Here at Vend, we’re big fans of data. We like giving retailers access to reports and analytics that can help them run better stores, but we also like crunching the numbers on our end so we can glean insights into the performance of retailers all over the globe. 

That’s exactly what we did in our 2019 Retail Benchmarks Report. We crunched the numbers of over 13,000 Vend retail stores and uncovered insights into their sales, transactions, and customers. 

This post summarizes some of our notable findings. 

20 retail stats you need to know.

How much do retailers earn in a month?

1. The average revenue for independent stores globally is $28,094 USD per month. 

2. North American retailers had the most revenue, with $31,038.52. Australian retailers followed not too far behind, with $29,081.51 per month.

3. Meanwhile, New Zealand and UK retailers earned $28,527.71 and $28,066.89 respectively. Retailers in South Africa had an average gross revenue of $18,785.98 per month.

Now, let look at the data from an industry-specific perspective. 

4. Beer, wine and liquor stores had the highest gross revenue, with $51,939.39 per month. 

5. In second and third place are furniture stores and vape stores, which earned $42,478.98 and $42,465.63, respectively.

6. On the lower end are office supplies, stationery and gift shops ($22,089.51), and retailers in the hobbies and musical instruments space ($22,303.84).

What are the average margins of independent retailers?

7. Overall, the average gross margin in retail is 53.33%.

8. North American retailers seem to be doing well on this metric, having an average gross margin of 53.46%.  Australia, New Zealand, and the UK all have gross margins that are just above 52%. South African retailers had a gross margin of 46.16%

9. From an industry standpoint, beverage manufacturers had the highest margins, with 65.74%, while beer, wine, and liquor stores had the lowest margins, with 35.64%.

How many transactions do retailers process and what’s the average transaction value?

10. The retailers in our study processed an average of 651.5 transactions across all their stores.

11. Retailers in the UK had the highest transaction counts — 793.51. Not too far behind are retailers in New Zealand, with 737.37 transactions per month. Stores in North America, Australia, and South Africa processed 648.34, 607.81, and 625.40, respectively.

12. Beer, wine and liquor stores had the highest transaction counts, with 1,229.17, followed by specialty foods (961.00) and vape stores (822.25).

13. Retailers that are selling pricier items, such as furniture stores and shoe stores, had lower transaction counts — 204.95 and 313.38 respectively.

14. The average transaction value was $54.14 (USD).

15. Stores in North America had the highest transaction values, with $56.44, while those in Australia and New Zealand had $56.08 and $51.69 respectively.

16. Merchants in the UK had an ATV of $45.35, while those in South Africa had  $37.16.

17. Unsurprisingly, retailers selling large and high-ticket items had the highest ATVs. Furniture stores had $222.81, while jewelry retailers had $108.49.

18. Those with the lowest transaction values include vape stores $32.83 and specialty foods $23.16.

How many customers do retailers have?

19. On average, retailers had a customer count of 637.

20. Cosmetics stores and shoe retailers saw the highest customer counts, with 1,604.41 and 1,586.37. Meanwhile, Office supplies and specialty foods had the lowest, with 338.39 and 304.28, respectively.

Looking for more retail stats and data?

If you want to take a deeper look at the performance of independent retailers, be sure to check out Vend’s 2019 Retail Benchmarks report. This resource contains key facts and figures on the retail industry and can help you determine how you measure up compared with other retailers. 

And if you want to take things a step further, check out Vend’s Retail Benchmarks Calculator — a handy tool that lets you see how your store’s performance measures up compared with stores in your industry. Just enter your data and the calculator will determine your results. Give it a try!