Products for children have always been in fairly high demand. So there is nothing surprising in the fact that many are interested in how to open a children's goods store. Toys, diapers and many other children's things are not much inferior to products and medicines in terms of demand. And in addition, they have several important advantages:
- Firstly, the birth rate is gradually increasing, which means that the number of potential customers will only grow.
- Secondly, most parents are ready to go to any expenses for the sake of the happiness of their child, which provides a very high demand.
- Thirdly, the margin on children's products is high enough so that you can quickly get a plus.
Despite all the advantages of children's products, opening a toy or children's clothing store is always fraught with many difficulties that can nullify all your undertakings. This article is a quick guide that can help you get an idea of how to open a children's clothing or children's goods store.
It describes the main steps that you will need to go through to become the owner of your own toy store. But remember, any business requires constant attention and a large investment of your labor, time and money.
Stage One - Planning and Market Assessment
According to statistics, in most cities of Russia there is almost always a demand for goods for children. Despite the fact that children's goods stores open regularly, demand still exceeds supply. But there is a slight nuance. Most existing stores sell about the same set of toys, many of which may not be of the highest quality. In order to get a good influx of customers from the very beginning, it is extremely important to rely only on high-quality products and an assortment different from others.
The first thing to do is to collect as much information as possible about potential competitors. It will be useful to note their location on the map to determine the coverage area of each store. It is also worth looking at the goods that are sold there. Evaluate their assortment from the position of the buyer, and if you like what you see, try to adopt it. In the public domain you can find business plans for a children's clothing store, after reading which you will find many interesting things for yourself.
How to use the information received
Statistics help determine what profit you can get by opening a store in a given area of the city. Your main goal at the first stage is to draw up your business plans for a children's clothing store. A lot of novice businessmen burn out during the first two years after the opening of the store, because initially they could not calculate the level of profitability of this enterprise.
Therefore, it is better to work through several options. Perhaps for your city a children's commission is more suitable, or you should think about the idea of a hypermarket for children. Each option has its own characteristics, which in the end will affect your profit.
Stage Two - Choosing a Store Format
Basically, the business plans of a children's clothing store describe two formats. The first is a department store, which in essence is not much different from a regular supermarket. The second is a highly specialized store that sells only one group of goods.The first option is gaining more and more popularity, because in such stores children can choose toys themselves.
And if you remember that it is quite difficult to take something away from a seriously-minded peanut, then you will understand how children's hypermarkets get a tangible part of their profits. But creating such a store is much more difficult, and primarily because of the huge investment that is needed in the first stage. In order for the store to be truly universal, you need to purchase the widest range possible.
Add to this the cost of renting a very rather large room, as well as the salary of employees, equipment costs, a warehouse - and you will get a very decent amount. In general, if you want to go the first way, then be prepared to spend at least 100 thousand euros during the first year.
Mal yes yes
The expenses of a highly specialized store look much more modest. If you look at the different business plans of a children's clothing store, you will see that the main expenses are for the rental of premises and the purchase of goods. For a small store you need a very small room, and the goods will require much less. But this does not prevent you from quickly enough to recoup all expenses and start making a profit.
Highly specialized stores have many advantages over universal stores. First of all, this, of course, is significantly lower rental and salary costs for employees. But at the same time, it is very important to choose your niche correctly, because a small store, most likely, will not stand the direct competition.
According to statistics, the most promising products at the moment are various educational games and ordinary toys. Also, there is always a great demand for goods for babies, that is, diapers, baby food and more. But there are many more competitors in this area.
Special care should be taken with clothing and shoes, because opening a children's clothing store is somewhat more difficult than everyone else. The problem is that parents can be very picky, and you can easily lose potential buyers if there aren’t any items of the right size in the warehouse.
The buyer must be satisfied, otherwise he will no longer want to shop at your store. It is necessary to provide the widest assortment so that everyone can find something to their liking and, no less important, in size.
The idea to open a commission children's store looks very tempting. In this case, you don’t have to worry much about the purchase of goods, but much more money will need to be spent on advertising, design of the store and promotions to attract customers. The only problem is that an ordinary children's commission receives from each item about 30-50 percent of the profit, which is slightly less than a regular store. So, second-hand children's stores are far from ideal.
Electronic version
Any real store eventually acquires its own virtual copy. But this is far from the simplest thing, because you can only open a children's online clothing store only with a sufficiently large supply of money and time. High competition, customer distrust, predatory shipping rates - these are just some of the things that a young online store will have to deal with, and in the case of clothes, one should also rely on frequent returns.
But at the same time, if you overcome all these problems, the online store will eventually begin to make a profit even greater than its real counterpart. By the way, since uniqueness is very important on the Internet, the name of a children's clothing store should not coincide with a dozen more.
Stage Three - paperwork
To begin work on creating a store, you must first officially register as an entrepreneur. To do this, you need to draw up documents for the status of IP in the tax.You can do this very quickly, and you will easily go through all the formalities, but there are a few details that you need to know in advance.
- Firstly, when processing documents, you will need to indicate the types of your activities. Simply put, you have to list all types of goods that you will trade.
- Secondly, an individual entrepreneur bears material responsibility for the obligations taken. That is, in which case lenders can sell your property to pay off the store’s debts.
- Thirdly, in any case, you will need an accountant who will take control of all your finances, and will also help in the preparation of numerous documents. It would be most reasonable to hire such a person at the very beginning. This will greatly simplify your life in the early stages.
Features of goods for children
One of the main problems when working with children's goods is constant inspections by the sanitary inspection, which will need to demonstrate employees' medical books and documents for the goods. They can also pay attention to cleanliness in the store itself.
Stage Five - The Room
A place suitable for opening a children's store must meet several requirements. The main one is proximity to crowded places. An ideal option would be a large intersection of busy streets, where there are many other shops.
Or you can rent a department in a large shopping center. Each option has its pros and cons, which must be evaluated before making a final decision. As practice shows, a well-chosen room is already half the success. So do not rush to grab the first thing that catches your eye.
Own style
Children's store should be noticeable. Its design should attract the views of passers-by, and the name should be well remembered. It would be most reasonable to entrust the creation of your own store style to one of the design studios. Of course, you can try to do everything yourself, but it is far from as simple as it seems at first glance. Just try to come up with a short and at the same time harmonious name for a children's clothing store. It is unlikely that you will succeed, especially if you recall that most of the simple names have already been used by someone else.
The interior decoration of the trading floor should be pleasant for both parents and children. It’s not necessary to spend money on some special shelving or unusual display cases, it is enough to paint the walls in bright colors and beautifully lay out the goods. In general, choosing goods for business, a reasonable decision would be to save a little by purchasing the simplest options for shelving and other things necessary for the store.
Invisible borders
If you can afford to rent a large and spacious trading room, then it is not out of place to divide the entire room into small zones by type of product. For example, in the case of children's clothing, two halves can be distinguished, in the first - clothes for girls, in the second - for boys. Then divide these halves into small zones according to the age of the child. Parents in your store should find what they need as quickly as possible among the wide variety of products.
The division into zones is necessary for the convenience of customers, no matter what you sell. Even the commission for children score can benefit a lot from using this principle.
Stage Six - Suppliers
There is nothing more important for a young store than reliable suppliers who are ready to sell you high-quality goods at a not too high price. From the very beginning, emphasis should be placed on high quality, even if higher prices have to be set because of this. Many parents are willing to pay for good things, but concentrating exclusively on expensive products is also not worth it. A good solution in terms of low price and high quality would be stocks of children's goods.
Famous brands can be diluted with solid Chinese goods, which, incidentally, are far from always of poor quality. It would be nice to get as many Russian or Belarusian clothes as possible, which is appreciated by many mothers for being made from natural materials. In general, caution should be given to things made of synthetics, because in some children it can cause allergies or irritations.
Stage Seven - Advertising
To attract customers to the new store, you will have to show ingenuity and patience. The opening day of the store can and should be turned into a small performance, combined with the sale and distribution of gifts. By the way, you can also use discount coupons as gifts. To increase the influx of visitors, it would be useful to place billboards near the entrance, and make the entrance as noticeable as possible against the surrounding background.
A good idea would be advertising on local television or radio, but only if you combine it with a message about a sale or a special action, the duration of which is limited. In general, in the issue of advertising it is very important to show originality. Try different methods, but do not forget that your main task is not just to attract visitors, but to keep them as long as possible.
Afterword
Now you know how to open a children's clothing store, but if you want to act, then try not to rush. Spend as much time on training as you think is necessary, and only when you are completely confident in your abilities and your business plan can you start creating your own business.
