what is units per transaction upt 
units per transaction upt is a sales metric often used in the retail sales sector to measure the average number of items that customers are purchasing in any given transaction the higher the upt the more items customers are purchasing for every visit understanding units per transaction upt retailers want people who enter and browse their stores and websites to buy as many items as possible happy shoppers are more likely to fill up their baskets with goods purchasing stuff they set out to buy as well as add ons and other extra items sold to them when in store or surfing online many experts agree that increasing units per transaction utp is often what determines success versus failure for a small to a mid size retailer getting customers to buy more suggests that the company is engaged and has a decent understanding of its customers it also means extra revenue and potentially more leverage to push up prices and profit margins it should come as little surprise then that retailers often make units per transaction upt a key performance indicator kpi calculating units per transaction upt a basic unit per transaction upt is calculated by simply dividing the number of items purchased by the number of transactions for the period however there is a range of additional factors to consider that might influence how the figure is computed units per transaction upt can achieve a number of objectives they might be measured across individual stores to identify market areas where customers tend to purchase different numbers of items when they shop retailers can also track items per sale by an employee in order to measure sales performance or keep tabs on units per transaction upt company wide for a wider picture of overall sales patterns another important consideration to make is whether to calculate units per transaction upt on a day by day basis seasonal basis or over a longer period of time it is generally advisable to collect data on items sold and transactions daily from there the data can be tweaked to focus on longer time periods with greater accuracy as an example of upt company a can compare the sales performance of two employees the first employee made 30 sales with a total of 105 items while a second employee sold 105 items in 35 sales thus units per transaction upt for the first employee is 3 5 and units per transaction upt for the second employee is 3 0 real life examplein the first quarter of 2019 macy s inc m reported a 5 7 increase in transactions compared to the first quarter of 2018 a closer look at all the figures reveals that this impressive headline number might be slightly misleading why because average units per transaction upt fell 2 2 