eConnect pitches Capture Rate as a new customer acquisition metric for retailers

eConnect Business Suite says retailers and other face-to-face businesses should measure how many interested prospects they actually capture and can follow up with, not just how many people they meet. The company is pushing Capture Rate and Walk-In Capture Rate as ways to spot missed sales opportunities and improve follow-up.

Why it matters: - eConnect Business Suite says customer acquisition breaks down when businesses generate interest but fail to collect contact information. - Capture Rate is meant to show how many interested prospects a business can actually follow up with and convert into revenue. - For retailers, the metric can expose lost opportunities from in-store traffic that never turns into a usable lead.

What happened: - eConnect Business Suite outlined a customer acquisition metric called Capture Rate. - The formula is: Capture Rate = Interested prospects whose contact information is captured ÷ Total interested prospects × 100. - Stanley Anemelu, co-founder of eConnect Business Suite, framed the metric as a better way to evaluate the opportunities a business already has. - eConnect also introduced Walk-In Capture Rate, or WICR, for high-ticket retailers.

The details: - If a business talks with 20 genuinely interested prospects and captures contact information from 10, its Capture Rate is 50%. - In a networking example, 15 conversations may produce five genuinely interested prospects, but capturing two of them would equal a 40% Capture Rate. - WICR measures the percentage of interested, non-buying store visitors whose contact information is captured before they leave. - The WICR formula is: Interested non-buying visitors whose information is captured ÷ Total interested non-buying visitors × 100. - If 100 interested customers leave without buying and the sales team captures 25 of them, the store’s WICR is 25%. - eConnect said the metric is especially relevant for retail stores, real estate professionals, trade show exhibitors, consultants, sales professionals, home builders and small business owners who rely on networking. - The company said a customer who spends 30 to 40 minutes discussing a high-ticket purchase and leaves without sharing contact information creates a missed follow-up opportunity. - eConnect’s customer acquisition workflow is Connect → Capture → Organize → Follow Up. - The company said connecting creates the opportunity, capturing makes the opportunity identifiable, organizing preserves context and following up continues the relationship. - eConnect said the capture step is what keeps the workflow from breaking before meaningful follow-up begins. - The company’s platform is designed to help professionals and growing businesses turn more potential customers into paying customers. - The platform includes tools for professional branding, lead capture, contact organization and CRM connectivity. - eConnect said businesses can establish a baseline for Capture Rate, understand why opportunities are not being captured and improve over time instead of chasing more traffic alone. - The company said some prospects will decline to exchange information, some conversations will be interrupted and some interactions will not reach the point where follow-up makes sense. - eConnect urged businesses that depend on face-to-face interactions to ask, “What’s our Capture Rate?” and retailers to ask, “What’s our Walk-In Capture Rate?” - The company said not knowing the answer may reveal an opportunity. - eConnect said more traffic does not always solve weak sales performance if the capture process is failing.

Between the lines: - The pitch reframes lead generation from a volume problem to a conversion problem. - The metric also shifts attention from marketing spend to execution at the point of contact. - For retailers and event-driven businesses, the message is that lost contact information can be more important than lost foot traffic.

What’s next: - eConnect is encouraging businesses to start measuring Capture Rate and WICR as baseline metrics. - The company is pushing businesses to improve how they collect contact information from prospects they are already meeting. - More information is available on the company’s site at eConnect Business Suite online.