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You probably know who your regulars are, which items sell out fastest, and when the morning rush hits its peak. But what about the specifics? Do you know when most of your sales occur, down to the hour, weekday, and month? Or how much of your sales come from new versus repeat customers?
The world’s largest retailers employ armies of analysts and use complicated tools just to understand these types of things. They’re pricey and tedious to set up—not the best option for small businesses. So we’re leveling the playing field by integrating analytics into your point of sale and dashboard. You’ll now have access to sales trends, buyer insights, helpful charts, and personalized data to help you run your operations efficiently.
Here’s what Square Analytics can help with:
1. Keep tabs on what you’re selling
You may think that people are cuckoo for cronuts, but it could be that plain croissants are actually your bakery’s best-selling item. With Square Analytics, you’ll see real-time charts that show you exactly which items are flying off the shelf, so you can adjust your inventory accordingly.
2. Know who your customers are
Where do your sales come from? Are repeat customers your bread and butter or do most sales come from people popping in for the first time? Square data tells us this varies wildly by industry. With buyer insights, you can deep dive into which group makes up the bulk of your sales. Then you can use this information to, say, offer a rewards program to entice new customers into coming back.
3. Figure out your best hours
Pam Turkin, owner of 17 Just Baked cupcake shops in Michigan and Ohio, determines her businesses hours based on insights from Square Analytics: “When I opened Just Baked in Detroit, I was guessing when customers would stop in for a cupcake. Square Analytics showed that this location’s busiest hour was actually between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. We would have closed at 4:00 p.m. and missed out on sales if not for Square Analytics’ hour-by-hour trends.”
4. Identify your top salesperson
You can now view staff sales to keep tabs on your employees’ performance. When someone’s shift ends, you can run a custom report to see how much that staff member sold. And Square Analytics is mobile-optimized, so you can check in on your staff while on the go.
5. Get real-time insight into how business is going
See how your business is growing with every new sale. Visit your Square Dashboard to see sales charts and widgets update in real time with each transaction. You no longer have to sort through lists of sales in spreadsheets and create your own pivot tables just to get a clear picture of how your business is going. (And if you’ve never made a pivot table before, you’re not missing anything.)
Square Analytics is free with Square’s pos software and integrates the full suite of Square products like Invoices and Appointments.
