Any novice businessman who plans to sell any product, at the very beginning of his journey, is faced with the problem of choosing a suitable trading location. This stage is actually much more important than it might seem to a beginner in this industry.
General information
Without a customer flow, it is impossible to sell any product in a timely manner and in the right volumes. The influx of people into the store may depend on many external factors. For example, the presence of large shopping centers under construction or existing in the immediate vicinity is very important. Due to such shopping and entertainment complexes, many store owners went bankrupt in the neighborhood.
In addition, it is best to immediately forget about buying a new room. Even large retail chains most often only rent certain places. The purchase imposes a number of obligations on the businessman, including the possible need for the sale of the premises or its renting out to other entrepreneurs. The best option is to search for rental locations on the classified ads portal of your city or from other sources.
Location Matching
First of all, it is necessary to determine the potential of the area where it is planned to look for a building. It is believed that the average supermarket should be within 15 minutes of access, that is, at a distance of about one and a half kilometers from potential consumers. It will not be out of place to estimate the well-being of the population in the area, as well as evaluate the buying behavior of people in existing trading places. This is easy enough to do. To begin with, you can walk around the area and examine the degree of infrastructure development and the level of buildings in it. The number of consumers living and the location of the most important facilities such as public transport, shopping centers and parks will also play an important role.
After finding the proposed building for the organization of a trading place, you need to find out the approximate traffic during the day. You can get a map on which then mark the main places of crowding. Of course, competitors ’existing stores cannot be ignored. Opening nearby doesn't always make sense. There is a flip side to the coin - an empty area may mean the fact that trade in this place will not bring profit.
Preliminary inspection of the premises
Communications and amenities are quite important in terms of the comfort of visitors and staff. Before concluding an agreement on a trading place, you should carefully examine the premises. It is desirable that everything inside be as prepared as possible for the soon opening of the point. It is worth checking the availability of the following components:
- ventilation systems;
- heating and air conditioning;
- fire alarm;
- summed up electricity.
It will be useful to ask about sewage and water supply if they are needed for comfortable working conditions. As for electricity, everything is also ambiguous. It is recommended to find out what kind of load the network can withstand, otherwise part of the store’s equipment will not be able to work with insufficient power, which will become clear only after signing the contract and launching. The calculation should include any additional devices such as dummies and telephones.
Own building or shopping center
The answer to this question is far from always unambiguous. Firstly, it all depends on the specifics of the product that will be sold, as well as on the potential target audience.Entrepreneurs who sell products in the middle and lower price segment usually prefer to settle in their own premises. Often, the choice of a trading place not in the shopping center becomes a decisive factor, which at one time influenced the success and good sales level of such businessmen.
In large entertainment centers, as a rule, only well-known and expensive brands rent premises. For them, the situation is exactly the opposite: the largest profits come from placement in shopping centers with high traffic. Each of the options has both its advantages and significant disadvantages. Before choosing it is best to carefully read them.
Pros and cons of a separate room
Most likely, the novice entrepreneur will try to settle separately if he finds a building that is suitable for all criteria with a close proximity to public transport and high traffic.
In this case, he will receive the following unambiguous advantages:
- constant eye contact of the seller in the trading place with potential customers;
- lack of need to coordinate working hours and format of registration with the administration of the shopping and entertainment complex;
- the ability to attract customers with a specific brand or individual products;
- lack of restrictions in the choice of methods of conducting an advertising campaign;
- quick adaptability to new conditions and the ability to change the format of the store;
- setting any desired work schedule for sellers.
The disadvantages of this option are not many, but they are worth mentioning. To begin with, you will have to establish relations with companies of a servicing nature. Also, it is not always easy to find a suitable room in shape.
Pros and cons of accommodation in the shopping center
Contrary to popular belief, having a store in a shopping mall does not equate to success. However, a number of advantages of this arrangement still has:
- high and stable human traffic;
- uniform design style with competitors;
- non-core anchor tenants, further increasing the influx of potential buyers;
- Manager, ready to help with various organizational issues and in case of problem situations.
Nevertheless, the list of cons is more impressive than that of a private detached building. Among them, the following should be highlighted:
- high cost of rent;
- rigidly fixed and uniform for all conditions of the contract;
- limited choice of options for a suitable retail space;
- difficulties and restrictions in delivering goods to the department;
- the risk of declining popularity of the shopping and entertainment center among potential buyers;
- the need to coordinate most actions with the administration of the shopping center;
- future growth in rents;
- restrictions on the use of branded elements of the shopping center;
- Variation of revenue on weekdays and weekends;
- the need to meet the specific desires of customers;
- uniform working hours and opening hours of stores.
Features of own business
The format largely depends on what exactly and in what volumes it is planned to sell. In this case, the trading place may be empty and not pay off both in the shopping and entertainment complex and in a private building, if you do not engage in an advertising campaign in time. However, some options may not be acceptable to the shopping center or landlord. All such issues, of course, are best agreed upon in advance.
Other important business features include:
- sold goods and their overall dimensions;
- variety of assortment;
- the need to use banners, screens, leaflets and other visual advertising to better attract potential buyers;
- the current level of popularity of the brand or brand whose products it is planned to sell.
Analysts estimate that 30 percent of success depends on the correct choice of location, another 30 percent on the correct format. The remaining 40 percent is determined by the situation in the store itself, the level of work of consultants and sellers, as well as the quality of the products offered.
The issue of crossing flows
This problem is one of the primary when choosing a place. The location of the store must meet a number of requirements, including good accessibility for pedestrians and drivers, public transport and the metro. Shopping and entertainment complexes have already foreseen all these points. If the entrepreneur decided to look for a separate room, then he should not neglect such nuances.
Experienced businessmen know that the vast majority of residents in large cities rarely change their routes and go to the same shops. The optimal location of the shopping place can be, for example, between residential buildings in a good area, office buildings or near a leisure park. In Moscow, preference is given to points at the ring metro stations on the Garden Ring. In other cities, it will be necessary to find their own similar places of intersection of a stably large number of people.
Islands as a source of profit
In addition to stationary shops, there are so-called island points, which are open windows. They are located in the aisles and corridors of large shopping complexes. They find the main application either in certain seasons, or as "intelligence of the area." If a businessman decided to increase the number of trading places, but is not completely sure that the new point will pay off and have sufficient consumer interest, then he conducts such testing. Among the advantages of the method, it is worth noting the low costs both in time and in finance.