Store Traffic Is a Gift: The Retailer’s Guide to Converting Visits into Sales

by Mark Ryski

#1 AMAZON BEST SELLER
NONFICTION BOOK AWARDS GOLD MEDALIST
2026 AXIOM AWARDS GOLD MEDALIST IN SALES

Every hour of every day, shoppers visit retail stores intending to buy but leave empty-handed.

Brick-and-mortar retailers aren’t being beaten by Amazon or other online competitors, they’re beating themselves by not focusing on the shopper who is already in the store but left without buying.

In Store Traffic Is a Gift, retail analytics expert Mark Ryski shares game-changing insights from over twenty years of research and hands-on experience helping leading retailers turn more visits into sales,
• Why store traffic data is among the most critical data retailers collect
• Which proven techniques convert more store visits into sales
• How to give the frontline store team and field leaders the best chance for success
• Why the future of brick-and-mortar stores is bright despite Amazon and even pandemics!

Understanding the value of store traffic insights and how to apply them in your retail business will forever change and guide how you make decisions—whether you have one store or thousands.

Remember, store traffic is a gift. This book will help you unwrap it.

Genres: Nonfiction

333 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 30, 2025

Reviews

[Kayla B]

I was really interested in learning from this book. I couldn’t read past chapter 3 though. With staff service being one of the most common reasons someone does not make a purchase, it is quite dehumanizing to refer to them just as labor. At a macro level, labor is a more appropriate term, such as department of labor, labor market, etc. For a company though…referring to employees as labor is gross. This book is about the company level. Terminology is important as the author points out in the first chapter.

The author does have some okay recommendations for addressing staffing, performance metrics, and compensation. I would have appreciated more on how to have more effective employees. Having the right number of people and measuring/compensating performance based on conversation rates is a dent in resolving staff service issues. This only addresses some structural issues. Even with a decent structure, if nothing else is addressed then conversation rates would suffer.

Also, in chapter 2, the author blames employees for “not having the presence of mind” when offering loyalty cards during a busy time as an example of staff impact. This is out of touch. Most employees don’t have an intrinsic desire to sell people on loyalty cards. It is management that is either rewarding people on how many cards or punishing people on the number of loyalty cards. In either case, the employee is in a shit spot if it’s all on them to also adjust when they sell people on loyalty cards based on traffic. This is a policy or management issue and not an employee one.

[Sara]

This is definitely a must read for anyone working in retail, particularly management. It delves into the importance of conversion rates and shows how important these too often overlooked metrics are to your sales. Getting people in the door is great, but as a retailer you must find ways to convert that foot traffic into sales. The advice in the book along with the data-driven insights will help ensure your store's success. I highly recommend this book to - well pretty much everyone. I've already recommended it to the other managers at work.

*I won a copy via Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for an honest review.*

[Beverly Reid]

accounting analytics is a gravely underrepresented area in retail. this book delivers deep into the missed opportunities.

a MUST for the owner or manager of retail... study this and apply it's ideas.

[Janet]

I received this ebook as a Goodreads Giveaway. Thank you!

A discussion of the role of store traffic in retail management. Experienced retailers are aware that if no one enters your door, you won't sell anything. This book explains how to use store traffic data in determining staffing, training, and marketing. One thing I learned as a new assistant store manager: Who staffs a store and when is just as important as customer service. This book discusses taking advantage of foot traffic in making many decisions.

[Peter P.]

“A store's overall sales don't define the store’s team’s performance, but a store’s sales per visitor does, and the only way you can truly measure it is with store traffic and conversion rates.” So writes Mark Ryski in his book, Store Traffic Is A Gift, and I don't think it's hyperbolic to suggest that Ryski has penned the definitive tome on one of the most under-appreciated, and oftentimes misinterpreted, metrics in retail, and that is the accounting and analytics of head counts. Ryski presents numerous data (including charts and graphs throughout) to make a very compelling argument that it is virtually impossible to fully understand the missed opportunities in retail without a thorough awareness of all the data in the business, not just the POS data. A must read for serious retail professionals.

[Jason Roberts]

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. If you are looking to understand retail traffic and conversion, there probably isn't a better book out there. Mark Ryski covers the subject thoroughly, breaking down exactly why foot traffic data is so crucial. It is a fantastic, insightful read, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the topic.

[Audrey]

A fascinating look at what drives, keeps, and grows consumer participation.

[Alicia Dale]

Even Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, the giant of all giants, admits that store traffic will always be important. Watching shoppers walk out the door without a purchase is a missed opportunity. Savvy retailers treat store foot traffic as if it were a marketing campaign. The good news is capturing the sale inside the store is a lot more cost-effective and a better use of time than creating, implementing, and managing a promotion. Opportunities to learn come from the most unlikely places, including loss prevention systems. Tiny tweaks and reviewing content with a fresh perspective can inspire new ways of thinking to capture more purchases.

Don’t take it from me, author, Mark Ryski summarizes each chapter with key takeaways and then adds his own practitioner's advice. Now is the time for creativity.