Why we love RetailNext
If you’ve worked with me at Bonobos or anywhere since, you already know this: RetailNext is one of the first calls I make when a brand is serious about treating retail like a real business channel, not a side project. I started using them almost ten years ago, rolled them out across Bonobos, and have recommended them in nearly every role since.
And yes—when I first pushed for traffic counting, I heard the same line every brand hears:
“Do we really need to pay for traffic data? We already know how many orders we ring.”
My rebuttal then is the same now: Would you ever say that about website traffic?
Would you run an e-commerce business with only order counts, no traffic, no conversion rate, no shopper yield, no funnel visibility, and no understanding of who didn’t convert or why?
Of course not.
But many retailers still run stores exactly this way.
Who RetailNext Is
RetailNext provides e-commerce-grade analytics for physical stores. Their Aurora sensors measure actual shopper traffic with industry-leading accuracy (95–99%+), using advanced ML and 3D imaging to distinguish people from objects. Their software then ties that traffic to sales, staffing, merchandising zones, dwell patterns, and shopper journeys.
In short: They tell you what’s actually happening in your store—objectively.
Their platform covers:
- Traffic: The core metric that unlocks everything else
- KPIs: Conversion, ATV, UPT, and Shopper Yield
- Pass-by traffic and capture rate
- Dwell, engagement, and heat maps
- Full Path Analysis (which zones draw customers, which don’t)
- Benchmarking across stores, regions, and peers
- Staffing optimization (align payroll to traffic)
What They Actually Do
RetailNext answers questions retailers typically guess at:
- How many people walked in today?
- How many walked by?
- When were we understaffed and losing conversion?
- Where did shoppers spend time?
- What differs between buyers and browsers?
- Which fixtures or zones are dead weight?
- How does our traffic compare to similar stores in the region?
POS systems answer what you sold.
RetailNext answers how you sold it—and why you didn’t sell more.
As their platform materials show, traffic is the foundation of all meaningful retail KPIs:
Traffic → Conversion → ATV → Sales
Without understanding each piece, you’re managing blind.
Why Their Work Matters
If you’re only measuring orders, you have no idea whether your store is good or just lucky.
Example:
- A store sells $10k/day.
- You may think: “Great store.”
But without traffic:
- Did 200 people visit (5% conversion)?
- Or 800 people (1.25% conversion)?
- Did a staff outage tank half your opportunity?
- Did 70% of pass-by traffic ignore your windows?
- Are your customers’ paths dying before they reach key displays?
- Are you overstaffed during dead hours and understaffed during peak hours?
Traffic + conversion + shopper yield is how you separate performance from potential.
Their case studies show how brands used this insight to:
- Redesign store zones that non-purchasers avoided.
- Align staffing to peak traffic, driving service and sales.
- Improve layout, merchandising, and fixture placement.
These are direct operational levers that unlock real dollars.
How to Justify the ROI
Let’s take a common scenario:
A brand only tracks orders: A store does 40 transactions a day. You assume ~40 shoppers came in.
Reality with RetailNext:
- 400 people came in
- Only 10% bought
- And pass-by traffic indicates 900 walked past the store
Suddenly the question changes from: “Do we need traffic counters?” to “How much money are we losing every day by not knowing this?”
Better data leads to measurable ROI in:
- Conversion Lift
Even a 1–2 point increase in conversion moves revenue meaningfully.
(RetailNext shows 5–7% sales growth with traffic + conversion optimization.) - Labor Optimization
Scheduling to traffic routinely increases sales per labor hour by 6–8%. - Shopper Yield
Shopper Yield = Revenue ÷ Traffic.
A foundational metric you can’t calculate without real traffic counts. - Benchmarking Against Peers
Their platform includes benchmarking and performance indexing across regions and categories.
This tells you if traffic is soft because of macro trends vs. a store-level issue.
For most brands, the question becomes: Is avoiding bad decisions worth more than the cost of traffic analytics?
And the answer is always yes.
The Takeaway
RetailNext fixes the single biggest blind spot in physical retail: Knowing how many people you actually served versus how many you could have.
I’ve trusted them across nearly a decade, across multiple brands and store formats, because the ROI isn’t theoretical. It shows up in conversion lift, staffing efficiency, layout decisions, marketing effectiveness, and overall store performance.
If you want an intro, need help building the internal business case, or just want to learn more about RetailNext, email partnerships@fourwall.co.
