How to increase retail sales with POS data comes down to six reports, each tied to one action you can take this week. The data already sits in your point of sale system: what sold, what didn't, who stopped coming and which sales were never finished. Most shops read the day's total and skip the rest.
This guide pairs each report with its action and the number to watch. A worked example in Kenyan shillings then shows where the extra sales come from. It also shows why a discount is the most expensive way to get them.
Which POS reports increase sales?
Six reports point to sales you are losing now: empty shelves, dead stock, lost regulars, unfinished sales, small baskets and slow hours. Each one has a single action attached.
| Report | What to look for | Action | Number to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top sellers, beside low-stock alerts | A best seller at or near its alert level | Reorder before it runs out | Days a best seller was out of stock |
| Dead stock (no movement in 60 or 90 days) | Money sitting on the shelf | Move it to the counter, bundle it, or clear it once; stop reordering it | Value of stock older than 90 days |
| Inactive customers | Regulars who haven't bought in 30, 60 or 90 days | Call or message them with a reason to come back | How many buy again within a month |
| Held sales never finished | Carts put on hold and left there | Follow up the same day; find out why they stalled | Held sales older than one day |
| Product sales, by sale | Items that leave together | Shelve them together; have cashiers offer the pair | Average sale value |
| Sales by hour and by cashier | Busy hours, slow hours, and who sells what | Staff the rush; run offers in the slow hours | Sales per hour, per cashier |
The first row pays fastest. A customer who finds the cooking oil gone buys it elsewhere, and may buy the rest of the basket there too.
Our guide to avoiding overstocking and stockouts shows how to set the alert level. The cost of a stockout puts a figure on each empty day.
The fifth row is cross-selling: Investopedia defines it as offering related or complementary products to a customer who is already buying. Bread and margarine, a phone and a cover, cement and a trowel. Export the product sales report to Excel and sort by sale, and you see which pairs your customers already buy.
Where the extra sales come from: a worked example
Fixing what the reports show adds more profit than a discount, because it sells more at full margin. The figures below are an example, not a real shop's results.
For example, a minimarket in Nairobi makes 150 sales a day at an average of KES 400. That is KES 60,000 a day, or KES 1,560,000 over 26 trading days. Its gross margin is 20%, so it keeps KES 312,000 a month before expenses.
| Action | How it adds up | Extra sales | Extra gross profit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooking oil never runs out | 3 empty days × 25 bottles × KES 300 | 22,500 | 4,500 |
| Cashiers offer one matching item | KES 20 more per sale × 150 sales × 26 days | 78,000 | 15,600 |
| Ten lost regulars come back | 10 customers × KES 3,000 a month | 30,000 | 6,000 |
| Total | 130,500 | 26,100 |
None of the three needs a price cut. The biggest line is the smallest change: KES 20 more on each sale, or one extra KES 100 item in every fifth basket. Our guide to average order value covers more ways to lift it.
Why a discount is the most expensive way to sell more
A discount must raise the number of items you sell by more than it cuts your margin, or profit falls. The formula is short: extra sales needed = discount ÷ (gross margin − discount).
In the example shop, 10% off everything for a month leaves the same costs against KES 1,404,000 of sales. Gross profit falls from KES 312,000 to KES 156,000. To earn the old KES 312,000, the shop must sell twice as many items.
| Gross margin | 5% discount | 10% discount |
|---|---|---|
| 15% | 50% | 200% |
| 20% | 33.3% | 100% |
| 25% | 25% | 66.7% |
| 30% | 20% | 50% |
The figures match the table published by Business Victoria, the Victorian Government's business service. Copy the formula into a spreadsheet with your own margin before you run any sale. If you are unsure of your margin, start with markup and margin.
Discounts still earn their place in two cases. On dead stock, the alternative is no sale at all. On a minimum basket, such as 5% off above KES 2,000, the discount buys a bigger sale rather than the same one.
How to do it in ArmPOS: a weekly routine
Set aside one slot a week, open these reports in order, and take the action beside each. Every step links to its Help center guide.
- Protect the best sellers. Open Reports › Top Selling Products, then Product Quantity Alerts, and reorder what sits at its alert level: Sales reports and Reports to check every day. Record the delivery with Record a purchase.
- Find the dead stock. The Dead Stock Report lists products with stock that haven't moved in 30, 60 or 90 days: Stock reports. Our guide to dead stock covers what to do next.
- Clear it with a promotion that has limits. Make a promotion for those products only, with a code, an end date and a minimum cart total. The Usage Report shows what it gave away: Promotions and promo codes.
- Call back the lost regulars. The Inactive Customers Report lists who hasn't bought in 30, 60 or 90 days: Customer and supplier reports. On plans with Marketing, save them as a segment and send an SMS, email or WhatsApp campaign: Marketing campaigns. Message only customers who agreed to hear from you.
- Chase the held sales. The Draft Invoices Report, among the sales reports, lists sales put on hold and never finished, with their age in days. Old drafts are sales you may have lost.
- Read the hours and the cashiers. The 3D Sales Dashboard shows the busiest hours of the week, and the Seller Report totals each person's sales. A promotion can be limited to set hours, such as a slow afternoon.
- Use the wholesale price for bulk buyers. On each cart line, the cashier can switch between Retail Price and Wholesale Price: The POS screen.
Two longer plays build on the same data. Points and credit keep regulars coming back, as in how to build customer loyalty with a POS. Sales commissions reward the cashiers who sell more, and sit with the rest of your HR management: Sales agents and commissions.
Frequently asked questions
What is the fastest way to increase retail sales?
Keep your best sellers in stock. It costs no margin, and every empty day loses the sale and sometimes the customer. Set a stock alert first on the products that bring most of your sales, as in the 80/20 rule for inventory.
How do I work out my average sale value?
Divide the period's total sales by the number of sales. For example, KES 60,000 from 150 sales is KES 400 a sale.
Do discounts increase sales?
They increase the number of items sold, but profit rises only if volume grows by more than discount ÷ (margin − discount). At a 20% margin, 10% off needs twice the volume.
Which POS reports should a small shop check every day?
Four: the sales report, payments by method, profit and loss, and products running low. The six reports above are a weekly job. See our inventory management guide for small businesses for the stock side.
Your POS already holds the answers; the work is reading them every week. Create a free ArmPOS account, ring up a week of real sales, and open the Top Selling Products report on day eight. Shops in Kenya can start from the Kenya page.
