Outlets in the Russian market so far is extremely small, and therefore to carry out a thorough analysis and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, perhaps not worth it. In your city, they may not be at all. But what is really worth doing before the start is to study your target audience.
Outlet – not the format of stores, which in Russia can be met at every step. Therefore, to begin with, it does not hurt to tell what exactly it differs from a regular clothing store.
In the outlet there are designer clothes with big discounts – about 70-80%. As a rule, the bulk of the goods are things from previous collections of designers that have not been sold.
The second part of the product is the so-called samples, that is, models that are stitched before launch into mass production. Such samples, as a rule, occur in several copies and in one or two sizes, usually 42 and 46.
Speaking of Russian outlets, it is a niche of fashion stores, which so far can boast of a small competition.
In the west, outlets have long been a familiar phenomenon, even whole villages have been built there.
In our country, outlets are not yet available in all major cities, let alone small settlements. And nevertheless, this direction is rapidly gaining momentum, especially in Moscow. In part, the reason was the crisis. After the jump in the euro and the dollar, the prices for clothes have become simply sky-high, and those who are accustomed to dress well still want to continue to do it, but for other money.
To know which designers to cooperate with, what to import and even where to open, the owner of a regular store needs to understand who will be coming there. It is important to make a truly complete portrait of your potential buyer, from age to activity.
As practice showed, our audience is quite wide. To us in the outlet come and very young girls, and ladies aged. All of them are of different sizes, they are in demand different styles and designers. In our format, this is normal, but in any other store – will cause problems.
To choose designers, whose clothes you will exhibit in your outlet, you need very thoughtful. We are the first outlet of Russian designers, and therefore stand out against competitors whose foreign brands are represented. But this, in addition to the pluses, is fraught with a number of difficulties. Since the fashion market is not formed, it is possible to work far from all fashion designers. We cooperate only with those who have a sufficiently developed production.
Designers who sew half of the models themselves, and half order in the atelier or on a third-party production, is not the best choice. They buy fabrics either in retail or in small wholesale, their work is expensive, and, accordingly, the high production cost of the product. So, even if they want to get rid of something, they can not offer the price that the end consumer is willing to pay. The price even with a discount is quite high.
Investment size
Unequivocally answer the question, how much you will open an outlet, you can not. The amount of investment depends on many factors, in the first place – on the size of the rental rate. Rent – the main expense item, regardless of which room you choose. But especially this is true in the event that you open an outlet in the shopping center, because you will need to make three payments at once.
Another major expense item is repair and equipment. Whichever store you open, invest in too expensive equipment is not worth it. There can always be a lot of reasons why you have to move out of the chosen place, for example, the landlord will demand to vacate the premises or you simply will not have business at this outlet. In this case, it will be difficult to use equipment purchased for a particular location in another location. Therefore, either stop on budget options, or order equipment that can be easily disassembled and transported.
A considerable part of investments is necessary for the purchase of the goods themselves.
This expense item, again, will differ depending on what kind of designers you will work with, what terms of cooperation they are willing to provide to you, how much goods you will buy.
Do not forget also about advertising and PR. They somehow require some financial injections, but in modern reality, you can get by with «little blood». For example, it makes sense to bet on social networks and in particular on Instagram. Especially well they work if the clothes that are sold in your store stand out among similar things that other stores offer.
In our case, we bet on the fact that we are the first and so far the only outlet in which only Russian designers are represented. Plus, it’s easier for us to work from some side, because we can lure by the price. In the case of an outlet, advertising campaigns by designers themselves often work for you.
We had minimal expenses for PR and equipment. We decided to save almost everything, and this is permissible in our format. But if a boutique opens with new collections and expensive goods, then everything should be different.
Step-by-step instruction
After the preparatory stage – determining your target audience and choosing designers for cooperation – you need to start to form the assortment.
In this case, one should bear in mind the peculiarity of the outlet as the absence of dimensional series. The remains of past collections and especially the samples are usually represented by only a few sizes.
Therefore, the range of outlet by model is very large, in contrast to ordinary stores, which simply do not need such a variety. If you open a clothing store, you need to calculate the face, so that there is not very little or vice versa, a lot of goods. Sometimes the owners are too addicted, especially at the initial stage, and acquire things that do not fit together. In our case, the goods can be purchased twice as much, and nothing will change from this. Our concept allows us to have a large enough choice.
Collections in outlets are replenished much more often than in chain stores. Personally, I have an update in the store once a week. At usual shops only two collections a year – summer and winter. Then they only import the sold sizes. We update the assortment every week due to the replenishment of the remainders of the designers themselves and due to the fact that we begin to cooperate with new designers.
It is very convenient for customers and for ourselves. Going to the online store and not finding anything to your taste, the buyer just leaves, because networkers are difficult to offer him something new. In the outlets the clients come in regularly: every week or every two weeks. Some even leave their phone numbers and are asked to call when the clothes come from a certain designer. In this case, unlike ordinary stores, in winter we often sell summer things. But in online retailers you can find only clothes for the season.
Having thought over the issue with the assortment, you need to «go out» to the designers whose collections you want to sell in the outlet. Typically, fashion designers are willing to cooperate, although almost nothing on this and do not earn. We exempt them from the need to store old collections in warehouses.
A key feature of the outlet is large discounts, the amount of which depends on what discount the designer himself is willing to provide.
An important issue for an outlet is the recruitment of personnel, since no matter how hard you try to repair the room, pick up clothes, satisfy the demand of customers, the seller, acting through the sleeves, can ruin everything.
Requirements for sellers and working conditions with them are the same as in online clothing stores. Unless the employees of the outlet should react to more frequent updates of collections.
Another important step in opening an outlet is the choice of a suitable room. On this issue it is worthwhile to dwell separately.
A place
Outlets can be located in a variety of places and are presented in a variety of formats of premises. For example, there are shops created in the image and likeness of European villages of outlets. Among them «Outlet Village White Dacha» and Vnukovo Outlet Village, which are located outside the borders of Moscow and yet are popular with residents of the capital.
Just like any clothing store, an outlet can be opened in a street retail or an ordinary shopping center. In the Russian Fashion Outlet, they went exactly along this path, because in the shopping center the buyers come purposefully, already attuned to something to buy.
If you choose street retail, you need to pay attention to how much tight traffic is near it. Opening in the shopping center, it is important to evaluate the shopping center itself: how modern it is, whether buyers willingly go to it, whether many places are empty. Too big a vacancy is a bad sign for a tenant.
In any case, it is important that the premises are located close to public transport stops. Even to suburban villages, outlet offices can always be reached by metro or train. It is important that the store can be conveniently parked for those who came by car.
The area of the store and the quantity of goods in it are interrelated, and this should be taken into account. Most likely, at the start, the entrepreneur will not have enough money to open a large outlet and rent a large area. But also to have your own store in a small room is also not worth it. The area of the store should be such that it could be advantageous to place the outfits and place several fitting rooms. Buyers should be able to consider things and try them on without standing in line.
Strict requirements for the state of the room and repair it is not. But it is important that the store looked at least neat, and the customers in it was comfortable. Good lighting is important, in which clothes look more attractive and attract attention.
Documentation
To open an outlet, you will need to register a legal entity. You can register both LLC and IP. Register PI is somewhat easier. Plus, when choosing this form of registration, you can use the patent system of taxation.
It is especially advantageous in the event that a person opens a new store in a small format – up to 50 square meters. m. When choosing a patent system, an entrepreneur is exempted from paying a tax on the sales area. This allows you to save considerably.
In addition, this form of taxation is very convenient, especially for beginning businessmen. You buy a patent once a year, and later get rid of all the paperwork related to the accounting.
Code OKVED for outlet – 52.42 «Retail trade in clothes.»
If you open an outlet in a freestanding building or street retail, you will need contracts with the SES and the fire department. Those who decided to open in the shopping center, can do without these troubles – all necessary documents are issued by the administration of the shopping center.
Check-list of opening
- Analysis of demand, drawing a portrait of the target audience,
- Selection of assortment,
- Search for a room,
- Estimation of a place of rent, calculation of the traffic, a choice of the optimum variant,
- Conclusion of the lease agreement,
- Registration of IP or LLC, registration with the tax inspection,
- Credit arrangement,
- Measuring the room to create a design project,
- Creating a design project,
- Search for suppliers of trade equipment,
- Order of commercial equipment,
- Drawing up an estimate of construction (list of necessary furniture, building materials),
- Search for a construction team,
- Buying building materials,
- Ordering furniture and interior items,
- Repair work,
- Order of goods,
- Development of an advertising campaign for the opening,
- Development and coordination of the signboard, its installation,
- Development of shares, discounts and other marketing activities,
- Search for an accountant on outsourcing,
- Search for sellers,
- Interviewing, selection of candidates,
- Scheduling shifts,
- Festive opening.
Is it profitable to open
Typically, in clothing stores, profitability depends on the mark-up. But the format of the outlet suggests large discounts and relatively low prices for designer clothes. This means that to make a maximum markup simply does not make sense: in this segment it is much lower than in regular stores.
The profitability of the outlet is provided by a large volume of sales. It is difficult to say exactly how it should be.
Here everything depends mainly on how much you pay for rent. Sometimes 2-3 customers who come for shopping, do not stay in the red.
You can increase the average check of an outlet in the same way as in an ordinary clothing store – due to additional sales of accessories and jewelry. But such ways of stimulating sales, like providing discounts and bonuses, are more difficult to implement. Outlets already offer large discounts to visitors.
For outlets, as for most types of business, peak demand seasons and recession times are characteristic. Usually, summer is a dead season. Especially this postulate is fair for shopping centers of the day off: in summer people go out of town, instead of spending time in the shopping center. It is quite difficult to somehow influence this, you just need to work more actively in the season.
And of course, there are risks in this sphere, as elsewhere. One of the main – the risk that you will not find your buyer, choose the wrong format.
If there is no clear understanding for whom you are working, the outlet can be unclaimed.
Also, since you work alone, there is a risk of misstatements in the formation of the assortment. In the network stores, professional buyers form the collection long before it arrives on the shelves. But when an entrepreneur works independently, everything is done differently. When he forms the range of his outlet, it may seem to him that the goods he brings in exactly like the customers, because he relies on his own taste.
I also encountered such a problem in my practice. Saves only what we really take from many designers and based on the statistics on sales, we see that it is sold better, which is most in demand. You can not rely solely on your taste and size.
