Secaucus, N.J.-Based Children's Place Seeks to Convert Browsers into Buyers.

Byline: Joan Verdon

Feb. 27--The Children's Place clothing chain on Thursday reported a 158 percent increase in net income for fiscal 2003 and executives are eager to keep the momentum going.

Neal Goldberg, the company's new president, said in a conference call he will emphasize better store efficiency and improving the customer conversion rate -- the percentage of shoppers who buy instead of just browsing.

The chain plans to keep track of that rate by installing traffic counters at all its stores. Traffic counters tell store executives how many shoppers enter a store, a number that can be compared to cash register transactions.

Goldberg, …