Today retail trade is going through hard times: there are fewer buyers, the population's ability to pay is declining, supermarkets of federal companies are opening and sales of small shops are killing.
Nevertheless, new stores are being opened instead of closing stores and everything is repeated.
How not to end up in this meat grinder? How not to be afraid of federal grid companies? How to attract more customers to your store? How to open a new store and quickly promote it?
Today retail trade is going through hard times: there are fewer buyers, the population's ability to pay is declining, supermarkets of federal companies are opening and sales of small shops are killing.
Nevertheless, new stores are being opened instead of closing stores and everything is repeated.
How not to end up in this meat grinder? How not to be afraid of federal grid companies? How to attract more customers to your store? How to open a new store and quickly promote it?
We will talk about this today.
We will not talk about permits and licenses, but we will talk about how to make money.
The very first thing to think about, oddly enough, is who your customers will be, how many of them there will be, how you will attract them, and what benefits they will receive from interacting with your business. The answers to these questions will help you decide on the format of the store and its location.
The most common mistake is working from money. That is, you have 2 million that can be opened for this money - this is the first question that many begin to ponder.
What kind of clients there may be, the easiest way is to start from the sales territory. If the store is next to the road or in a busy place, then you can choose any contingent according to income and any specialization. Inter-quarter stores are most often designed for local residents and adapt to their needs and income.
Next, you need to choose the format of the store.
Format selection
There are two main formats for grocery stores. This is a counter-type shop and a self-service shop. Each has advantages and disadvantages.
A counter shop requires less space, less equipment, staff costs, and makes it possible to niche (a butcher's, a convenience store, a grocery store, etc.) In a counter store, you can build personal relationships with customers, and this needs to be done, let's talk about it later.
Moreover, an important point in choosing a format is exactly what kind of clients it will be designed for.
Today there are 3 formats of stores that make a profit - these are supermarkets, specialty stores (meat, fish, beer, alcohol market) and the third format is a store within walking distance.
Each format has its own target audience and they have their own needs.
A supermarket is the most expensive option, it is designed for the widest audience, but the important point is that this audience is demanding on the range of products, they often do not live near the store, they come by car. The supermarket is associated with low prices for products. All supermarket customers want to buy everything in this store and go home, not go to any other store.
The audience expects products to be easy to find, select, and get hold of to put in their shopping cart.
What does it mean?
We will touch on the rules of equipment placement in another article. This means that with this store format, you must take into account several factors:
1. The store should have good parking to accommodate all customers during peak hours.
2. The store should have a large assortment of products, and in each group of products. It is better to abandon some product groups in order to provide a large selection of popular products. It often happens that when customers come to the store, they do not find natural milk or sausage, or even bread from a popular manufacturer, and the customer stops going there.
3. Commercial equipment must be open. Avoid chests, covered bonnets, and refrigerated cabinets. Every closed refrigerator sells 30% worse. Chests can only be used in the format of chests for 1-5 goods of the same type (ice cream, ice, frozen berries, etc.). If you pile a large assortment under glass, sales will be weak.
Walking distance store - the customers of this store are 80% residents of nearby houses within a radius of 500 m. The main need sounds like this - to replenish stocks. Therefore, here you can get by with a counter, but correctly arrange it. A convenience store benefits greatly when it relies on customers who value fresh produce. To do this, you can configure the system so that customers are aware of the next delivery of goods and will come back soon after delivery. I will tell you how to do this in the next article.
A very common mistake of owners of a convenience store is saving on trade equipment, since this does not allow to make a beautiful display of goods and reduces comfort. And coziness is an important quality of a store within walking distance. The person left the house in slippers and should feel at home and with you. Despite the development of supermarkets, walking distance shops work very well all over the world. But it's important to know and love your customers.
What to do if a supermarket has opened near the house, but there is already a store?
Here, a narrow specialization in one of the categories of products that are poorly represented in the supermarket comes out on top. A seafood store may have a large assortment of fresh fish and seafood. The beer shop will sell an assortment of beer and snack assortment by weight. The butcher shop must sell chilled fresh meat. The supermarket here is not a competitor for you, since it is designed for conveyor service, and there is a lot of fuss with specialized products.
Another option is a luxury grocery store. Allows you to have a good palette of various products for wealthy people.
Room selection
This is very brief. A supermarket cannot be built indoors less than 200 sq. M., An average supermarket is 400 sq. M. The room should not have a complex configuration. If your market is attached to a residential building, this is a problem. You will not be able to supply equipment with external compressors.
The main criterion for choosing a room is the area, estimate on a piece of paper what equipment you will have. Give it to a project to a company that supplies equipment. Let them draw it for you in a rectangular room. Say the area arbitrarily - for example 4x10 m. When you understand that everything fits, then look for a room. Don't forget the warehouse.
The second most important criterion is proximity to the target audience. There should be houses or a road nearby. And it is desirable that there are no exactly the same stores.
That's all, in the next article we will talk about the selection of equipment and choosing a name that will sell.
