If you are thinking of starting a clothing store, there are several factors you must consider before you set up shop. You will have to find an ideal location for the store, arrange for the funding, establish the best practices, decide on the niche, and so on. In this post, we take a brief look at five such things.
- Find Out A Perfect Store Location
The first thing to decide on is the location of the store. The best location for a clothing store is the usual shopping streets of the region. If you are unable to get a spot there, you will have to find another location which sees a lot of traffic throughout the day. Plus, the store must also have adequate parking space within its property. Otherwise, people will have to park their car at some other place and walk all the way to the store. This inconvenience will obviously deter a lot of people from visiting your store.
- Sourcing The Inventory
You will also have to find out suppliers of garments for the store. The best way to find excellent suppliers is to visit a trade show. Get in touch with the wholesalers participating in the trade show and find a reliable dealer who has been in the business for several years. Get to know their trade practices, invoice clearance conditions, guarantees, return policies, and so on.
- Decide On The Additional Services
Since you will already be renting out space for your clothing store, why limit yourself to only sales? Consider adding in other services and expand your offerings. This will allow you to increase your monthly revenues and profitability. For example, you can offer tailoring, fur repair, or any other similar service related to clothing. You only have to assign a small amount of space in the store for conducting such services.
- Find Your Niche
You need to decide the niche of your clothing store. Will you be selling to women, men, or both? If you solely focus on women, will you be offering clothes for all occasions, or will you specialize in wedding, party wear etc? If your store is geared towards men, will you mostly stock casuals or formal wear? Will you also be stocking accessories like belts, purses, wallets, and so on? Make sure that you have clear-cut answers to such questions. Only then will you know the exact niche of the clothing store you wish to start.
- Set Up Operational Policies
In order for a business to run properly, one has to establish certain efficient practices. This is true for clothing stores also. You will need to set up the dress code of the employees, the checkout process at the counter, the overall cleaning process of the store, the training of the employees, payment to creditors, the right way to talk with customers, the strategies to handle disgruntled customers, and so on. Ensure that these policies align perfectly with the overall aim of the business and the success of your store is almost guaranteed.
