How Journeys Optimizes Workforce Management and Conversion Growth 

In Retail, margins are tight and expectations are high. For footwear leader Journeys, staying ahead means more than offering great product and sharp merchandising—it means optimizing every element of Retail workforce management and store execution. With more than 1,000 locations across North America, Journeys needed a smarter, faster, and more predictive way to schedule, staff, and sell. That’s where StoreForce comes in.  

We spoke with Billy Bennett, Director of Retail Data Analytics at Journeys, about how StoreForce has helped the brand solve complex workforce planning challenges, boost conversion, and scale results across the fleet. 

1. Boosting Retail conversion with smarter labor allocation

Conversion is one of the most critical metrics in Specialty Retail—and for Journeys, it’s where StoreForce made a big impact right away.  

We asked Billy which metrics improve the most to which he said: 

“That’s a big one. Conversion! By allocating our labor where we wanted it to be, where the traffic was, being able to be better predictive of the hiring number we needed to hit for our big holiday seasons—allowed us to drive conversion.” 

By aligning labor with real-time traffic data to Retail labor optimization, StoreForce enabled Journeys to deploy the right people at the right time. This operational shift wasn’t just efficient—it drove more revenue by ensuring stores were staffed to convert peak foot traffic into sales. 

2. Eliminating manual scheduling with Retail workforce management

Before StoreForce, Journeys used a homegrown system for scheduling that was inconsistent, reactive, and lacked Retail performance analytics integration. 

“We actually didn’t have a workforce management system in place. We were making schedules internally through a homegrown application that our stores would tab through to add times as they saw fit. We were counting traffic and trying to allocate our labor to that traffic.” 

Without a centralized platform, Journeys faced inefficiencies and limited visibility. StoreForce replaced manual scheduling with intelligent Retail scheduling software built for Specialty Retail—integrating traffic counts, predictive labor models, and performance KPIs into one seamless system. 

3. Driving rapid results in Retail environments

Speed to value is critical in Retail workforce optimization. For Journeys, that was especially important in the lead-up to the holiday season. Once the initial rollout showed results, they didn’t wait to expand. 

When asked about how quickly Journeys saw results with StoreForce, Billy said: 

“Extremely quickly. We expanded the pilot to an additional 8 districts…so about 150 more stores pre-holidays.” 

With an intuitive interface and fast onboarding, StoreForce helped Journeys activate results across multiple districts before peak season. The rapid rollout ensured that more stores were equipped to meet holiday traffic with precision scheduling and Retail operations optimization. 

4. Making store performance goals visible and actionable

StoreForce brings daily performance into focus. Dashboards and tools like “at-a-glance” make Retail performance tracking simple and team alignment seamless. 

“Using tools like at-a-glance—that’s become a big part of our wrap-in, wrap-out for our stores. So everyone knows what the goals are, what the targets are.” 

That kind of visibility fuels accountability and consistency, helping store teams stay focused and results-driven throughout every shift.  

Purpose-built for the love of Retail

When asked to describe StoreForce in one sentence, Billy kept it simple: 

“It’s not a complete sentence…but the love of Retail is what pops into my mind. For the love of Retail.” 

StoreForce is more than a platform. It’s a partner purpose-built for the fast, complex world of Specialty Retail—designed to help Retailers like Journeys improve the bottom line, increase revenue, and support what matters most: people, performance, and the love of Retail.  

Book a demo with us today.