How to Increase Retail Sales - 5 Proven Ways with Examples

Retail’s core principle is deceptively simple: buy low, sell high, and outmaneuver the competition. But turning that principle into profit? Now that’s a challenge.

Delivering value and boosting profitability often requires large-scale investment in technology, people, store design, online platforms and promotion.

But there is a way to work smarter and increase retail sales without a hefty price tag. Capitalizing on existing hardware and smart data capture technology to streamline and automate retail workflows can add immense value for your workers, customers and business.

In this guide, we’ll explore this opportunity in more detail and highlight how high-performance smart data capture:

• Offers a powerful and versatile solution for increasing sales and improving operational performance.
• Enhances shopping experiences that drive customer loyalty.
• Can be integrated easily using your existing technology.

Every time a product isn’t available on the shelf, retailers lose both sales and customer trust.

Industry research shows that out-of-stocks cost global retailers more than $1 trillion annually. Yet most stores still rely on manual audits that are too slow and inaccurate to spot issues before they impact revenue.

Shelf intelligence solutions solve this by using object recognition and computer vision on smart devices, fixed-position cameras, and robots to capture and analyze shelf data.

The system identifies missing or misplaced products, low stock levels, and pricing errors and alerts associates so they can replenish and address issues before sales are lost.

Low‑cost implementation with hybrid data capture

One of the biggest advantages of Scandit ShelfView is its low total cost of ownership. Instead of requiring new fixed infrastructure, ShelfView uses a hybrid data-capture model that combines existing smart devices, fixed cameras, and autonomous robots as needed for each store format.

This flexible deployment means retailers can start with employee smartphones or tablets and scale up only where higher data frequency is needed. By leveraging current hardware and edge and cloud‑based processing, retailers typically avoid upfront capital costs and reach payback in months rather than years.

Augmented reality (AR) enhances personalized shopping experiences, helping convert browsers into loyal buyers.

Personalization has become increasingly important for attracting shoppers, driving purchases, and retaining them. What was a ‘nice to have’ is now a ‘must have.’

According to Gartner, customer experience “drives more than 2/3rds of customer loyalty” compared to brand preference or price consideration.

Retail media also allows retailers to diversify revenue streams by influencing decisions with targeted offers at the point of purchase, potentially increasing profit margins by as much as 90%.

So how do you sell more by ensuring the right offers target the right people?

The answer lies in the insight drawn from customer data. High-performance Scandit Smart Data Capture and augmented reality (AR) capabilities, when integrated into shopping loyalty apps and mobile sites, enable customers to interact with items and offers, thereby increasing retail sales.

Data collected from customer scans during shopping interactions gives retailers a rich picture of their shopping habits and preferences. This data can also be sold to media outlets as an additional revenue stream. This enables more personalized targeting of future digital rewards/coupons and gamified experiences.

When customers scan items on their own devices, the checkout process becomes frictionless, enabling spontaneous, uninterrupted shopping that builds larger baskets.

Self-scanning within stores came into its own during the pandemic. Its popularity grew and is now mainstream in many retail stores, including a third of non-grocery stores.

Retail customers value the convenience and enhanced shopping experience of using self-scanning apps on their devices to scan items and checkout.

Offering customers self-scanning also benefits the business. It reduces the need for manual checkouts, and research shows that introducing a mobile self-scanning solution can increase revenue by an average of 10%.

The only downside to mobile self-scanning is when the software powering the shopping app doesn’t do its job. Friction and frustration caused by failed scanning can result in reduced sales, shrinkage, and a loss of customer loyalty.

Scandit’s Smart Data Capture offers the necessary features to ensure a seamless and assured self-scanning app experience:

• Scan at unmatched speed and accuracy on both high- and low-end smartphones.
• Capture data in any retail environment, including awkward shelf placement, poor lighting conditions, and even damaged barcodes.
• Have the option of advanced capabilities such as augmented reality to add interactive shopping experiences to your self-scanning app.

Inventory management is a balancing act. Too much stock drains profits because of markdowns and storage costs, while too little stock can lead to stock-outs and lost sales.

With many demands for the same items coming from different sources (in-store pickers, shoppers, and online), it’s essential to know which items are in stock, out of stock, or in transit for shipment or return.

Factors such as poor demand forecasting, theft, and damaged goods are cited as causes of inventory distortion.

However, one of the main causes is manual inventory counting and outdated real-time data collection processes.

Scandit Smart Data Capture allows store workers to capture data in real-time on any smart device, from its receipt in the back of the house to its display in the front of the house.

With specific out-of-the-box software, Scandit MatrixScan Count, multiple barcodes can be scanned simultaneously, making inventory receiving checks up to 10x faster than single barcode scanning.

This level of automation and inventory visibility enables retailers to tackle inventory distortion head-on, reduce stockouts, and increase product availability to optimize sales.

Great customer service is a surefire way to sell more. It often boils down to the store associate's ability to get to know a customer, anticipate what they might need, or help them find the right item.

Clienteling apps on smart devices convert store associates into high-value sales associates.

With real-time data at their fingertips, engaging more meaningfully with customers and increasing retail sales is much easier.

According to our study into the future of fashion in-store engagement, most fashion retailers (93%) recognize the importance of ‘experiential retail’ in future retail – including the ability to deliver personalized information and advice to customers while enabling customers to purchase items immediately.

To understand the transformational impact of clienteling apps and mobile point of sale (mPOS), you only have to learn from other businesses. 46% of retailers from our future of fashion research said mPOS had reduced walkout rates.

Equipping store associates with a Scandit-powered smart device and the advanced functionality of augmented reality opens many opportunities to enhance a customer’s in-store experience. They can:

• Answer questions with real-time stock and pricing information.
• Easily locate items in the store for the customer.
• Complete mobile purchases anywhere in the store with mPOS.
• Quickly and accurately pick and pack online orders, ready for collection.

This guide highlights ways retailers can unlock restricted or untapped retail revenue streams.

Implementing smart data capture is an easy way to achieve greater accuracy, efficient workflows, intelligent insights, and enhanced customer experiences.

There’s no need for large investments, new technology, or store remodeling. It’s fast and easy to integrate, so you can reap the rewards of increased retail sales quickly.

FAQs

What is Smart Data Capture and how does it help increase retail sales?

Scandit Smart Data Capture is AI‑driven technology that turns any smart device into a real‑time scanner for barcodes, text, objects, and IDs. It helps retailers boost sales by automating common workflows such as pricing checks, shelf audits, and clienteling, enabling faster operations and improved customer experiences.

How can retailers improve on‑shelf availability without big technology investments?

Scandit’s ShelfView provides AI‑powered shelf intelligence using existing mobile devices and optional fixed-position cameras or robots. It identifies gaps, misplaced items, and pricing errors instantly, helping stores maintain 95%+ on‑shelf availability and recover millions in lost sales - without installing costly new infrastructure.

How does self‑scanning with Scandit boost average basket size?

Reliable, friction‑free scanning keeps customers shopping longer and spending more. Scandit self‑scanning enables fast, accurate checkout on smartphones, plus AR‑based upsell prompts, raising basket values by up to 50% in implementations with retailers like Maxima and Aeon.

What role does AR play in enhancing the retail customer experience?

Scandit’s augmented reality overlays turn product scans into personalized experiences, showing loyalty rewards, recommendations, or coupons right on shoppers’ screens. These AR interactions can increase repeat purchase rates by up to 84%, turning engagement into measurable sales.

How quickly can retailers see results from implementing Scandit technology?

Most Scandit deployments deliver measurable ROI within 3–6 months, since they run on existing smart devices and integrate with current apps and systems. Retailers typically gain immediate efficiency gains (up to 10× faster workflows) and sustained sales uplifts across multiple touchpoints.