And because the business of selling spicy wardrobe items can seem like a lot of stability island, because the demand for underwear is always there. But opening your own underwear store is not such a simple task as it might seem at first glance.
The entrepreneur will begin to understand this already at the very beginning of the path, when it will be determined with the assortment.
The Japanese say that we wear our underwear 23 hours a day. We do not know where the inhabitants of the country of the rising sun have already spent another hour, but the fact remains that the underwear is the only clothing that people wear all the year round in the daytime and at night.
Where to begin?
For those who want to open their own underwear store, first of all you need to decide what exactly he wants to trade.
Underwear can be divided into several different categories:
– Women’s, men’s and children’s;
– Everyday and for special occasions;
– Corsetry and uncorrupted;
– Budgetary, average for the price and luxury.
In all this diversity is easy to get confused, and therefore not knowing the question, it is difficult to make a choice. To determine what exactly to sell, you need to study the market and see what the competition offers. To do this, you will have to walk through similar stores in your area or the whole city, if the case is in a small village.
By the way, in a small city you can often talk with sellers in stores and find out how things are going, see for yourself how many customers are in the store on weekdays and at weekends.
Already after you understand what the market is more than enough, and what it really lacks, you need to decide what kind of assortment to sell and what will be the concept of your store.
It is worth noting that most often in the Russian stores there are women’s corset underwear of different brands. Although there are often monobrand stores. Whether to work with different brands or to represent one – depends only on you.
Personal experience
The specificity of our stores is that we did not look for a manufacturer and did not evaluate the market. We just realized that at that time there was very little quality men’s underwear. And what the Gunze brand offered was very new and interesting for us. That is why the choice fell on him.
But stores are not without reason flooded with lingerie: it is sold best. Women are more shopping, more willing to make purchases, including men’s underwear. Often, girls come to the store, choose something for themselves, and only then they buy clothes for their husbands.
That is why it is worthwhile to form the assortment of the store from women’s and men’s underwear at a ratio of 70:30. But in our practice the situation is different: the manufacturer specializes mainly in men’s underwear. Therefore, the picture in our stores is different. 50% of revenue comes from men’s underwear, 30% – from women, the rest comes from the sale of socks and pantyhose.
Next, you should choose the price segment with which you want to work. Most often it is recommended to work with the average price category: it is more stable, more people buy it. But keep in mind that during the crisis this segment is the most vulnerable. Those who bought luxury clothes, and continue to buy it, but consumers of medium-priced linen often «flow» into a more budgetary category.
But what you should not do is mix different price categories in one store. Those who came for expensive luxury linen buyers, seeing a number of cheap T-shirts, are embarrassed and leave. And those who want to choose for themselves something at an average price, can first notice something expensive and leave, not realizing that the store also presents their price category.
When choosing a price segment, consider in which city you work. It is believed that in small towns is best sold for budget and average for the price of linen. But a more reliable indicator, after all, is not the size of the city, but the level of incomes of its population. In the inhabitants of small oil-producing cities and cities in the central strip of Russia, they can radically differ. And where income is not great, «lux» offers no sense: no one will buy it anyway.
Investment size
It is difficult to say unambiguously which amount you will have to invest in opening an underwear store. Investments can amount to 2 million (200 thousand rubles, in the case of a small village with cheap rent and a Chinese assortment) rubles, so 7 million rubles or more. It all depends on a lot of factors, primarily from the region where you will work.
It’s no secret that rents are different everywhere. If, for example, in Tver one average rate is accepted, in Moscow its size can be tens of times higher. The place where you are trying to remove the trading area, also plays a role: one thing – the district shopping center on the outskirts, quite another – popular untwisted shopping centers.
In addition to rent will need to do more and repair the room, which also flies in a lot of money.
The second major expense item at the initial stage is the purchase of goods. Here, too, nothing concrete can not be said. Very much depends on the volume of procurement, the terms of the supplier, the selected price segment. In addition, Russian manufacturers of laundry is not so much, which means buying, most likely, will have things of foreign brands. The exchange rate is constantly fluctuating, and today you can order goods for one amount, and tomorrow – the same range can be much more expensive.
Advertising costs
Do not forget that you also need to invest in advertising, both at the opening stage and its further work. At the same time, the amount will again be different depending on the region and the selected advertising channels.
As a rule, at the stage of starting a business of money, the businessman does not have much, especially advertising. Therefore, at first you can use not expensive TV and radio advertising, but advertising in the shopping center where you open (banners and audio clips), as well as Internet promotion and social networks. In addition, it is very important to think carefully about the shop window, it should be bright, visible and prominent among others.
Recurrent costs
Already during the launch phase, you need to think about the current costs. The main one will again be rent. Here, the costs for the first time can be reduced by agreeing with the landlord about the holidays. Many shopping centers give a deferral on payments for the time of repair.
Reduce the cost of advertising is also possible. To do this, try several advertising channels, track the effectiveness of each of them and leave only what works.
With regard to staff costs, it is better to set a small fixed salary for it. The main part of the salary should be motivating and composed of interest from sales and bonuses for the fulfillment of the plan. This, perhaps, will not save you money for a wage bill, but it will help motivate sellers to work better.
And finally, you can affect the amount of regular transportation costs. If the supplier is located within the boundaries of your city, you can pick up the goods from him by self-delivery. If the supplier is far away, you can always choose the most profitable transport company.
Step-by-step instruction
So, in order to open an underwear store, you first need to study the market and determine the assortment, find a room for your business, and then start searching for and ordering commercial equipment. (the equipment supplier should be searched in the process of searching for a room, and of course it is necessary to order after finding the premises.)
The trading equipment should be simple, easy and convenient. It must be taken into account that at any time there may be a need to move. For example, in the shopping center can be released in a more passable place. If your equipment is designed for a particular room, it will be very difficult to successfully place it in another. Therefore, the equipment must be mobile, consist of blocks.
When choosing equipment suppliers, you need to be very careful. There is always a risk that by paying a lot of money for the equipment, you never get it.
Therefore, it is desirable to work with large suppliers that have proven themselves in the market and value their reputation. Either you can walk around the city’s clothing and underwear shops, and try to get information (not everyone is ready to share it), who ordered the equipment you liked, or the second – to find out through friends on the recommendation.
