

One way to decrease customer churn is to ask customers for feedback through surveys or conversations when they visit your store. This way, you’ll know what areas need improvement to ensure your existing customers stay loyal. Essentially, anything you can do to strengthen relationships with customers will help you keep them. 

To calculate your customer churn rate, divide the total number of churned customers over a given period of time by the number of customers you had on the first day of the same period. 

For example, let’s say on September 1st you have 5,000 customers and throughout the month you lose 250 customers. 

Here’s the math: 

(250 / 5,000) x 100 = 5% churn rate

When looking at your churn rate month over month, it’s important to keep in mind that while you may lose some customers each month, you will also gain customers. So your total churn is made up of existing customers you lose as well as new customers you gain and lose in the same month. Then add up existing customers from the beginning of the month plus new customers to determine your total number of customers at the beginning of the next month. 

Here’s an example: 

Now you can also calculate your churn rate for the next month (October, in the example above). 

• Existing customers = 6,700
• Existing churn + new churn = 300
• (300 / 6,700) x 100 = 4.48% churn rate 

The recommended customer churn rate in retail is 5% to 7%. Aiming for less than 5% is a good goal, but if your churn rate exceeds 10%, it’s time to reevaluate. If you’re losing a larger number of customers than you’re gaining, it will be difficult to grow and sustain your business. 

SMART goal example 

Let’s say your current customer churn rate is 7.5%. You can set a goal to decrease customer churn by .05%, month over month, until it’s down to 5% per month. Then aim to maintain a 5% customer churn rate. Do this by surveying customers to understand how you can improve your products and customer experience, and do everything possible to resolve their issues quickly. 

5. Reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC) 

Customer acquisition cost is the amount you spend on sales and marketing to acquire a new customer. You can calculate it by taking the cost of sales and marketing divided by the total number of new customers acquired. 

For example, if you host a pop-up shop and spend $2,000 on the space, sales staff, and marketing efforts and acquire 100 new customers during the event, your CAC is $20. 

Sales and marketing costs for the pop-up ($2,000) / new customers gained at the event (100) = $20 CAC per customer

Lowering your CAC can directly impact your profitability and help you meet other sales goals too, such as decreasing sales cycle times. And it’s key to make sure your CLTV outperforms your CAC to run a profitable business. 

You can reduce your CAC by analyzing your sales funnel and the customer journey to see where you’re spending money and where you can cut costs. Creating detailed customer profiles and buyer personas will also help you get a better understanding of your target customers and how you can reach them. Plus, you’ll be about to weed out prospects that are less likely to convert or be loyal customers. Then you can tweak your approach to bring in more new customers at a lower cost who are likely to make repeat purchases.

Another way to lower your CAC (and retain customers while you’re at it) is to create a referral program encouraging your existing customers to share your retail business with their friends and family. According to GWI, in North America, nearly 50% of consumers say rewards in the form of discounts or free gifts motivate them to promote their favorite brands online. Providing incentives to promote word-of-mouth marketing will help you gain more customers at a lower cost than what you’d spend on events or advertising.

SMART goal example 

Decrease your average customer acquisition cost by 5% next quarter by using historical customer data to target the right audience via social media ads. 

6. Reduce sales cycle time

Sales cycle time is the amount of time it takes for you to convert a lead into a paying customer. The customer journey from discovery to consideration to eventually buying varies depending on the industry as well as each individual business and customer. It’s a complicated process with many touchpoints. 

You can create a list of touchpoints where potential customers might engage with your business and then see how you can speed up the process by reducing the number of steps or providing more information at certain points to make the buying decision easier. 

This list can include touchpoints before, during, and after the sale. For example: 

Before the sale

• Social media
• Customer reviews
• Advertising

During the sale

• Retail store, pop-up shop, or website 
• Virtual clienteling 
• Point-of-sale

After the sale 

• Post-purchase notifications
• Thank you messages/cards
• Follow up to ask for product reviews 

SMART goal example 

Reduce the sales cycle time by 5% next month by being available via Instagram direct message to answer customer questions. Do this by scheduling specific times each day that you check and respond to messages. 

7. Boost conversion rate

Conversion rates can be broken down into different types based on your goals. For example, online or in-person sales, adding products to cart, capturing email addresses, and social media shares are all examples of conversions depending on your objectives. 

Putting strategies into action to increase these conversions can boost your bottom line. 

To calculate your retail conversion rate, divide the total number of sales in a given period by the total number of visitors in the same period. 

Let’s say last weekend you had 250 store visitors and 40 of them made a purchase. Here’s how you can calculate your store’s conversion rate:

(40 / 250) x 100 = 16%

The average retail conversion rate ranges from 20% to 40% depending on the product category, and in ecommerce it ranges from 1% to around 4%, also depending on the products you sell. You can use this as a benchmark to set realistic goals for your business. 

There are various tactics you can use to increase your conversion rate in-store and online including: 

• Optimizing your product pages with high-quality images and detailed descriptions (online)
• Running limited-time discounts (online and in-store)
• Offering free shipping (online)
• Pricing products competitively (online and in-store)
• Implementing cart abandonment email flows (online)
• Innovating the payment experience to make it as frictionless as possible (online and in-store)
• Accepting more payment methods (online and in-store)
• Adding a live chat feature to your website (online)
• Testing your checkout process regularly and improving it (online)
• Offering more order fulfillment options such as buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS)
• Training and motivating sales staff (in-store and virtual selling)
• Retail merchandising (in-store) 

SMART goal example 

Boost your in-store conversion rate by 5% in Q3 by running a limited-time discount on best selling products. 

An online SMART sales goal could be to increase your ecommerce conversion rate from 1% to 2% in Q3 by adding a live chat feature to your website. This way, customers can get immediate feedback on questions and complete their order faster. 

8. Increase lead generation 

Generating more online leads through email subscribe forms lets you keep in touch with prospective customers who don’t convert after their first engagement with your business. By keeping in touch, you can educate shoppers about your products, share customer reviews, and provide incentives to hopefully convert leads into paying customers. For example, it’s common to see an offer for 10% off your first online purchase in exchange for providing your email address. 

SMART goal example 

Collect 50 new email addresses month over month by adding a newsletter pop-up form to your website and incentivize website visitors to subscribe by offering 10% off their first online order.

9. Improve gross profit margins 

Calculating your gross margin helps you analyze how much money your retail business is making after spending money to make or buy the products you sell. 

It’s shown as a percentage, and this is the formula: 

Gross margin = (total sales revenue – cost of goods sold) / total sales revenue

The goal is to increase your gross profit margin to ensure you’re keeping more money on each sale you make. With higher margins it will be easier to run a profitable business. 

In retail, profit margins generally range from 5% to 20%. And in ecommerce, a good profit margin target is around 45%. You can use Shopify’s profit margin calculator to help you find a profitable retail price for a single product. Plug in numbers to figure out the right selling prices to make sure you’re profiting on each product sold. Then use this data to inform other ways to improve profitability for your business.

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Here are a few tips to help you increase your gross profit margins: 

SMART goal example 

Increase gross profit margins by 5% in Q4 by reducing the number of promotions you run from four to two in Q4. 

10. Increase sales per channel (and test new channels)

If you run an omnichannel retail business, setting sales goals to increase sales per channel is a great way to increase your overall revenue. Let’s say you have an ecommerce store and two brick-and-mortar locations and sales are steadily increasing online and at one of your retail locations but have been slow at your second retail location.

You can put short-term goals in place with the objective of increasing sales at your second location. What works for one store might not work for another, so it’s important to test different strategies for each location. 

At the same time, you’ll want to make sure to maintain and continue increasing sales via the channels that are working well. For your online store, this could mean adding a “you may also like” section to product pages as a cross-selling strategy to encourage shoppers to increase their AOV. Or you could create an automated email flow to win back online shoppers who abandon their carts. 

And if you haven’t already tried your hand at social commerce, virtual clienteling, pop-up shops, and local SEO, experimenting with new channels and marketing strategies is another way to increase revenue and reach your annual sales goals.

SMART goal example 

Increase sales revenue at your second retail store month over month by 10% by running a bi-weekly promotion on new arrivals to encourage local shoppers to visit more often and increase their AOV. Share this promotion via social media, email campaigns, and in-store signage. 

For your online sales channels, a SMART goal could be to recover 15% of abandoned shopping carts in Q4 by creating compelling email automations, including a 10% discount to encourage customers to complete their purchase. 

11. Reduce abandoned cart rate

Using abandoned cart emails to recover lost sales is a great customer retention tactic that will help you reach your sales goals. Abandoned cart emails are used to remind customers who haven’t completed checkout to revisit their shopping cart and finish the online ordering process. Customizing the emails with product images, special offers, and a prominent call-to-action (CTA) button is a surefire way to bring shoppers back to the checkout page and increase your ecommerce sales. 

The average abandoned online shopping cart rate is 69.8%. A few of the most common reasons for lost sales are: 

• 49% of shoppers abandon their cart due to extra costs being too high (shipping, taxes, fees)
• 24% leave because the site required them to create an account
• 19% say the delivery time is too slow
• 18% say the checkout experience is too long or complicated

Strategies such as free shipping, guest checkout, and offering additional order fulfillment options like buy online, pickup in-store can help reduce your abandoned cart rate. But you can also set goals to earn back a certain percentage of lost sales during a given period. 

SMART goal example 

Step one could be to reduce the abandoned cart rate next month by 5%. You could do this by streamlining the checkout flow so it only takes three steps instead of five, for example. 

Then you can also look at how you can increase the amount of lost sales that you win back through abandoned cart emails. Let’s say you’re currently earning back 2% of lost sales using recovery emails. You could set a goal to increase this number to 5% by the end of next quarter by improving the design and personalization of your abandoned cart email flows. More enticing emails could result in more shoppers coming back to complete their purchase.

Tips for achieving your sales goals

After setting your SMART goals, you and your team will have to work hard to achieve them. 

Here are a few ways to make sure everyone is on the same page and stays motivated throughout the year: 

1. Communicate with sales associates 

Making sure your team is aware of your sales goals will ensure that they’re aligned and do their part to help you achieve them.. It can also boost employee motivation and productivity. 

Have your store managers communicate sales goals in pre-shift huddles to motivate store associates for the task at hand and keep them focused on reaching their daily targets.

2. Offer mentorship and support 

Having monthly or weekly one-on-one meetings with your sales staff is a great way to provide regular training and support. You can review associates’ sales results for the week prior and talk about how they can improve the following week. It’s key to give both positive and constructive feedback, and to not only look at the numbers, but their overall performance. 

3. Provide the highest of level of customer service possible 

Having products that your target market is looking for is, of course, a big piece of the puzzle. But boosting customer satisfaction by leveling up your customer service will help you succeed at reaching your retail sales goals. 

A few components of good customer service are responding quickly to questions or concerns, offering self-service options to make the buying process easier, and going the extra mile to provide a positive experience. 

You can achieve this by adding a personal touch to the shopping experience in a way large retailers can’t, by being transparent about your business and how the products are made, and being available to help customers across many channels, including social media, email, phone, in-store, and virtual shopping apps. 

4. Ensure your staff are knowledgeable about the products you sell

Trying to buy a product from a salesperson who can’t even explain the features and benefits of it is probably one of the biggest frustrations you can experience while shopping. That’s why it’s important to make sure you and your sales staff know your products intimately and can articulate the advantages of buying them. 

Use the FAB formula to explain the features, advantages, and benefits of the merchandise you sell and to help educate your sales staff about product details. 

FAB stands for: 

• Features of the products 
• Advantages of the product features
• Benefits the products and features provide to the customer 

5. Use gamification and rewards to motivate sales staff 

Building an employee rewards program will help motivate associates to reach their individual and team sales goals. You can gamify the process by running contests and awarding winners on a weekly or monthly basis. 

For example, if you set a goal for each associate to sell $1,000 worth of merchandise over the next week, you can reward the winner with a $50 gift card.

Or you can create a team reward, such as a lunch outing, if everyone hits their monthly sales goal. 

Creating a healthy level of competition can boost your bottom line, but make sure you don’t go overboard to the point where your sales team starts working against each other rather than together to reach your sales goals.

6. Leverage consumer psychology 

Understanding how consumers behave will help you set realistic sales goals and build strategies to reach them. You can ask yourself questions like: 

• What would motivate shoppers to buy the products you sell? 
• How can you market to your ideal customers? 
• What variables would influence their purchasing decisions? 

Creating a sense of urgency, building social proof, and creating a great customer experience are a few more ways to incorporate consumer psychology into your sales and marketing strategy. 

For example, encouraging customer reviews can help build social proof and increase your brand credibility and trust. In turn, more people may be motivated to buy from your business. 

7. Regularly track and analyze sales goals 

Last but not least, an essential part of achieving your retail sales goals is regularly monitoring performance. After creating your SMART goals, you can use Shopify’s analytics and reports to measure progress on a short-term and long-term basis. 

Put your SMART sales goals into action

Now that you understand how to create an action plan and outline SMART sales goals for your retail business, it’s time to put them to work. Start small by testing only one to two strategies at a time and then, based on what works, you can build from there. Ultimately, your sales goals should lead to one main goal—working together as a team to reach milestones and build a profitable and viable business.

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