Opening a clothing store requires a little capital, some contacts but above all a lot of self-confidence, energy, and perseverance. In this article, we show you some of the keys that it would be good to consider when creating a clothing store: documentation, bureaucracy, financing, clothing suppliers, etc. Read carefully and find out how to open a clothing store.
You will need to:
- A lot of energy
- clothing suppliers
- Selection of personnel for the store
Steps to follow:
Step: 1
To open a clothing store, one of the most important things is the location. Look for a busy street, preferably pedestrian. Clothing stores require a lot of customers and you will achieve this if many people pass in front of your store. You can also consider taking a place in a shopping center.
Step: 2
Do not worry about the size of the premises, a clothing store is easy to move in case you need a larger space. Adjust the expenses of your clothing store to your needs and then you can adjust them as the business grows.
Step: 3
The decoration of the clothing store is key, it is important that the customer feels comfortable. For this reason, we must try to create an environment that encourages them to stay longer in the store and thus increase the chances of making a sale. The decoration must be the product that is sold. If the client pays more attention to the decoration than to the clothes, something is wrong.
Step: 4
Clothing stores have two key moments a year. In the fashion sector, the calendar year is usually divided into two seasons: spring-summer and autumn-winter. Depending on the brand you work with, you will need to place between two and four lead orders throughout the year. The usual thing is two large purchases a year, at the beginning of each season, that is, autumn and spring, and then adjust your offer through occasional replacements.
Step: 5
Buy clothes with little notice and few units, this will help you better adjust the number of clothes you buy and, thus, have more rotation.
Step: 6
The clothing suppliers are key, the brand, the prices, the quality, etc. Think that if you compete with large companies like Zara and Mango, it will be difficult to compete with them on price, but you can compete on quality and target a more specific audience.
Step: 7
Make a business project for your clothing store. It is important that before starting the whole process to open a fashion store, you do the numbers to see if it is a viable business or not. We recommend that the numbers be based on these criteria:
- A number of people will pass in front of the premises.
- % of people who will enter the store.
- The average price of what people will buy.
- The margin on sales.
- Store costs: personnel, material, services, etc.
It is recommended that businesses where we will have few customers because they will be very specific clothing (for example, very expensive children’s clothing), are businesses with a large margin. On the other hand, businesses with a large clientele, may have little margin but always more than 15%.
Step: 8
The staff that you hire in a clothing store is key, finding two or three saleswomen who serve the public well can make the amount of each sale skyrocket, with which your margins will be better.
Step: 9
To carry out optimal management of a clothing store, there is the possibility of having authentic professionals who are in charge of it. Having the services of a good online manager, for example, ensures greater ease in terms of labor, tax, and accounting procedures for our business.
