Journeys’ Back-to-School Labor Strategy Drove 11% Sales Growth

Executive Summary 

As back-to-school becomes an increasingly complex and competitive season in Specialty Retail, Journeys faced a high-stakes challenge in 2024. With inconsistent regional peaks, shifting school calendars, and heightened customer expectations, the footwear leader needed a more precise, localized staffing strategy. 

Through a decade-long partnership with ShopperTrak and StoreForce, Journeys combined deep traffic insights with real-time scheduling optimization. As a result, Journeys experienced an 11% increase in comp sales in Q3, fueled by strategic labor alignment, precise forecasting, and effective execution at the store level.  

“Following a strong start to the third quarter including the heart of back-to-school, sales trends at Journeys remained robust in September and October, fueling a double-digit comp gain for the business…”

Mimi Vaughn, Genesco President, CEO, and Board Chair 

The Challenge 

For mall-based Specialty Retailers like Journeys, Back-to-School (BTS) is the second highest  

in-store traffic period of the year, just behind holiday. But while the holiday season follows a consistent calendar with predictable peak days, BTS is far more fragmented, varying significantly by region, product category, and even school district. This makes staffing and planning far more complex. 

A store might experience comparable traffic volumes to December, but without the benefit of uniform shopping patterns. The stakes are especially high for footwear, where the shopping experience is hands-on, time-intensive, and driven by service expectations. 

Here’s how BTS stacks up to Holiday traffic by category: 

– Wireless: 95–105% of holiday traffic. 

– Footwear (Journeys’ core category): 85–90% of holiday traffic. 

– Children’s apparel: 75–85% of holiday traffic. 

– Family apparel: 65–70% of holiday traffic. 

On top of this, Journeys faced added challenges: 

– Inconsistent regional traffic peaks (e.g. Weeks 26–27 in the South vs. Weeks 29–30 in the Northeast). 

– Heightened customer expectations for fit, style, and service. 

– Labor planning challenges: staffing without overspending, and without missing peak opportunities. 

A need to recover from a slow Q2, Back-to-School had to perform. 

The Solution: A Strategic Partnership to Win the Moment 

1. ShopperTrak: Turning Foot Traffic into Forecasting Intelligence 

Journeys used ShopperTrak (part of Sensormatic) to move beyond “last year’s dates” and build location-specific forecasts grounded in over a decade of traffic data. 

ShopperTrak’s data enabled Journeys to: 

– Pinpoint when traffic would spike by region (e.g. Weeks 26–27 in the South, 29–30 in the Northeast). 

– Understand how footwear traffic compared year-over-year. 

– Identify category-specific lift patterns, showing that footwear stores like Journeys see 85–90% of holiday volume during BTS. 

– Isolate store-level trends where school calendars shifted year to year. 

Journeys’ analytics team, led by Billy Bennett, used this insight to forecast the most valuable selling days and hours in each store; sometimes down to the exact Tuesday or Wednesday that mattered most. As Billy noted, “Getting the day right, not just the week, could mean thousands of dollars in a single location.” 

2. StoreForce: Turning Forecasting Intelligence into Winning Schedules 

Traffic data is only as powerful as your ability to act on it. That’s where StoreForce stepped in. 

StoreForce helped Journeys operationalize their traffic insights through: 

– Recommended Coverage: Align labor hour allocations with forecasted customer volume. 

– Peak Coverage: Monitor how well each store’s schedule matches peak demand windows. 

– Sales Leader Scheduling: Assign the most effective floor leaders to power hours. 

– Shopper-to-Associate Ratios (Star / TPLH): Balance coverage to optimize service, not too thin, not too bloated. 

Instead of setting static labor plans, StoreForce let Journeys dynamically tailor schedules by store, by hour, by day, even within tight budget constraints. Billy’s team didn’t add more hours; they just placed them more intelligently. 

3. Leadership Alignment at the Store Level 

With powerful data in hand, Journeys focused on the in-store execution. Starting in May, Billy’s team held 1-on-1 planning calls with every field leader, reviewing: 

– Local school calendars and Back-to-School peaks. 

– Store-specific traffic history. 

– Budgeted labor hours vs. forecasted opportunity. 

– The importance of assigning “floor generals” (Sales Leaders) during high-traffic windows. 

This high-touch approach turned what could’ve been a generic seasonal push into a grounded store-by-store strategy. 

“There are no easy sales in Back-to-School,” said Billy. “It’s high-touch, it’s high-stakes, and if we miss the moment, we don’t get it back.” 

April: Data analysis begins with ShopperTrak traffic forecasting. 

May: Journeys conducts 1-on-1 planning calls with field leaders. 

June: Schedules are finalized, and Sales Leader roles are pre-assigned. 

July: Execution begins as early back-to-school traffic arrives. 

August: Peak weeks hit, StoreForce metrics guide real-time adjustments. 

Results  

By pairing the right people with the right hours in the right stores, Journeys was able to create a better in-store experience and capitalize on every high-traffic opportunity. 

What Retail Leaders Should Do Now 

If you’re in Retail operations, planning, or store leadership, the Back-to-School window is your moment to drive high-margin growth. But capitalizing on it requires strategic focus now, not in July.  

Here’s what high-performing Retailers should act on immediately: 

1. Audit Your Regional School Calendars 

Work with field teams to map the first day of school by district, city, and region. These dates shift every year, and so does your traffic curve. 

Tip: Use historical ShopperTrak data (or your own POS + traffic blend) to validate when your stores saw peak weeks in prior BTS seasons. 

2. Identify Power Hours by Store 

Use foot traffic reports to determine your top 20 sales-driving hours per store. Are they Saturday afternoons? Tuesday evenings? Those windows should dictate your labor strategy. 

Journeys found that 15% of a week’s traffic happened in a 5-hour Saturday block, and they staffed accordingly. 

3. Align Your Top Talent to Peak Hours 

Match your highest-converting team members to your highest-traffic periods. Tools like StoreForce’s Sales Leader scheduling allow you to assign your “floor generals” when it matters most. 

4. Measure & Manage Peak Coverage 

Build your scheduling and target KPIs around Peak Coverage, the percentage of labor deployed during top traffic hours. Set benchmarks and review by district/store weekly. 

Journeys targeted 75%+ Peak Coverage, leading to a double-digit comp lift without increasing labor budget. 

5. Enable Field-Level Execution 

Data is powerful, but it only works if it’s activated at the field level. Make Back-to-School planning a co-owned initiative between HQ, analytics, and your store leaders. 

Journeys held 1:1 calls with every field leader, driving local buy-in and clarity. This led to an increase in not only transactions, but conversion rates and total sales. 

Make Every Hour Count This Season 

Journeys’ Back-to-School success wasn’t luck, it was the result of focused preparation, precise execution, and a cross-functional partnership that treated labor as a revenue driver, not just a cost center. 

If you’re a Retail leader aiming to: 

– Convert more traffic during seasonal surges. 

– Improve in-store experience without increasing spend. 

– Empower store teams with actionable data and scheduling intelligence. 

StoreForce is built for this. With tools like Recommended Coverage, Sales Leader Activity Tracking, and Peak Coverage Analysis, StoreForce helps Specialty Retail brands align labor to real-time customer demand and win the moments that matter. 

Want to see how StoreForce can help you maximize your next Back-to-School season? Schedule a call with the StoreForce team today. Let’s build your playbook together.