How Journeys Drove $50 Million in Incremental Sales

“We didn’t go into it with additional labor. We didn’t spend more - we just got smarter.” - Billy Bennett, Director of Retail Data Analytics, Journeys 

Key Takeaways

• Nearly 50 percent of Journeys’ weekly sales happen in just 20 peak hours, making coverage during those moments a top performance lever. 

• Stores operating in higher peak-coverage bands outperformed lower-coverage peers by up to 25 percent in comp sales. 

• Moving up just one peak-coverage band delivered a 2 to 4 percent average comp sales lift. 

• Journeys identified more than $50 million in incremental sales opportunity by improving schedule quality across the fleet. 

Background 

Journeys is a national specialty footwear retailer with more than 1,000 stores in high-traffic shopping environments. Success in Journeys’ category depends on precise in-store execution, knowledgeable associates, and having the right people on the floor at exactly the right moments. 

Like many large retailers, Journeys operated within fixed labor budgets. The challenge was not how many hours to schedule, but how to place those hours across the week to match real customer demand. To solve this, Journeys partnered with StoreForce to turn labor planning into a measurable growth engine.

Data Proved “Peak Coverage” Was a $50 Million Growth Opportunity

Journeys analyzed more than 150,000 data points across a 12-month period from September 2024 through August 2025 to understand how staffing during peak selling hours impacted comp sales performance. 

The findings were clear. Stores operating in higher peak-coverage bands consistently outperformed lower-coverage peers. The gap between the highest and lowest tiers reached nearly 25 percent in comp sales performance. 

Even more compelling, stores that moved up just one peak-coverage band delivered an average 2 to 4 percent comp sales lift. When Journeys modeled this improvement across the chain, the result was more than $50 million in incremental sales potential, all without adding total labor hours.

Peak-Hour Execution Outperformed Traditional Labor Metrics

Historically, Journeys evaluated schedules using total hours, payroll spend, and wage percentage. While those metrics helped manage costs, they offered little insight into execution quality during the moments that mattered most. 

StoreForce introduced a peak-coverage framework that tied schedules directly to demand. Using traffic and performance data, Journeys identified peak selling hours and measured how closely each store’s schedule aligned to recommended coverage during those periods. 

Stores were grouped into clear coverage bands, making execution gaps visible, comparable, and coachable across the entire fleet. 

One of the most important outcomes was how the results were achieved. Journeys did not increase labor investment. Teams simply shifted existing hours into peak demand windows. 

As more stores moved into the 70 to 80 percent and 80 to 90 percent coverage bands, comp performance improved across the board. Schedule quality became a controllable input tied directly to sales results.

In Journeys’ Own Words… 

“A good schedule is worth +10%. A bad schedule loses you 10%. Your performance is everything in between...” - Billy Bennett, Director of Retail Data Analytics, Journeys 

Connect with StoreForce Today 

If you want the same visibility, time savings, and performance gains Journeys achieved, it’s time to see StoreForce in action. Whether you are facing missed sales during peak hours, uneven execution across locations, or flat comp performance, StoreForce gives you the tools to take control of your labor strategy. Join leading retailers using StoreForce to improve execution and unlock hidden revenue. Book a demo today and see what smarter scheduling can deliver for your business.