The labor shortage is a real problem for retailers, but if you’re struggling to find the people you need to support your stores, you might be in luck. In fact, you likely don’t have to hire as much as you think.

Analyzing traffic data can help you do more with less, ensuring you’re always placing people in shifts when you’re busiest, and easing them back during times when you’re not. It can help you stay profitable and keep labor spend in check — all while maintaining normal store hours and preserving the customer experience.

Read on to learn the best ways to leverage your foot traffic data to optimize your labor spend and set your stores up for success despite the labor shortage.

Accurate traffic data will help you identify your store’s peak hours. You likely already have an idea of when they are, but traffic data will be able to pinpoint the exact times more precisely to help you avoid uneven coverage during transitions.

The Power Hours report found in ShopperTrak analytics can easily help you identify your stores busiest times to ensure your shoppers’ needs are always being met. You’ll get a detailed breakdown of traffic cycles down to the day, with the ability to extrapolate weekly, monthly, and even yearly trends.

Once you have your traffic data, you’ll want to make sure that your staffing levels — and staff member duties — match your shopper count during any given hour. That means deploying your labor to help customers in store during peak times, then diverting them to operational tasks like restocking once non-peak hours roll around.

“Anticipate scheduling more labor hours during your power hours and allocate less during your non-peak times “ said Kristy Wood, Senior Customer Success Manager at Sensormatic Solutions. “Also consider scheduling your top-performing teams during your power hours — they’re really going to maximize your sales.”

Aligning your staffing levels with traffic data is the first step, but once you do, you’ll then need to ensure you’re operating with the right amount of labor to match your desired customer experience. Determining your STAR value, or shopper-to-associate ratio, is one of the most direct ways to make that calculation.

“Identifying an optimal STAR ensures you have sufficient sales associates to accommodate your in-store traffic, and deliver a consistent customer experience throughout the week,” Wood said.

In short, STAR is an estimate of how many customers each of your associates will need to help on average per hour. If your store sees an average of 100 customers per hour, and you have 10 staff members scheduled, your STAR value would be 10.

In this way, STAR is also a measurement of the projected customer experience. Customers shopping in stores with a STAR value of 10 will have a much less personalized experience than those shopping in stores with a STAR value of five.

Selecting the right STAR value for your team will depend on your store and its goals. In general, lower STAR values tend to correlate with higher conversion rates and sales per shopper. When STAR values get too high, conversion, ATS and sales start to suffer — though what qualifies as “too high” will depend on the general level of service customers expect for your store.

“The high-touch service level necessary in luxury retail, for example, would require a low STAR value,” Wood noted. “But be cautious — as there is going to be a point where decreasing your STAR by adding labor hours no longer increases your performance metrics.”

It may take some trial and error to find the STAR sweet spot, but that’s why starting the process with traffic data you can trust is so critical. Do note, too, that STAR values are rarely a set-it-and-forget it metric. The optimal ratio, much like traffic in your store, is always in flux, and will vary by the season, day, hour, and location.

For especially busy seasons related to heavy promotional activity or holiday shopping, you’ll want to vigilantly monitor your STAR so you can react quickly and adjust coverage to meet fluctuations in traffic. Solutions like ShopperTrak that provide comprehensive yet easy-to-read traffic data all in one place can help you extract insights with the ease and speed you need to match the fast-moving demands of the season.

While the retail labor shortage shows no signs of slowing, that doesn’t mean you have to close early, modify hours or invest in costly self-checkout. In fact, you may already have everyone you need to satisfy your customers and ensure a steady stream of transactions.

Utilizing foot traffic data can help you optimize your labor, aligning staffing levels with your busiest times, and setting a STAR that meets your customer expectations while reducing wasteful downtime.

Learn more about how tracking traffic data through ShopperTrak can help your stores thrive despite the staffing shortage.