Mark Ryski: The Case for Treating Store Traffic as a Precious Retail Resource

About Mark Ryski: Mark Ryski is the Founder and CEO of HeadCount Corporation, a pioneering firm in store traffic and conversion analytics since 1994. He is a recognized industry authority and the author of three influential books, including Store Traffic Is a Gift and CONVERSION: The Last Great Retail Metric. Mark’s work has shaped how retailers worldwide measure and improve in-store performance, earning him media coverage in outlets like Forbes, Retail Dive, and The Globe & Mail. As a frequent contributor to RetailWire and other forums, he continues to advocate for smarter, data-informed retail strategies.

In this episode, Dan and Mark Ryski discuss:

• The growing role of data in physical retail decision-making
• How analytics are reshaping the brick-and-mortar customer experience
• Ongoing challenges and myths around measuring store performance
• Resilience and innovation across years of retail disruption

Key Takeaways:

• Many retailers continue to allocate staffing budgets based on historical sales instead of aligning labor with actual store traffic patterns, resulting in lost sales opportunities, staff burnout, and a long-term erosion of conversion potential despite high footfall.
• Despite the increasing importance of data-driven insights, nearly half of all brick-and-mortar retailers still do not track in-store traffic at all, missing out on fundamental visibility into how many sales they could or should be converting.
• By identifying “super converting stores” — those that consistently outperform their peers in converting visitors into buyers relative to traffic volume — retailers can uncover overlooked talent, replicate successful behaviors, and improve underperforming locations with real-world best practices.
• The pandemic starkly highlighted just how fragile and valuable in-store traffic truly is, as even massive multi-store retailers saw their daily foot traffic collapse to zero, proving that every visit is a finite, high-stakes opportunity that must be measured and maximized. 

"There's so many places to buy everything in this day and age, online, other physical stores, etc.—that you have to assume once they leave without buying, they may never be back." — Mark Ryski

Connect with Mark Ryski: 

Website: https://headcount.com/

Book: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Mark-Ryski/author/B0F54MXT75

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-ryski-8826601/

& https://www.linkedin.com/company/headcount-corporation/

Connect with Dan Hollis: <