Cycle Gear Case Study

Overview

HeadCount’s Traffic & Conversion Program helped Cycle Gear drive revenue, improve their bottom line and shift to a ‘conversion culture’.

Despite tough headlines for many of the industry’s biggest retailers, one specialty retailer is bucking the trend and demonstrating what is possible.

Just five months after launching HeadCount Corporation’s traffic and conversion program, Cycle Gear improved their revenue and, more importantly, their bottom line. In a detailed customer use case, Rodger O’Keefe, Vice-President Store Operations says he has seen several critical advantages of Cycle Gear’s new approach to conversion:

“My wage budget has been well in line and yet I’m getting better results,” says Rodger O’Keefe, Vice-President of Store Operations for Cycle Gear. “When I speak to my Board of Directors and they ask ‘how’s traffic doing’ I can now tell them we are doing the right thing. Our results show it,” says O’Keefe.

“I wanted the team to have as much data as possible for their four walls. It’s not about finger-wagging, it’s about how we can make it better.”

Rodger O'Keefe
VP Store Operations, Cycle Gear

Summary

Data Drives Problem Solving - Not Just Measurement

As an example, two stores had opened within weeks of each other with similar demographics. However, there was a 900-basis point difference in conversion between the two locations. With the new program, by the end of the day, O’Keefe and the store manager had solved the problem. “I told her ‘that’s the answer right there, that’s the golden ticket. That’s what you control’,” says O’Keefe.

The Importance of ‘Controlling Your Four Walls’

When a store is empowered to drill down to what they can control, overall it doesn’t matter if foot traffic is down or weather is bad, staffing factors and conversion rates can be adjusted to increase comp sales. Cycle Gear’s Store and District Managers proactively use their new data to ‘control their four walls’ instead of worrying about traffic.

Critical Shift in Staff Scheduling Approach

Cycle Gear went from automating staff scheduling against sales transactions to scheduling against foot traffic. This shift in approach, along with small tweaks in scheduling, resulted in a huge payoff across the board.

Power in simplicity

How much can two minutes help? A lot. Cycle Gear has a new, simple ‘every day’ habit that is helping them drive their business forward.

Field managers are highly engaged

To ensure everyone understood the key concepts and were inspired by the new program, Cycle Gear launched the program at their Store Managers’ Conference in Las Vegas. O’Keefe says the teams were “blown away” by the launch.

“The Cycle Gear team is really exceptional. Not only were all the executives open to looking at their existing data with a critical eye, but they were very motivated to find the solution that would truly support and engage their field teams to be successful. We are extremely proud of the work being done by every Cycle Gear team member using this data and embracing change. It is exciting to see them succeed.”

Mark Ryski
CEO & Founder, HeadCount