About this episode

Mark Ryski discusses the importance of in-store conversion rates and the misconceptions surrounding store traffic in retail.

S6E9 Mark Ryski on why stores convert up to 70% of store traffic while online only converts 3% and Amazon only 10% 77% of shoppers who walked out of a big box store without buying told exit interviewers they came in to buy. They couldn't find help, wouldn't wait in line, and left empty-handed. Mark Ryski has spent almost 3 decades measuring that gap, and his new book gives it a name: Store Traffic Is A Gift , and most retailers waste it. This episode, Ricardo and Casey sit down with Mark Ryski, founder and CEO of HeadCount Corporation , to dig into retail's most misunderstood metric: in-store conversion. Physical stores convert 20% to 70%+ of their store traffic. Typical online sites convert under 3%, and Amazon converts about 10%. The store converts several times better than any other channel, yet 84% of retail sales (US Census Bureau, March 2026) still get managed as if online were winning, and in-store conversion gets treated as a vibe at the end of the day. In This Episode, You'll Learn • Why a store can get more traffic and sell less, and what conversion data reveals. • The exit survey result that changed a big box operator's mind about service. • The single fastest…

People in this episode

Host: Ricardo Belmar

Guest: Mark Ryski

Topics covered

• store traffic
• in-store conversion
• retail metrics
• customer experience
• retail sales
• online vs in-store

Keywords

• store traffic
• conversion rates
• retail
• customer service
• big box stores
• BOPIS
• curbside pickup
• Amazon returns

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: HeadCount Corporation, Amazon, US Census Bureau

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