Sales per Square Foot

Sales per square foot divides total sales revenue over a period, usually a year, by the store's selling square footage — the area customers actually shop, not gross leased space including storage and back-of-house. A store generating $252,000 a year in a 1,200 square foot selling area produces $210 per square foot.

There is no universal benchmark for a "good" figure — it varies enormously by retail category, from high-volume convenience formats to low-traffic luxury boutiques. It's most useful compared against a store's own history, comparable locations of the same chain, or realistic figures for the specific category rather than an unrelated industry average.