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How to Start a Retail Business: A Step-by-Step Guide

Sally Lauckner

Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money .

If you’re thinking about starting a business in the retail industry, you’re in good company. Although local retailers don’t get the same level of attention as nationwide brands do, small retail businesses actually make up the vast majority of all U.S. retail businesses.

In fact, researchers found that small retailers (with 50 or fewer employees) made up 98.6% of all retail businesses in 2019. To break into this vibrant industry and open a store of your own, therefore, you first need to understand how to start a retail business.

To help you through the process, we’ll guide you through all the steps required to start a retail business, as well as offer additional resources to assist you on your startup journey.

business plan for retail shop

How to start a retail business in 10 steps

These steps will have you running your retail business in no time. Let’s get started.

Step 1: Find your niche.

The first decision you'll need to make in order to learn how to start a retail business is figuring out your company's niche. You may already have an idea of the type of company you want to form, or you may still be grappling to figure out where to focus your retail company. To determine your niche market, we recommend:

Explore your interests and passions: Determine what you love doing or what you'll enjoy selling.

Brainstorm potential conflicts: No industry is perfect, but figuring out what obstacles or issues you could encounter in your niche will help you plan ahead and determine if an industry is a good fit for your business.

Consider profitability: At the end of the day, you want to make money from your retail business, so you'll need to find a niche that has the potential for profitability. Generally, if your niche has absolutely no competitors, it's usually a sign there's no demand, and therefore, your focus will not be profitable. Use our guide to learn more about the most profitable business ideas.

Research competitors: Once you've found a niche market using the above three steps, it's time to research your competition. Figure out how they're marketing and selling and determine what you can learn from them and how you can improve upon what they have to offer.

Retail business examples

Deciding on your niche can take a long time. It requires significant research and the passion to work within a particular market. To help you get started in identifying your niche market, here are a few retail business examples worth exploring:

Coffee shops

Apparel shops (eyewear, sports apparel, undergarments, outerwear)

Restaurants and bars (determine a theme, whether that's the cuisine, small plates, a canteen, etc.)

Game centers (board games, video games, etc.)

Monthly box subscriptions

Pet supply shop

How much do you need?

with Fundera by NerdWallet

We’ll start with a brief questionnaire to better understand the unique needs of your business.

Once we uncover your personalized matches, our team will consult you on the process moving forward.

Step 2: Write a business plan.

We don’t doubt that you have an amazing idea for a retail store, but an idea alone isn’t enough to turn a dream into a reality. By writing a business plan, you’re providing yourself (and, potentially, future lenders and other stakeholders) a physical roadmap detailing every step you’ll take to open and run your retail business.

Therefore, when you're crafting your business plan for opening a retail store, you can start by answering essential questions about your business model:

What kinds of products are you selling?

Will you open a brick-and-mortar location, an e-commerce website , or will you take an omnichannel selling approach?

Who is your target market, and how will you market to them?

How will you set your store apart from your competition?

You’ll also need to dig into details related to your processes, answering questions such as:

Who are your vendors? How will you store your inventory?

How much staff will you need?

What will your hiring process look like?

What will your startup costs be?

How much money will you need to launch?

How long will it take for you to break even?

How long will it take for you to make a profit?

Keep in mind, however, that your preliminary business plan is exactly that—preliminary. You can always return to your retail store business plan to make changes, updates, and additions as you gain experience with starting and running your business.

Create a business budget

Along the same lines, you should also create a business budget, to the best of your ability, well before you’ve opened your doors. At this stage, you should be paying especially close attention to your startup costs.

Unfortunately, if you're wondering how to start a retail business with no money, you're going to find it's extremely difficult. Although there a variety of ways to cut costs—selling online instead of opting for a physical location, for example—there will always be a handful of costs associated with starting and launching your retail store.

This being said, in addition to standard startup costs like equipment, business insurance, and payroll, if you’re opening a brick-and-mortar retail store, you’ll have to cover some specific costs, like a down payment, potential renovations, and monthly rent and utilities for your store. You’ll also be responsible for purchasing your merchandise, shipping and delivery costs, and storing excess inventory.

And don’t forget about the other tools and software you’ll need to run your business, including a POS system, retail accounting software, and a security system to monitor shoplifting and theft.

Step 3: Register your business.

With your business plan and budget in hand, you can now move onto the next step involved in learning how to start a retail business—making it official.

Come up with a business name

If you haven’t already, you’ll first need to come up with a business name. Choose a name that reflects your business’s purpose and brand identity, allows you room to grow, and, perhaps most importantly, is actually available for use.

Once you’ve landed on your dream business name, run your moniker through a Google search to make sure another entrepreneur isn’t already doing business under that name. Then, check for trademark filings in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and conduct a Secretary of State business search to make sure there isn’t another business in your area with your potential name.

Once you’ve established that your name is free and clear, you'll want to buy your domain name and create social media accounts with your name. That way, you can build a business website and launch your marketing strategy ASAP.

Determine your legal structure and register your business

Next, in order to register your business, you’ll first need to decide on your business’s legal structure. Your business structure determines how you’re taxed, the degree of legal protection you’re afforded, your business’s ownership structure, and your ability to receive business funding (in addition to allowing you to register your business in the first place).

There are lots of business entities to choose from—all of which we overview in detail in our guide to types of business entities. Additionally, we’d highly recommend consulting a business attorney or accountant to guide you through this crucial step.

Once you’ve landed on a business entity type, you can go ahead and register your business through your state’s Secretary of State website. After that, head over to the IRS' website to apply for an EIN (employer identification number) online. Your EIN is a bit like your business’s social security number, and it’ll help the government identify you for tax purposes. You might also need an EIN to apply for a business loan down the line.

Step 4: Obtain licenses, permits, and business insurance.

Some states require a general business license, while others require licenses and permits at an industry level. You may also need to acquire local permits and licenses, so consult your county or city clerk’s website for their particular requirements, too. The SBA is an excellent resource for licensing and permitting information at both the federal and local levels.

For those learning how to start a retail business, you’ll likely need to obtain multiple retail licenses related to your field, including a resale certificate, seller’s permit, and a certificate of occupancy. We also recommend partnering with a trusted business attorney during this step.

Additionally, you won't want to forget about business insurance. As a retailer, you should consider general liability insurance, a business owner’s policy, and business crime insurance; and as an employer, you’re likely required by law to carry workers comp insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance for your staff.

Take a look at our guide to small business insurance for more information on the types of coverage you need.

Step 5: Find a physical location and build an online store.

If your retail business will include a physical store, finding the right location is arguably the most important aspect of this process. Your location can make or break the success of your business: If you’re located in a heavily trafficked area, then your marketing efforts are practically built-in. If it’s in a tough-to-find location, or if parking is limited, then your bottom line might suffer.

The right location for your business depends largely upon who your target market is and where they hang out. If you’re opening an upscale boutique, for example, you probably want to choose a neighborhood that skews less toward students and cash-strapped millennials, and more toward people with some discretionary income to burn.

Of course, you’ll also have to keep in mind how much space you need for display areas, a back-office and break room for your staff, dressing rooms, and an inventory storage area. Your location will also depend largely upon how much room you have in your budget for renovations, store design, remodels, updates, a down payment, and your monthly rent and utility bills. That may mean opting for your second or third choice location to protect your budget.

Build an e-commerce store

Even if you always dreamed of a brick-and-mortar store with in-person transactions, we also recommend opening an online store to give your retail business as much exposure as possible.

Luckily, building and managing an online store is incredibly easy with an e-commerce platform. Here are a few recommendations to get you started:

Shopify: This platform provides an infinitely customizable, standalone store that you build and manage entirely on your own.

Squarespace or Wix: These business website platforms are simple to use and offer e-commerce functionalities.

Etsy, Amazon, or eBay: These popular marketplaces will provide you with plenty of built-in traffic and handy seller tools. On the downside, you won’t have as much control over your branding, customer relationships, or fulfillment process as you would with your own e-commerce store.

The combination of e-commerce and in-person retail is sometimes referred to as "bricks and clicks." You can use our guide to learn more about the bricks and clicks business model.

» MORE: How to start an online boutique

Step 6: Establish relationships with vendors and suppliers.

This is the next step to learning how to start a retail business—and beyond your store’s location, arguably one of the most crucial aspects of your potential success—is finding trustworthy vendors and suppliers. Your vendors might become your most valuable partners and a great vendor can present you with new merchandise, determine which products will sell best, and cut costs for you.

There are a few considerations to keep in mind as you’re searching for vendors.

Budget: Your vendors need to work within the supplier budget you’ve established.

Quality: The quality of their merchandise is crucial.

Reputation: You want to work with a supplier who is guaranteed to deliver your agreed-upon items on time and in good condition—every time you place an order.

Customer service: Remember that you’ll be working closely with your vendors, so their service team must be reliable, personable, and easy to contact in case you run into any issues.

We recommend establishing relationships with several vendors. Even if your vendor of choice is stable, reliable, and cost-efficient, you need to have a contingency plan in place—without merchandise to sell, you won’t have a business to run.

Step 7: Hire staff.

If you’ve never hired an employee before, take a look at our guide on how to hire great employees who’ll stick with you for the long run. When hiring for a retail position, make sure to interview as much for their attitude as you are for their experience. While you can train your employees to use your POS system and manage your inventory, you can’t teach them to be kinder, friendlier, or more trustworthy than they innately are.

In advance of hiring your first team member, make sure you understand your state-regulated employer requirements. Your state might require that you buy certain types of insurance for your staff. Additionally, you’ll probably need to complete some other steps, like creating a state withholding account for payroll, reporting new hires, and verifying your potential new hire’s employment eligibility as well.

Step 8: Find the right POS system.

Your POS system just might become your retail business’s best friend. It’ll certainly become your employees’ best friend—assuming you choose an intuitive, easy-to-use model, of which there are tons on the market right now.

A point of sale system combines hardware and software that enables your business to accept and process all kinds of payments. Most POS software is loaded with valuable back-end capabilities, like inventory management, employee management, CRM tools, sales reports, and vendor tracking.

If you’re opening a brick-and-mortar location, you’ll need a POS system that can accept cash, checks, contactless payments, and both chip and swipe cards. In addition, you’ll need a barcode scanner, receipt printer, and cash drawer.

For more flexibility, you might want to look into a POS system that allows on-the-go payments, too. For example, Square (and most other POS systems) has mobile card readers that plug into your phone or tablet so you can accept payments from virtually anywhere, whether that’s at a pop-up shop, craft fair, or trunk show.

Similarly, Clover also has a fully equipped, handheld POS device so you or your staff can ring up your customers from anywhere in your store.

Ultimately, you have options—a lot of them. To help you navigate the selection process, consult our guide on the best retail POS systems.

Step 9: Organize your finances.

As we mentioned earlier, it's nearly impossible to figure out how to start a retail business with no money—so, whether you have a large amount of startup capital or are operating on a tight budget, it's extremely important to organize your finances.

First, you'll want to open a business checking account . If you’re happy with your current bank, you may want to open a business bank account there. It’s logistically easier for you to maintain all your finances with the same institution. In addition, many banks offer discounts and other incentives when consumer clients open business accounts. If you want to compare your options, we recommend looking into our best business bank accounts guide.

Next, you'll want to get a business credit card . Most credit card companies allow business customers to apply for a business credit card online—which makes this step even easier than opening a business bank account.

If your business is too new to have any financial data, you can provide your personal financial information on your application. If you’re approved, you’ll receive your card in the mail in about a week or two. Use it for your business’s smaller, daily expenses, and be mindful of only using it for business-related purchases to maintain personal and business financial separation.

Get funding

Most entrepreneurs need a little (or a lot of) financial help to get their businesses off the ground. That may be especially true of retailers and brick-and-mortar business owners, who have a few extra startup costs to contend with.

Although it can be difficult to get a business loan as a startup, there are a variety of alternative options you can consider, especially as you start to run your retail store and become more established.

Finally, don’t forget to sign up for a good business accounting software solution, which will streamline, automate, and organize your business’s finances.

Step 10: Market your retail business.

At this point, you've learned the most important pieces of how to start a retail business, and now, you're ready to open your doors and get to work.

Of course, to get the word out about your business, you need to develop a small business marketing strategy, which provides you with an opportunity to get a little creative. The best marketing strategies, especially for brick-and-mortar stores, use a combination of SEO, social media, email marketing, paid online marketing strategies (if their budget allows for it), and analog marketing efforts.

At the very start of your venture, your time is best spent building a business website and creating social media accounts. Squarespace and Wix provide users with tons of customizable, professionally designed templates and built-in SEO tools. For social media, focus on creating diverse, high-quality content, posting regularly, and responding promptly to your followers’ comments and DMs—both the positive and the negative.

As a brick-and-mortar store owner, in-person marketing tactics are also important. We recommend:

Getting active in your local retailer community, networking with your fellow business owners, and participating in craft fairs and other events showcasing local businesses.

Partnering up with a local business whose target market is similar to yours and putting on an event together, or hosting pop-up shops or trunk shows in each other’s locations.

Using good sales incentives—like BOGO deals, giveaways, and free trial periods—to draw even more customers into your store.

To boost your marketing strategy, it's important to take some time to develop your brand identity. Establish your messaging, market positioning, and how your unique business can provide your customers with what they’re looking for—then create the materials to reflect those core values.

ZenBusiness

Start Your Dream Business

The bottom line

As you navigate the business formation steps, be careful not to lose sight of why you’re opening your retail business in the first place. If you remember the passion that inspired you to launch your business, you might even enjoy the finer points involved in the process—who knew finding a POS system could be so fun?

This article originally appeared on JustBusiness, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.

On a similar note...

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SharpSheets

How to Write a Business Plan For a Retail Store: Complete Guide

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  • August 3, 2022
  • Small Businesses

business plan for retail shop

Whether you’re looking to raise funding from private investors or to get a loan from a bank (like a SBA loan) for your retail store, you will need to prepare a solid business plan.

In this article we go through, step-by-step, all the different sections you need in your retail store business plan. Use this template to create a complete, clear and solid business plan that get you funded.

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary of a business plan gives a sneak peek of the information about your business plan to lenders and/or investors.

If the information you provide here is not concise, informative, and scannable, potential lenders and investors will lose interest.

Though the executive summary is the first and the most important section, it should normally be the last section you write because it will have the summary of different sections included in the entire plan.

Why do you need a business plan for a retail store?

The purpose of a business plan is to secure funding through one of the following channels:

  • Obtain bank financing or secure a loan from other lenders (such as a SBA loan )
  • Obtain private investments from investment funds, angel investors, etc.
  • Obtain a public or a private grant

How to write your retail store business plan’s executive summary?

For any retail business, the following information must go into the executive summary:

  • Business overview : include your business name and model (independent retail store or franchise model), the products you intend to sell (and whether you want to expand with additional product offerings), the legal structure of your business, etc.
  • Market analysis : how many retail stores operate in your area and what do they sell? The estimated number of visitors your customers receive per week, target audience demography (the products you sell must fulfill their needs), purchasing power, etc. must also be included
  • People : organizational setup and the management hierarchy along with retail store experience of the key people in the management
  • Financial plan : how much profit and revenue do you expect in the next 5 years? When will you reach the break-even point and start making profits? It is ideal to include a chart depicting your key financials such as revenue, gross profits, and net profit
  • Financial ask : what loan/investment/grant are you seeking? How much do you need? How long will this last?

business plan for retail shop

2. Business Overview

The business overview is essentially the company description. The second section of your business plan, it should cover the following for a retail store:

  • The products you will sell in your store
  • The price range of the products
  • The company structure
  • Target audience information

Let’s look at different subsections that you must include:

Give a brief explanation of why you want to open a retail store. It must display two things:

  • Your passion & interest for this type of business
  • Feasibility of the business

There may be other retail stores in your area, but they don’t fulfill certain needs of the potential customers. Your business may fill in that gap. 

For example, there may not be any retail store in your area addressing the needs of cyclists. Even if there are competing retail stores, are they offering everything like electric bikes, mountain bikes, touring bikes, BMX, folding bikes, etc.? Do they offer spare parts and customizations?

b) Business Model

This is where you will explain the following:

  • Is your retail store independent?
  • Are you buying an existing retail store?
  • Are you settling for a franchise store of an established bike brand?

c) Products

Your retail store can sell various products. Lenders or investors must get a clear idea of the products you intend to sell. If you want to focus on one or two specific products, you must clarify that, too.

For instance, if you are opening a retail bicycle or bike store , do you intend to sell only assembled bikes or do you intend to sell spare parts, too? What about toolkits? Do you have plans to sell supporting products for cyclists such as helmets, pants, shorts, gloves, eyewear, etc.?

If you have plans to specialize in something (for example, mountain bikes with shock absorption, gears, disc brakes, etc.), mention that.

business plan for retail shop

d) Pricing Strategy

It is important that you add a pricing list here. You don’t need to go into extreme details. Just an average range will be more than enough. 

For instance, mountain bikes can cost anywhere between $400 and $800 . Depending on the components used, the average price can increase or decrease.

A pricing chart for all major products you are offering can help the investors or lenders to tie your pricing strategy with your financial projections.

e) Target Audience

Knowing your customers is very important. That will give you an edge over your competitors. For example, if you are opening a retail bicycle store, you must know whether your potential customers will be enthusiasts, hobbyists, or professionals.

Another important aspect is to understand the type of cyclists you will focus on. The products you sell will depend on that.

Knowing your customers well help in two things:

  • You can better retain your customers
  • Lenders or investors will be more confident about your business strategy

f) Legal Structure

Finally, your business overview section should specify what type of business structure you opt for. Is this a corporation or a partnership (LLC)? Who are the investors? How much equity percentage do they own? Is there a Board of Directors? If so, whom? Do they have experience in the industry?

3. Market Analysis

The market analysis is the next most important aspect of your retail store business plan. You must demonstrate to the potential investors that you know your market. Investors must be confident that the retail store you are trying to open (or you are already operating) makes sense.

For example, if you want to open a retail store specializing in mountain bikes, it’d be better if you’re located in states like Utah, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, North Carolina, Michigan, etc., because these states have ideal mountain bike destinations. Similarly, Texas isn’t really popular for mountain biking.

Again, you will never want to sell high-end bikes in a middle class neighborhood because they will most likely not be able to afford those items.

a) Retail Market Trends

You must also focus on the market size and growth opportunities. For example, if the location of your retail store doesn’t have enough cyclists, your bicycle business will probably not make enough profits. Again, if there are way too many competitors, the growth opportunities may be stifled.

Find market data for your city / area

It is always a good idea to get city-level data to get a clearer picture of the market size in addition to any national-level data you are providing.

Getting city level data might not be an easy task. In fact, you may have to get out and collect the necessary data. You may have to do some math. For example, if there were 30 bicycle retailers in your city in 2019 and the number grew to 33 in 2020, the annual growth rate will be 10%. 

You may want to investigate the factors leading to such growth. For instance, median income may have increased, there may be an influx of population, growing environmental consciousness, increased health awareness, etc., can be some of the factors.

However, you may actually notice a drop. In such a case, you must investigate the reasons. There can be varied factors like drop in income (and hence, sales that led to closure of businesses), decrease in population (may be younger popular moved out of the location), etc.

If there is a drop, you must explain the rationale behind opening a business, the industry of which is showing a gradual decline. It may also happen that the market may rebound back after a temporary decline.

business plan for retail shop

b) Competition

Your competitor analysis is very important. Here are a few questions that you must answer:

  • How many retail stores are there?
  • How many of those stores are your direct and indirect competitors?
  • What type of products do your competitors sell?
  • What is the price your competitors are charging for the same or similar product?
  • How many employees do your competitors have on an average?
  • How many customers do they receive per month?

Some of the answers will end in approximation of data. That’s totally fine. For example, you may not be able to get the exact number of customers your competitors receive.

Draw a strong conclusion for your competitive analysis

Your competitive analysis must bring out the reasons why you are trying to open a retail store. For example (related to the retail bicycle store example):

  • There are no specialised mountain bike retailers in the area despite a high percentage of mountain bikers
  • Existing bike retailers offer only bikes and spares. No retailer offers clothing and protective gear

c) Customers

You already spoke about the target audience in the Business Overview section. Here, you must provide hard data that establishes the existence of your potential customers in the area.

This section must answer the following questions (with reference to the bike store example):

  • What is the age group of the cyclists in your area?
  • What percentage of the cyclists are women vs. males?
  • What type of bikes are they mostly interested in?
  • Do the customers also look for related accessories?
  • Do they prefer online shopping or offline shopping?
  • What is the average household income per month (and also their average disposable income)?

Much of this hard data will come from your competitor analysis. Also, the data must support your decision to open a retail store. For example, if people have a tendency to buy online, you may be better off opening an online retail store instead of a physical store.

business plan for retail shop

4. Sales & Marketing Strategy

The 4th section of your retail store business plan is where you outline your customer acquisition strategy. Try to answer the following questions:

  • What is your USP?
  • What marketing channels will you use (online or offline)?
  • Do the marketing channels aptly grab the attention of your target audience? For instance, young adults will most likely not pay attention to TV ads. Instead, use social media
  • How do you intend to track the success of your marketing strategy?
  • What is your CAC or customer acquisition cost?
  • What is your marketing budget?
  • What introductory promos and offers do you intend to provide for attracting new customers?

Let’s expand a bit on a few questions below:

a) Marketing channels

A few marketing channels retail stores typically use are:

  • Email marketing
  • SMS marketing
  • Social media
  • Pay-per-click campaigns (e.g. Google Ads, Amazon Ads)
  • Partnerships (e.g. with companies to offer employees coupons, discounts, etc.)

business plan for retail shop

b) What is your unique selling proposition?

In other words, how do you differentiate yourself vs. competitors? This is very important as you might need to win customers from competitors.

A few examples of USPs are (with reference to retail bike store example):

  • Price : you may have cheaper prices than competitors
  • Specialization : you may be specializing in some specific product
  • Additional products : you sell additional accessories and safety gear that your competitors don’t
  • Freebies : you may offer freebies like helmets or tail lights

Your USP will definitely depend on the products you are selling.

5. Management & Organizational Structure

You must address two things here:

  • The management team and their experience / track record
  • The organizational structure: what are the different teams and who reports to whom?

a) Management

Your store’s management will vary depending on the business type and size. For instance, if you are opening a franchise store, you may have to give a lot more details compared to an independent store.

You may have co-founders and/or senior managers. You must explain their roles, too. Apart from that, you must also explain their industry experience and why they are suitable for those positions.

b) Organizational structure

Note that even if you have not already hired senior managers and other team members, you must include the details. 

You must define their roles and the hierarchy of reporting. This will demonstrate to the potential lenders and investors the solid management plan you have in place to operate your business efficiently and successfully.

Create and attach an organizational chart for a visual understanding of your store’s staff and their reporting lines.

business plan for retail shop

6. Financial Plan

The financial plan is perhaps, with the executive summary, the most important section of any retail store business plan.

Indeed, a solid financial plan tells lenders that your business is viable and can repay the loan you need from them. If you’re looking to raise equity from private investors, a solid financial plan will prove them your retail store is an attractive investment.

There should be 3 sections to your financial plan section:

  • Your historical financials (only if you already operate the business and have financial accounts to show)
  • The startup costs of your project (if you plan to open a new retail store, renovate your store, etc.)
  • The 5-year financial projections

Historical Financials (if any)

In the scenario where you already have some historical financials (a few quarters or a few years), include them. A summary of your financial statements in the form of charts e.g. revenue, gross profit and net profit is enough, save the rest for the appendix.

If you don’t have any, don’t worry, most new businesses don’t have any historical financials and that’s ok. If so, jump to Startup Costs instead.

Startup Costs

Before we expand on 5-year financial projections in the following section, it’s always best practice to start with listing the startup costs of your project. For a retail store, startup costs are all the expenses you incur before you open the space to your customers. These expenses typically are:

  • The lease deposit for the space you rent
  • The design and renovation of the existing facilities
  • The equipment and furniture

The total startup costs depend on a number of factors, such as the size of your store, the quality of the building (whether there is a lot or remodeling to do or not), the quality of the furniture, etc.

Financial Projections

In addition to startup costs, you will now need to build a solid financial model over 5 years.

Your financial projections should be built using a spreadsheet (e.g. Excel or Google Sheets) and presented in the form of tables and charts in your business plan.

As usual, keep it concise here and save details (for example detailed financial statements, financial metrics, key assumptions used for the projections) for the appendix instead.

Your financial projections should answer at least the following questions:

  • How much revenue do you expect to generate over the next 5 years?
  • When do you expect to break even?
  • How much cash will you burn until you get there?
  • What’s the impact of a change in pricing (say 5%) on your margins?
  • What is your average customer acquisition cost?

You should include here your 3 financial statements (income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement). This means you must forecast:

  • The number of customers over time ;
  • Your expected revenue ;
  • Operating costs to run the business ;
  • Any other cash flow items (e.g. capex, debt repayment, etc.).

When projecting your revenue, make sure to sensitize pricing and the number of customers, sales as a small change in these assumptions will have a big impact on your revenues.

business plan for retail shop

7. Use of Funds

This is the last section of your retail store business plan. Now that we have explained what your retail store sells and to whom, the industry, management and your marketing strategy, this section must answer the following questions:

  • How much funding do you need?
  • What financial instrument(s) do you need: is this equity or debt, or even a free-money public grant?
  • How long will this funding last?
  • Where else does the money come from? If you apply for a SBA loan for example, where does the other part of the investment come from (your own capital, private investors?)

If you raise debt:

  • What percentage of the total funding the loan represents?
  • What is the corresponding Debt Service Coverage Ratio ?

If you raise equity

  • What percentage ownership are you selling as part of this funding round?
  • What is the corresponding valuation of your business?

Use of Funds

Any business plan should include a clear use of funds section. This is where you explain how the money will be spent.

Will you spend most of the loan / investment in paying your employees’ salaries and the inventory? Or will it cover mostly the cost for the lease deposit and the renovation of the building?

Those are very important questions you should be able to answer in the blink of an eye. Don’t worry, this should come straight from your financial projections. If you’ve built solid projections like in our retail store financial model template , you won’t have any issues answering these questions.

For the use of funds, we recommend using a pie chart like the one we have in our financial model template where we outline the main expenses categories as shown below.

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Retail Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Retail Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your retail business plan.

We have helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their retail companies.

Retail Business Plan Template & Sample

Below is a retail business plan template to help you create each section of your retail store business plan.

Executive Summary

Business overview.

Artisan Home & Decor is a startup retail shop located in Pasadena, California. The company is founded by Joyce Hernandez, a retailer who has worked as a store manager of a local home decor store for nearly a decade. Joyce has recently graduated from California University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management. Now that she has gained real-world experience managing a store and the education on how to run a retail business, she is inspired to start her own company, Artisan Home & Decor. Joyce is confident that her ability to effectively manage employees, customer relationships, and retail operations will help her establish a profitable retail store. Joyce plans on recruiting a team of highly qualified sales associates, accountants, and buyers to help manage the day to day complexities of retail – marketing, sales, budgeting, sourcing, and purchasing.

Artisan Home & Decor will provide uniquely curated home decor products created by local artisans. The home decor shop will be the ultimate choice for customers in Pasadena who value one-of-a-kind pieces for their homes. Artisan Home & Decor will provide its customers with a refreshingly personalized shopping experience they can’t get anywhere else. The shop’s sales associates will be able to help customers find the perfect pieces to suit their individual preferences and styles.

Product Offering

The following are the products that Artisan Home & Decor will provide:

  • Lamps & Lighting
  • Throw Blankets
  • Photo Frames
  • Cookware Sets
  • Kitchen Gadgets
  • Kitchen and Bathroom Fixtures
  • Waste Baskets
  • Soap Dispensers

Customer Focus

Artisan Home & Decor will target home decor shoppers looking for a personalized experience and unique pieces in Pasadena. The company will target boomer, millennial, and gen z  consumers looking for unique decor for their homes, apartments, or condos. They will also target businesses looking for special pieces to furnish their corporate offices, waiting rooms, and lobbies. No matter the client, Artisan Home & Decor will deliver the best communication, service, and high quality products.

Management Team

Artisan Home & Decor will be owned and operated by Joyce Hernandez, a retailer who has worked as a store manager of a local home decor store for nearly a decade. Joyce has recently graduated from California University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management. Now that she has gained real-world experience managing retail stores and the education on how to run a retail business, she is inspired to start her own company, Artisan Home & Decor.

Joyce Hernandez has recruited her former assistant manager, Melissa Jacobs to come on board to help her manage Artisan Home & Decor. While Joyce will oversee the employees, day-to-day operations, and client relationships, Melissa will be the Inventory Manager. She will be in charge of sourcing, purchasing, and pricing all inventory. Melissa will work directly with suppliers to stock the retail shop with unique artisan pieces.

Melissa is a graduate of the University of California with a Bachelor’s degree in Interior Design. She has been working at a local retail home decor company for over a decade as an assistant manager. Melissa has an eye for design and keen organizational skills that will allow her to effectively manage Artisan Home & Decor’s one-of-a-kind inventory. Her communication skills will enable her to establish and maintain working relationships with artisans and suppliers.

Success Factors

Artisan Home & Decor will be able to achieve success by offering the following competitive advantages:

  • Friendly, knowledgeable, and highly qualified team of sales associates and interior design experts that are able to provide a personalized customer experience and help each client find the right home decor pieces to suit their preferences.
  • Artisan Home & Decor will bring fresh inventory into their retail store on a regular basis so there will always be something new for customers to check out. In addition to in-store sales, the company will sell pieces online through its website.
  • Artisan Home & Decor offers one-of-kind pieces created by local artisans to suit a wide variety of home decor styles and tastes. By purchasing from the shop, customers are supporting these local artisans and getting fresh decor that no one else will have.

Financial Highlights

Artisan Home & Decor is seeking $210,000 in debt financing to launch its retail business. The funding will be dedicated towards securing and building out the retail space and purchasing the initial inventory. Funds will also be dedicated towards three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for print ads, website and SEO marketing initiatives, and association memberships. The breakout of the funding is below:

  • Retail space build-out: $25,000
  • Retail store shelving, displays, equipment, supplies, and materials: $40,000
  • Three months of overhead expenses (payroll, rent, utilities): $120,000
  • Marketing costs: $15,000
  • Working capital: $10,000

The following graph below outlines the pro forma financial projections for Artisan Home & Decor.

business plan for retail shop

Company Overview

Who is artisan home & decor.

Artisan Home & Decor is a newly established retail company in Pasadena, California. The new home decor shop will be the ultimate choice for people looking for uniquely curated one-of-a-kind furniture and other home products crafted by local artisans. Artisan Home & Decor will provide its customers with a refreshingly personalized shopping experience they can’t get anywhere else. The shop’s sales associates and experienced interior designers will be able to help customers find the right pieces to suit their preferences and styles.

Artisan Home & Decor will be able to provide a personalized shopping experience for serving customers in-store and online. The team of professionals and sales associates are highly qualified and experienced in interior design, home decor, and the customer experience. Artisan Home & Decor removes all headaches and issues of the home decor shopper and ensures all issues are taken care off expeditiously while delivering the best customer service.

Artisan Home & Decor History

Artisan Home & Decor is owned and operated by Joyce Hernandez, a retailer who has worked as a store manager of a local home decor store for nearly a decade. Joyce has recently graduated from California University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management. Now that she has gained real-world experience managing retail stores and the education on how to run a retail business, she is ready to start her own company. Joyce is confident that her ability to effectively manage employees, customer relationships, and retail operations will help her establish a profitable retail store. Joyce has begun recruiting a team of highly qualified sales associates, accountants, and buyers to help manage the day to day complexities of retail – marketing, sales, budgeting, sourcing, and purchasing.

Since incorporation, Artisan Home & Decor has achieved the following milestones:

  • Registered Artisan Home & Decor, LLC to transact business in the state of California.
  • Has a contract in place to lease the retail space.
  • Reached out to numerous local artisans to advise them on the upcoming retail shop in order to start getting supplier contracts.
  • Began recruiting a staff of sales associates, interior designers, an accountant/bookkeeper, marketing director, and assistant manager to work at Artisan Home & Decor.

Artisan Home & Decor Services

Industry analysis.

The retail industry in the United States is valued at over $4T currently and is forecasted to reach $4.9T by the end of 2022. This is up from $3.8T in 2019. After a decade of retail decline between 2010 and 2020, the market is rebounding at a surprising rate. There were twice as many store openings as closings in 2021 alone. The number of brick-and-mortar retail establishments is increasing even as ecommerce shopping has grown by 70% in the last three years.

The role of retail stores is evolving and industry operators are discovering in-store experiences are still vital from the customer perspective. Successful brick-and-mortar industry operators are incorporating ecommerce into their business models. Trends include providing ship-from-store and buy online, pickup in store options to give customers more flexibility in the way they can shop. Key success factors include the level of customer satisfaction, product selection, prices, and convenience.

Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market.

The precise demographics for Pasadena, California are:

Customer Segmentation

Artisan Home & Decor will primarily target the following customer profiles:

  • Millennial customers looking for one-of-a-kind home decor
  • Boomer customers looking for one-of-a-kind home decor
  • Gen z customers looking for one-of-a-kind home decor
  • Businesses looking for unique decor for their offices, waiting rooms, or lobbies

Competitive Analysis

Direct and indirect competitors.

Artisan Home & Decor will face competition from other retailers with similar business profiles. A description of each competitor company is below.

Pasadena Home Decor

Pasadena Home Decor provides high-end home decor for the conscientious consumer. Located in Pasadena, California, the home decor retailer is able to provide a tailored shopping experience for its customers. The store’s list of products includes tables, chairs, wall hangings, rugs, vases, photo frames, candles, office decor, and paintings by local artists. Pasadena Home Decor sells online and in-store to give customers flexibility.

Pasadena Home Decor’s promise is to deliver high quality pieces that will stand out. Customers who purchase furniture and home decor from Pasadena Home Decor will be delighted with the customer service, cleanliness of the store, and personalized design services the company offers.

Home Shoppe

Home Shoppe is a California-based home decor retail store that provides outstanding pieces for discerning clientele. Home Shoppe stocks unique furniture and other decor items that are 100% hand-crafted. The owners of Home Shoppe are experienced craftsmen themselves, so they know how quality furniture and home decor pieces should be made. Clients can depend on their selection of products for durability, style, and eco-friendly materials. Choose Home Shoppe for your next home decor project and let the sales team take the stress out of the redecorating process by helping you select the best products for your home.

Redecorating For You

Redecorating For You is a trusted Pasadena retail company that provides superior home decor products for shoppers in Pasadena and the surrounding areas. The shop offers an extensive inventory of home decor items in a variety of styles so there is something for every taste. Redecorating For You is able to provide premium pieces that fill every space with elegance and style. The shop also eases the stress of redecorating by providing in-store pickup and delivery options for busy customers.

Competitive Advantage

Artisan Home & Decor will be able to offer the following advantages over their competition:

  • Artisan Home & Decor will bring fresh inventory into the store on a regular basis so there will always be something new for customers to check out. In addition to in-store sales, the company will sell pieces online through its website.
  • Artisan Home & Decor offers one-of-kind pieces created by local artisans to suit a wide variety of home decor styles and tastes.

Marketing Plan

Brand & value proposition.

Artisan Home & Decor will offer the unique value proposition to its clientele:

  • Artisan Home & Decor will make redecorating easy for customers by providing in-store shopping, pickup, delivery, online shopping, ship-from-store, and buy online-pickup in store options.
  • By purchasing from the shop, customers are supporting local artisans and getting fresh decor that no one else will have.

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for Artisan Home & Decor is as follows:

Social Media Marketing

The company will use various social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Snapchat to promote the shop, feature artisans, and show off new pieces. The marketing director will oversee the social media marketing activities to grow the customer base.

Professional Associations and Networking

Artisan Home & Decor will become a member of professional associations such as the National Retail Federation, California Retailers Association, and the Home Furnishings Association. The company will focus its networking efforts on expanding its network of clients, designers, and artisans.

Print Advertising

Artisan Home & Decor will invest in professionally designed print ads to display in programs or flyers at industry networking events, in home decor publications, and direct mailers.

Website/SEO Marketing

Artisan Home & Decor’s marketing director will be responsible for creating and maintaining the company website. The website will be well organized, informative, and list all of the products currently available for purchase online.

The marketing director will also manage Artisan Home & Decor’s website presence with SEO marketing tactics so that any time someone types in the Google or Bing search engine “Pasadena home decor retailer” or “home decor store near me”, Artisan Home & Decor will be listed at the top of the search results.

The pricing of Artisan Home & Decor will be premium and on par with competitors so customers feel they receive value when purchasing the one-of-a-kind products.

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for Artisan Home & Decor.

Operation Functions:

  • Joyce Hernandez will be the Owner and Manager of the store. She will oversee all staff and manage day-to-day operations. Joyce has spent the past year recruiting the following staff:
  • Melissa Jacobs – Inventory Manager who will be responsible for sourcing, purchasing, pricing, and maintaining the inventory.
  • Robert Brown – Staff Accountant/bookkeeper who will provide all store accounting, tax payments, and monthly financial reporting.
  • Bill Johnson – Marketing Director who will provide all marketing and sales activities for Artisan Home & Decor including maintaining the website, social media, print advertising, and promotions.
  • Julia Smith – Lead Sales Associate & Designer who will manage all sales associates and provide design services for customers.

Milestones:

Artisan Home & Decor will have the following milestones complete in the next six months.

9/1/2022 – Finalize contract to lease the retail space.

9/15/2022 – Finalize personnel and staff employment contracts for the management team.

10/1/2022 – Finalize contracts for suppliers.

10/15/2022 – Begin networking at industry events and implement the marketing plan.

10/22/2022 – Begin moving into the Artisan Home & Decor shop.

11/1/2022 – Artisan Home & Decor opens for business.

Artisan Home & Decor will be owned and operated by Joyce Hernandez, a retailer who has worked as a store manager of a local home decor store for nearly a decade. Joyce has recently graduated from California University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management. Now that she has gained real-world experience managing a store and the education on how to run a retail business, she is inspired to start her own company, Artisan Home & Decor.

Melissa is a graduate of the University of California with a Bachelor’s degree in Interior Design. She has been working at a local retail home decor company for over a decade as an assistant manager. Melissa has an eye for design and keen organizational skills that will allow her to effectively manage Artisan Home & Decor’s one-of-a-kind inventory. Her communication skills will enable her to establish and maintain working relationships with suppliers.

Financial Plan

Key revenue & costs.

The revenue drivers for Artisan Home & Decor are the retail fees they will charge to the customers in exchange for their products. The shop will charge a healthy margin to make sure artisans are paid well for their products while ensuring a solid profit for the business.

The cost drivers will be the overhead costs required in order to staff a retail store. The expenses will be the payroll cost, rent, utilities, store supplies, and marketing materials.

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

  • Store shelving, displays, equipment, supplies, and materials: $40,000

Key Assumptions

The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and in order to pay off the startup business loan.

  • Average number of items sold per month: 300
  • Average sales per month: $90,000
  • Retail space lease per year: $100,000

Financial Projections

Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, retail business plan template faqs, what is a retail business plan.

A retail business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your retail business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target market, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections.

You can  easily complete your retail business plan using our Retail Business Plan Template here .

What are the Main Types of Retail Businesses?

There are a number of different kinds of retail businesses, some examples include: Specialty Store, Off-Priced/Used Goods Store, Department Store, Convenience Store, Drug Store/Pharmacy, Discount Store, Hypermarket, and E-commerce.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Retail Business Plan?

Retail businesses are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors are also popular forms of funding.

A solid retail business plan with comprehensive financial statements will help show investors your are well-prepared to start your own business.  A retail business plan template will help you quickly and easily get started.

What are the Steps To Start a Retail Business?

Starting a retail business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Develop A Retail Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed retail store business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include supporting market research, your potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, marketing strategy, your competitive advantages and detailed financial projections.

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your retail business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your retail business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your Retail Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your retail business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws. 

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your retail business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms. 

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations. 

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events. 

7. Acquire Necessary Retail Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your retail business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation. 

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your retail business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising.

Where Can I Get a Retail Business Plan PDF?

You can download our free retail business plan template PDF here . This is a sample retail business plan template you can use in PDF format.

Other Helpful Business Plan Templates

Ecommerce Business Plan Template Clothing Store Business Plan Template Beauty Supply Store Business Plan Template T-Shirt Business Plan Template

Everything You Need to Know to Start a Retail Business

Learn about what it takes to build and grow a retail business from the ground up.

FREE BUSINESS PLAN TEMPLATE

The Essential Guide and Checklist For Starting Your Business

retail-businesses

Updated: 02/19/19

Published: 02/18/19

I worked in three different retail stores while growing up. The most memorable experience I had was working at a clothing store on Cape Cod when I was 18. The store had been recently renovated and looked beautiful — the desk with the cash register was designed to look like it was built from parts of a large fishing boat and the nautical theme continued to the inventory, floors, and gift boxes.

The store manager was also incredible — she was meticulous, caring, a natural problem solver, highly organized, and knew our products inside and out. She trained all employees to ensure we were prepared to assist any customer who entered the store in a way that was helpful and on-brand. My experience working at this store was a prime example of everything a retail business should be.

→ Download Now: Free Business Plan Template

From your store’s appearance to inventory to the manager you hire, there are a multitude of factors that impact the creation of a prosperous retail business Follow along and we’ll cover the steps you should take to start your retail business, the resources and tools you’ll need to manage your store, and how to find the right employees to work in your store. 

But first, a critical question.

What Is a Retail Business?

How to Start a Retail Business

Retail Marketing Strategy

Resources and Software

Retail Employee Candidates

Retail businesses sell items or services to customers for their consumption, use, or pleasure. They typically sell items and services in-store but some items may be sold online or over the phone and then shipped to the customer. Examples of retail businesses include clothing, drug, grocery, and convenience stores.

Now that you understand what type of store falls under the definition of a retail business, you might be wondering how to actually go about starting one. Let’s review 11 steps that are critical when beginning your retail business.

How To Start a Retail Business In 11 Steps

  • Create a Business Plan
  • Choose Your Legal Structure
  • Name Your Business
  • File for an Employer Identification Number
  • Understand Other Retail Business Laws
  • Pick a Location and Make Your Store Attractive
  • Find Your Inventory
  • Create Store Policies and Procedures
  • Develop a Customer Service Plan
  • Recruit a Team of Employees
  • Host a Grand Opening

Each of these 11 steps should be thoughtfully considered and completed when building your retail business as some are actually federal and state legal obligations. Also, these steps aren’t listed in any specific order so feel free to jump around and work through them in any way that makes sense to you.

1. Create a Business Plan

One of the first things anyone looking to start a business should do is create a business pla n . This is the document that details all aspects of your company including what you’ll sell, how your business will be structured, who your target audience is, and your financial information. 

Creating a business plan is crucial because it provides you (and your partners) with a comprehensive overview of your business at once making it easy for you to determine what will or will not work and what needs to be modified. Your business plan should be concise, yet informative and detailed. It’s also important to remember this is a living document , meaning you can always make changes as you start to implement different aspects of your plan.

Discover how to create a business plan to help you kickstart your company .

2. Choose Your Legal Structure

Disclaimer : This post is not legal advice for your company to use when choosing your legal structure or building your retail business. Instead, it provides background information to help you better understand these processes. This legal information is not the same as legal advice, where an attorney applies the law to your specific circumstances, so we insist that you consult an attorney if you’d like advice on your interpretation of this information or its accuracy. In a nutshell, you may not rely on any of this piece as legal advice, or as a recommendation of any particular legal understanding.  

When starting a retail business, you’ll have to choose a legal structure . Legal structures are recognized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and determine which income tax forms you have to complete and submit for your business. Here are five common business legal structures for your consideration:

  • Sole Proprietorship
  • Corporation (C Corp)
  • S Corporation (S Corp)
  • Partnership (LP and LLP)
  • Limited Liability Corporation (LLC)

Learn how to choose the right legal structure for your new business .

3. Name Your Business

Your business’ name should be catchy, easy to say and repeat, unique, and convey meaning. This way you know it’ll resonate with your customers and be memorable.

You should also search the web to ensure it hasn’t been used. To double check your name hasn’t already been taken, you can search for a trademark through the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database. If you are beginning a C Corp or an LLC, you’ll need to visit your Secretary of State’s website to ensure your business entity’s name hasn’t already been used. (Here’s what the Massachusetts Secretary of State website looks like for reference.)

4. File for an Employer Identification Number

You’re most likely going to need to file for something called an Employer Identification Number (EIN), also known as a Federal Tax Identification Number, when you start your business. This is an identifier almost every business in the US and US territories — provided by the IRS — must obtain. Your EIN is what your business will use to report income tax activity.

You can check with your state to make sure you need an EIN as well as review the IRS EIN checklist to make sure you qualify. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to apply for your employer identification number .

5. Understand Other Retail Business Laws

One final legal step for you to complete to set up your business — understand all other retail business laws at both the state and federal levels. We’ve covered a lot of the tax information you’ll need to be aware of, how to legally name and trademark your business, and how to file for an EIN. But you’ll also want to make sure you have all other legal matters taken care of before opening up your retail business. 

Every state’s government website should have a section that reads something like “starting a business”, similar to this one from the Massachusetts government site . Here, you’ll be able to work through a checklist of items to make sure everything you’re doing is legal. You’ll also be able to acquire any other necessary retail business papers and permits . In terms of government laws related to your business you should have a general understanding of tax, employment, and labor, antitrust, advertising, environmental, and licensing laws among other retail laws . 

Our recommendation to you is hire a lawyer or consultant to help you throughout this process — or at least get you started. The last thing you want to do is go through the effort or starting your retail business and then find yourself in legal trouble. A lawyer or consultant can ensure you consider and understand all retail business laws and requirements. 

Now, it’s time to get out of the legal mindset and move onto some more creative aspects of your retail business.

6. Pick a Location and Make Your Store Attractive

Your store’s location and appearance matter. This is how you’re going to make sure you have the foot traffic and visibility you need to kickstart and maintain a high volume of customers. It’s also how you’ll attract customers and make them want to enter your store.

Retail Store Location

If you decide to go with commercial space for your retail business — which is a building intended for stores or companies to conduct business and make a profit — make sure your location is a good one by chatting with other businesses next door and nearby. You can even conduct an informal foot traffic study by hanging out in the area to observe the number of people who shop there as well as the type of clientele to determine whether or not it resembles that of your buyer personas .

When looking at commercial spaces, you should also think about whether or not you want to rent/ lease the space and work with a landlord or buy the space so you have full control. 

Learn how to create buyer personas for your business to enhance your marketing strategy .  

You might decide to conduct your retail business out your of your home rather than a commercial space. While this will save you a lot of money because you won’t be putting any towards a separate building or retail space, it might feel slightly less professional to your customers. It may also be harder to bring in foot traffic depending on the location of your home. 

No matter what type of retail location you choose, be sure to look into your city’s zoning and planning details. These are typically provided by every town’s zoning commission and tell you whether or not changes to the area, such as construction or traffic, will create any problems or limitations for your store.

Retail Store Appearance

From the way your inventory is presented to your choice in cashier counter to your window displays , everything your customers see and experience should feel and look professional, clean, and beautiful. This way customers want to enter your store and feel excited to do business with you. 

You can make your store look great and feel inviting by using visual merchandising techniques to help you design it in a way that’s well-organized, well-lit, and on-brand. You can also hire a consultant to come in and help you lay out your store in a way that’s visually appealing.

Additionally, you can incorporate modern technology into your store to enhance the customer experience. For instance, you can  create a QR code  that customers can scan to access exclusive promotions or information about your products, adding an interactive element to their visit.

7. Find Your Inventory

Finding the right inventory to sell is crucial. You need to give your customers a reason to come to your store by providing them with unique items they’d have a hard time finding anywhere else — especially since online shopping is so common today due to its convenience. To help get you started, you can search for one of a kind items and unique pieces at fairs, trade shows, and festivals . 

Here are a couple more things to think about when trying to determine how you’ll source your business’ inventory :

Current Trends

Keep up with current trends within your retail niche (clothing, jewelry, accessories, etc.) to determine the type of inventory you should sell. With the help of social media, retail blogs , and magazines, and by simply learning about what’s doing well in other retail stores similar to yours, you’ll be able to determine the ideal inventory for your brand and buyer personas. These resources will ensure there’s a base of customers looking for the type of inventory you’re going to be selling.

Consider the type of supplier you want to get your inventory from — this might be through a manufacturer, individual maker, or wholesale.

  • Manufacturer
  • Individual Maker

Working with a manufacturer gives you a lot of flexibility because they help you create products that don’t already exist. Although you can determine the design, quality, and look of the product you crate, this also means working with a manufacturer can become expensive and time-consuming. 

Individual makers are people who create unique pieces of inventory themselves. An example of this would be someone in town who makes knit scarves and hats and sells them to you to then sell in your store. This is a great way to ensure your store has one of a kind pieces. It also means you’ll have to take the time to find talented makers who create quality items that are on-brand and would appeal to your buyer personas. 

Using wholesalers is a great option if you want to sell products in your store that are already being sold by other stores and online retailers. You’ll receive wholesale items directly from the company that makes them for a lower price but you’ll have less say when it comes to your selling margins, as the wholesaler will have control over them. It can be hard to find trustworthy wholesalers at first, so you might try wholesale-specific marketplaces like Faire to discover brands and then order from them regularly.

8. Create Store Policies and Procedures

Creating store policies and procedures for your customers and employees is critical if you want to maintain a sense of order within your retail business. Policies and procedures between your business and customers may include things like your return and exchange policies or whether not you want to allow pets in your store. Policies and procedures between your business and employees may include things like dress code and scheduling expectations.

By creating these store policies and procedures you avoid making customers and employees feel confused about the way something works within your business or at your store. This also helps you set standards for the way you want people to interact with your business on a regular basis.

9. Develop a Customer Service Plan

When starting your retail business, you’ll want to think about how you’re going to develop a customer service plan. Customer service is how you help your customers solve problems, teach them how to use your products, and answer their questions. Your customer service plan details the ways you’re going to do this. Customer service work is proactive . Meaning the point of developing a customer service plan and related policies is to solve for your customer’s problem prior to them even realizing they have an issue.

Let’s cover a few ways you can implement a customer service plan for your retail business through customer-friendly policies, employee training, and customer-loyalty programs.

Customer-Friendly Policies

By creating customer-friendly policies, you’ll make shopping at your retail store simple and stress-free for your customers. For example, you can can create return policies that allow your customers to bring an item back for a full refund with or without a receipt.

Other policies that prevent pain points and enhance customer service include a 100% satisfaction guarantee or complimentary hemming when you buy a piece of clothing in store.

Employee Training

You should train your employees about how to handle different situations with your customers such as exchanges, complaints, and refunds. Training will provide your employees with the exact steps they should take to ensure a professional interaction with your customers that resolves the issue at hand.

Your customer service training should also cover how you expect your employees to deal with larger customer issues and disputes. Provide them with a way to escalate an issue to you — or your store manager — when they’re unable to reach a resolution that satisfies your customer on their own.

Customer Loyalty Program

By proactively providing an incentive for people to return to your store with a customer loyalty program , you’ll likely increase your sales and number of promoters (the people who tell their network about your business). You also enhance their experience doing business with your business as well because you’ll be providing them with discount codes, details about sales, information about your latest products, and any other exciting event or piece of news you have to share.

10. Recruit a Team of Employees

It’d be difficult to grow your retail business without bringing on some team members. You may start as your sole employee, but as your business flourishes you’ll likely need some assistance. You can determine the most important qualities you’re going to look for in candidates, whether they’re related to personality, prior retail experience, or culture-fit. Then you can select and tailor specific retail interview questions to help you narrow down your pool of candidates. (We’ll cover more details about which skills you should look for in your candidates shortly.)

11. Host a Grand Opening

You might choose to have a grand opening for your retail store. This marks the date in which you are officially open for business. Grand openings may include celebratory beverages, food, and sale items to excite your new customers.

Prior to your grand opening, you might also have a soft launch, or soft opening, for your business. Soft launches are when you, the business owner, invite a group of guests to your store to essentially test everything out. These events are a great way to make sure everything works perfectly before your grand opening — meaning this is your last chance to ensure your customers love your inventory, your store is appealing to your guests, and your everything in your store, such as your POS system, functions perfectly. 

You’ve officially worked through all 11 steps required to build your own retail business — congrats! Now, you’ll need to create your retail marketing strategy.

How to Create a Retail Marketing Strategy

  • Define your positioning
  • Define your audience
  • Create your mission statement
  • Decide on your branding
  • Think about your content marketing strategy
  • Decide on your budget

Every retail business should have a retail marketing strategy — this will serve as the marketing plan you’ll use to promote your business. It’ll be the way you get the word out about your business and help you build your base of customers and promoters. Here are six steps to work through when creating your retail marketing strategy .

1. Define your positioning.

Defining your positioning is a critical part of your marketing strategy. That’s because your positioning is what makes your retail business stand out and differ from your competitors. Think about what it is that makes your business unique and use those details to define your positioning. This might be where or how you source your inventory, how you display all of the items in your store, or your impeccable end to end customer service experience.

2. Define your audience.

Once you define your positioning, you should be able to get a better idea of the audience you’re going after. Think about what type of consumer would appreciate your positioning, the products you sell, and how you sell them. By clearly defining your audience, you’ll be able to create buyer personas to help you develop a steady customer base and understand their wants and needs. 

Learn how to create buyer personas for your business with easy to use templates .

3. Create your mission statement.

Your mission statement is another critical part of both your retail marketing strategy and your business as a whole. It’s a formally written statement explaining your business’ goals and values — it essentially explains the reason why your business exists, the purpose it serves its audience, and how it differs from competitors. Your mission statement is what you and your employees can turn to when you need guidance or inspiration, and it’s what your customers can turn to when they want to learn about who you really are as a business and brand. And if you need some help envisioning what yours should say, you can always review mission statement examples from other companies. 

Naturally, as your company evolves and grows, the details of your mission statement may also shift. That’s alright because your mission statement is a living document, meaning it can (and should) be updated over time as you see fit.

4. Decide on your branding.

Your retail business’ branding should feel like a combination of your audience and mission statement. Meaning you should think about what type of branding your chosen audience will respond well to and how it’ll help you represent and depict your company’s goals and values. 

You should study the branding of your competitors to ensure yours stands out and looks unique to your customers. Lastly, make sure your branding is memorable — you want someone to look at any piece of your marketing and know it’s yours.

5. Think about your content marketing strategy.

A great retail marketing strategy includes a content marketing plan . This consists of media you create for your retail business such as written and visual content. A comprehensive content marketing strategy will help you establish a strong online presence and promote your business . 

For example, a common way to establish an online presence through content marketing is via social media. Social media marketing allows you to promote your business through various platforms such as Instagram and Facebook . Once you determine the different aspects of your content marketing strategy, you’ll want to ensure you plan and schedule all of that great content you’ve just created.

Content marketing schedule

Once you have developed your content marketing strategy, you’ll need to make sure the actual content you’ve created is posted, distributed, and shared when you want it to be. Create a content marketing schedule that you and your team can work from to ensure all content is shared as planned.

There are a number of different content marketing scheduling software options, such as CoSchedule , to help you do this. Depending on your business’ needs, you may also choose to use a much broader marketing automation software such as HubSpot , or a more specific social media automation software such as Hootsuite . These software options speed up the scheduling process, ensure your content is shared on time and as planned, and allow you to dedicate employees to certain content.

6. Decide on your budget.

You’ll need to set a marketing strategy budget to work within when developing all of these different pieces to your plan. Think about how much money you want to put towards each of these steps so everyone on your team is aware of the parameters they’ll need to work within. 

When determining your budget, you might find that you’re a bit limited to the amount you can put towards each of these retail marketing strategy steps simply because you’re a new business with fewer resources. That’s alright and totally expected — just remember to expand your budget when necessary as your business grows. 

To help get you started, you can consider the following recommendation regarding marketing strategy budgets by the US Small Business Administration : If you’re doing less than $5 million a year in sales and your net profit range is 10-12%, spend 7-8% of your gross revenue for marketing and advertising. 

Now that you’ve worked through the steps to building your retail business from the ground up and have a better understanding about how you can approach the creation of your retail marketing plan, let’s discuss some of the resources and software you’ll need to run your retail business.

Resources and Software Every Retail Business Needs

The following six resources and software are tools often used by retail businesses. As you start planning your business, you may think of more tools you’ll need depending on the retail business you’re opening. The following list will get you started most likely need to be modified for your store needs.

1. POS System

One of the most important tools you’ll need to run your retail business is a point of sales system or POS. 

A point of sales system is a software that allows you to conduct customer checkouts and accept multiple forms of payment such as cash, credit cards, and mobile payments. The software also prints receipts, scans inventory barcodes, and stores cash. There are a number of retail-focused point of sales systems to choose from to help you manage all of your customer transactions which we’ll discuss shortly. Without a POS system, it would be exceptionally time-consuming and difficult to keep track of all of your sales and payments.

Here are some POS systems for retail businesses to help kickstart your search for the perfect one for your business: 

  • Square Point of Sale

You may also want an inventory management software for your retail business. This will keep track of all information about your inventory to understand which items you need to replenish and how often you need to do so. These days, many POS systems, including the five we just listed, have inventory management systems built into them so you may not need to worry about finding another software.

2. Stock Keeping Units

Typically, retail businesses will have some type of stock keeping unit, or SKU, system to keep track of every single piece of inventory they have. A SKU — which is typically located alongside an item’s barcode — is a combination of numbers and letters used to identify and organize each piece of your inventory by characteristics such as size, color, and brand. 

what-is-a-sku

Instead of having to come up with your own SKU, POS systems with included inventory management capabilities also have SKU creation features.

4. Retail Blogs

Every business owner needs inspiration every now and then. Retail blogs are a great way for you to keep up with the latest retail trends and learn about what is and isn’t working well for other similar businesses. Retail blogs, such as The Retail Doctor and Medallion Retail , are focused on topics including growth, industry trends, new software, and in-store business vs. online business.

6. Employee Scheduling Software

As your retail business grows, you’ll most likely find yourself adding members to your team. Managing any number employees — and their schedules — is simple with an employee scheduling software , such as Ximble or TSheets , which allows you to organize and update your business schedule so your employees know exactly when to show up for work. 

Now that you have a better understanding about the resources and tools you’ll need to start your retail business, let’s talk about how you’re going to find the right employees to work in your store.

What to Look For In a Retail Employee Candidate

Who are the people that are going to help you grow your business? What traits should your employees possess to ensure they’ll be impactful additions to your store? Let’s cover some of these important characteristics to help you identify candidates who will be quality employees.

Communication Skills

Retail employees need to be great communicators — they’re interacting with your customers every day. They must be able to communicate details about your inventory to help them find the items they’re looking for. If someone calls your business with a question or issue, they’ll need to communicate their answer or provide a solution. Lastly, your employees need to be able to communicate with you about things such as their schedule and how their experiences with your customers are going.

Positive Personality

Whether your employees are chatting with your customers in person or online, about a topic that’s good or bad, your employees need to maintain a positive attitude. They act as the face of your brand and you want them to represent your business well. So, hiring people with a positive, can-do attitude that’s ready to tackle any situation that may arise — even if it’s a complex and involves an unhappy customer — is important.

You’re bound to have an unsatisfied customer at one point in time. Your employees must be patient as they listen to the issue in which the customer describes. They also need to be patient while working with that customer to find a solution. Otherwise, it’d be difficult for your employees to turn your customer’s negative experience around.

Empathy is feeling and understanding another’s emotions. Whether a customer is in a rush, has to purchase a sympathy gift, or is unhappy with an item of yours, your employees must be empathetic. This is how they’ll find a solution that fits the needs of the given customer. Empathy is what will help turn a customer’s negative experience into a positive one so they’ll continue doing business with you in the future.

Dependability

Whether you have one employee or 10, they need to be dependable. You depend on your employees to represent your business, work hard to delight your customers, be professional and kind, and simply show up to work (on time, of course) when scheduled.

Prior Retail Experience

Requiring your employees to have prior retail experience is up to your discretion. You may choose to focus on personality traits and culture fit instead of work history. However, if you do want employees with prior experience, you could look for candidates who have worked in other stores before or even have an education in fashion, design, or communications.

Start Selling

Starting a retail business is hard work. But, by following the steps we discussed, you can make it happen. Remember there are a lot of moving parts that come with starting a retail business that may change, such as your business plan and mission statement, as you begin putting your ideas into action. Start by obtaining the right resources and tools and hiring the right people to help you start growing your retail business.

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How to write a business plan for a retail store?

retail store business plan

Whether you are launching a new store or looking to grow an existing retail operation, having an effective and comprehensive business plan is essential. 

Luckily for you, this in-depth guide will provide all the information needed to write a successful business plan for any retail store.

We’ll cover why writing a business plan is important, what information should be included in your retail store business plan, how the document should look, and which tools can help you create one quickly and easily. 

So, let’s get started!

In this guide:

Why write a business plan for a retail store?

  • Information needed to create a business plan for a retail store?

How do I build a financial forecast for a retail store?

The written part of a retail store business plan, what tool should i use to write my retail store business plan.

There are several reasons to write a retail store business plan. Below, we cover some of the most important ones!

To draw up a roadmap

Writing a business plan for a retail store is an essential part of running a successful business. 

It not only helps set objectives and goals for the next 3-5 years but also provides existing retail stores with an opportunity to evaluate their businesses’ current performance and develop strategies for future growth.

A comprehensive business plan can help pinpoint areas in need of improvement, identify potential opportunities, and create actionable steps towards achieving these objectives.

Writing a business plan forces you to think critically about your business’s direction, long-term goals and financial performance which are all necessary components of any successful enterprise.

To compare financials

A well-crafted business plan allows you to regularly compare actual performance against what was planned, enabling you to recalibrate your financial forecasts accordingly in order to maintain visibility on future cash flows. 

By taking this approach of constantly assessing progress and making adjustments along the way, you give yourself the best chance of anticipating any potential problems such as a shortfall in cash.

To secure financing

Whether you are starting from scratch or have an existing business, creating a comprehensive and well-thought out business plan is vital for gaining the financing you need from a bank. 

Banks will use your written document as evidence that you are capable of repaying the money they loan to your company. A detailed and thorough business plan can help convince potential lenders that investing in your venture would be a smart decision.

Similarly, equity investors will carefully examine whether or not their investment is likely to generate a worthwhile return.

They want evidence of healthy growth, profitability and cash generation potential in order to take the plunge. 

Now that we have discussed why it is important to create a business plan for a retail store, let's move on to the information needed to create one.

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retail store business plan online

Information needed to create a business plan for a retail store

Writing a retail store business plan requires research so that you can project sales, investments and cost accurately in your financial forecast.

In this section, we cover three key pieces of information you should gather before drafting your plan!

Carrying out market research for a retail store

Carrying out market research is an important step before writing a business plan for a retail store. Doing so allows you to accurately forecast revenues and gain valuable insights into their target markets, competitors, and the industry as a whole. 

It also helps you identify opportunities that can be capitalized on in order to maximize returns from your investments. 

By understanding the needs of customers and potential buyers, retailers are better equipped to develop effective marketing strategies that will help increase sales and profitability. 

Furthermore, researching trends in the retail sector gives businesses an edge over their rivals by helping them anticipate changes in customer preferences ahead of time. 

This should help you stay one step ahead of your competition while staying relevant in today's ever-evolving marketplace.

Developing the marketing plan for a retail store

Creating a marketing plan for a retail store involves setting aside dedicated funds for sales and marketing activity.

This budget must be carefully calculated in order to ensure that the right amount of resources are available to generate the desired level of sales.

Careful consideration should be taken when constructing this marketing budget, as it will need to cover everything from advertising and promotions to staff wages and other associated costs.

By incorporating this budget into the overall business plan, it will be possible to ensure that all of the necessary resources are available to deliver the expected growth.

business plan for a retail store business plan: successful entrepreneur

The staffing and equipment needs of a retail store

It is important to consider the recruitment plan and investments that will be required to set up and expand the business as this will be needed when creating the financial forecast.

This includes costs associated with running a retail store, purchasing equipment such as cash tills, clothes rails and baskets, as well as establishing any necessary training programs.

Additionally, you should take into account any other overhead costs such as rent, insurance, travel expenses, and more.

Once you have the information needed to create the business plan for your retail store, it is time to start creating your financial forecast.

The financial forecast for a retail store is made up of four main parts: 

  • The Profit and Loss Statement (P&L) shows how much income the retail store generates over time.
  • The Balance Sheet shows the store's assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific point in time.
  • The Cash Flow Statement tells you if more money is coming in or going out over a period of time. 
  • The Sources and Uses Table explains where funds are coming from and where they are going to help fund the business venture.

The projected P&L statement

A projected P&L statement for a retail store shows how much money the store might make and how profitable it could be in the future. 

Investors will look at this before deciding on whether to invest money or not. They would like to see a reasonable return on their investment within a given period.

example of projected profit and loss statement in a retail store business plan

The projected balance sheet of your retail store

A retail store balance sheet is a financial statement that provides a snapshot of the store's assets, liabilities, and equity at any given point in time. 

Examples of common business assets include cash, inventory, equipment, and vehicles, whilst liabilities may include any outstanding debts or accounts payable. Equity is calculated by subtracting liabilities from assets.

projected balance sheet in a retail store business plan

For lenders and investors, the balance sheet provides insight into the store's financial health and ability to repay debts. It can also indicate whether or not it is a good investment opportunity. 

For business owners, the balance sheet helps them manage their cash flow, track profits and losses, and plan for future growth. 

Looking at a retail store's balance sheet can provide an overall view of the health of the business, helping to ensure that short- and long-term goals are on track. It is also useful for benchmarking against similar stores in the industry. 

The projected cash flow statement

A projected cash flow statement for a retail store shows how much cash the company will generate, and how much it will consume.

It helps store owners decide how much money they will have to spend on things like new products, advertising, and other expenses. 

retail store business plan: projected cash flow

This information helps anticipate potential shortfalls in cash, equipment renewals, and plan new store openings.

The initial financing plan

The initial financing plan (also called a sources and uses table) is an important tool when starting a retail store.

It shows where the money needed to set up the store will come from (sources) and how it will be allocated (uses).

Having this plan helps you understand what costs are involved in setting up the retail store, so you can make sure that everything is taken care of before launching.

retail store business: sources and uses of funds

Having a well-constructed financial forecast is important for any retail store business plan, but it's not enough. The reader of the plan needs to understand the context of why and how you made those predictions in order to judge if they are reliable. 

That's why it's also essential to include the written part of your business plan which provides more information about your retail store. Let’s take a look at what should be included in this section.

The written part of a retail store business plan is composed of 7 main sections:

  • The executive summary
  • The presentation of the company
  • The products and services section
  • The market research analysis
  • The strategy section
  • The operations section
  • The financial plan

Let’s take a look at each section in more detail!

1. The executive summary

Writing the executive summary section of a retail store business plan requires a great deal of thought and consideration. 

The executive summary should provide a comprehensive overview that highlights the key components of the business plan, including the goals and objectives. 

The executive summary should start with a business overview explaining what the business does, what it sales and to who, and where it is located. 

Next comes the market overview, which should provide an overview of industry trends, as well as an understanding of the target customer demographics.

Key financials, such as startup costs and projected profits and cash flows should also be included in the executive summary. You should also include key financial data such as projected revenues and profitability.

Finally, state how much financing you require from investors or lenders. 

Remember that an executive summary should be concise and to the point, aiming to encourage investors or lenders to continue reading the business plan further.

2. The presentation of the company

When crafting the company presentation of a retail store business plan, it is important to address structure and ownership. 

The organizational structure of the company should be detailed to demonstrate how the store's operations will run smoothly. Additionally, any ownership details such as investors or shareholders should be cited in the plan. 

Secondly, the location of the store should be highlighted as this can greatly influence customers and profits. Ensure to include information on the neighbourhood, demographic, foot traffic and nearby attractions that could benefit your business. 

Finally, your plan should highlight key management team members who will help to drive success for the store. Summarize each individual’s experience, qualifications and professional qualities in order to show the team's ability to lead the retail store.

3. The products and services section

This is an important part of your business plan, as it outlines exactly what type of goods and services the store intends to provide.

It’s essential for you to clearly communicate how your product line meets customer needs, as this will be an influential factor in whether or not investors decide to back your venture. 

Describe each category of items being sold at the store in detail, such as brands available. Also mention what services you offer: click and collect, 30 days return, etc. . 

The reader will want to understand what makes your products unique from other businesses in this competitive market.

clothes, shoes and handbags in a retail store: illustration for the products and services section of the business plan

4. The market analysis

When writing the market analysis section for your retail store business plan, you should include detailed information about demographics and segmentation, target markets, competition, barriers at entry, and regulation.

This is important because it provides investors or banks with an understanding of the current environment surrounding the company and its potential customers.

For starters, it is important to understand who makes up your customer base by looking into demographic data such as age range and income level. 

Additionally, analyzing consumer behavior can help identify different segments that exist within this customer base so that they can be better targeted with marketing efforts. 

It is also essential to look into competitors operating in the same space to understand what strategies have been successful or unsuccessful thus far. This might be direct competitors (other retail stores in the area) or indirect competitors (online businesses).

Moreover, understanding any regulatory requirements related to entering a particular market will help ensure that all legal guidelines are met before launching operations. 

All these elements combined provide investors or banks with more confidence when deciding whether or not to invest in a certain venture. 

5. The strategy section

When writing the strategy section of your retail store business plan, it is important to consider how the business will differentiate itself from competitors, create an attractive pricing model for customers and develop a marketing plan. 

When writing the competitive edge section, you should articulate why your store offers something different in comparison to existing stores (for example, product selection or customer service). 

Furthermore, you need to determine what pricing structure makes sense for both customers and profitability. You may choose to pursue a competitive pricing strategy, cost-plus pricing strategy or other ones.

Additionally, your marketing plan should outline which channels can best be used to reach potential buyers as well as what type of messaging will resonate with them most effectively. 

Additionally, setting milestones can help track progress while identifying any areas of improvement along the way. 

Lastly, potential risks associated with the retail store must be identified and addressed with effective mitigants in order to minimize negative impact on operations and profitability.

6. The operations section

The operations section of your retail store business plan is an important part of the overall document. 

It should provide details on how the store will be managed and operated, including staffing roles and responsibilities, opening hours, key assets and intellectual property, and suppliers.

When discussing staffing, outline the roles and responsibilities of each team member and how they will contribute to the success of the store. This section should also include a recruitment plan outlining how you intend to hire new staff members when needed.

The business plan should also include information about opening hours. This includes details about when your store will be open, any changes in operating hours based on seasonality, or holiday closures.

Details about key assets and intellectual property that the business needs to operate should also be included in the operations section. You could mention any key equipment that your business needs to purchase (for e.g. a payment processing machine).

Finally, talk about the suppliers that you chose to work with and why. You might have a strong relationship with them, having worked with them in the past or be attracted by their brand image (perhaps sustainability if you operate a t-shirt business).

By providing all of the necessary details about how your store will operate, you can give potential investors and lenders an accurate picture of what they’ll be getting into when they support your business. 

7. The presentation of the financial plan

This is where you will present the financial forecast that we talked about earlier in this guide.

Now that you have a better understanding of what should be included in the content of your retail store business plan, it’s time to look at the tools that can help you create one.

You could create a retail store business plan using applications such as Excel or Word, hire a consultant or accountant to write it for you, or use online business plan software.

Let's look at the benefits and drawbacks of each solution.

Create your retail store's business plan using Word or Excel

Excel and Word were very popular tools for creating a business plan in the 1990s.

The advantage of using Excel and Word to create a business plan for a retail store is that these tools don't cost much.

However, creating a full business plan with Excel and Word is a long and tedious process which makes the solution not quite cost-effective.

If you’re using Word, you must start with a blank page and spend hours formatting the document yourself once written - something that may be too time-consuming for a busy business owner. 

Furthermore, you need to have a solid background in accounting and finance in order to create an error-free financial forecast in Excel. And it is unlikely that a bank or investor will trust your numbers unless you have a degree in finance or accounting.

Ultimately, both Excel and Word have their pros and cons when it comes to creating a retail store business plan. Consider your needs carefully before deciding which one is best for your business.

Hire a consultant to write your retail store's business plan

When it comes to creating a business plan for a retail store, outsourcing the task to a consultant or accountant is a potential solution. 

Consultants are experienced in writing business plans and can create accurate financial forecasts without errors. Accountants also have the ability to identify potential issues that could arise down the road.

The main issue with that approach is the cost: hiring a consultant will be expensive: budget at least £1.5k ($2.0k) for a complete business plan, more if you need to make changes after the initial version (which happens frequently after the initial meetings with lenders).

Use an online business plan software for your retail store's business plan

Another alternative is to use online business plan software .

There are several advantages to using specialized software:

  • You are guided through the writing process by detailed instructions and examples for each part of the plan
  • You can be inspired by already written business plan templates
  • You can easily make your financial forecast by letting the software take care of the financial calculations for you without errors
  • You get a professional document, formatted and ready to be sent to your bank
  • The software will enable you to easily track your actual financial performance against your forecast and update your forecast as time goes by

If you're interested in using this type of solution, you can try our software for free by signing up here .

We hope that this guide helped you better understand how to write the business plan for a retail store. Do not hesitate to contact us if you still have questions.

Also on The Business Plan Shop

  • How to write the business plan for a t-shirt company
  • How to write the business plan for a vending machine company
  • What is the difference between a business plan and a pitch deck?
  • 5 years business plan guide
  • How to create a business plan cover page?

Know someone in the retail industry? Share this article with them!

Guillaume Le Brouster

Founder & CEO at The Business Plan Shop Ltd

Guillaume Le Brouster is a seasoned entrepreneur and financier.

Guillaume has been an entrepreneur for more than a decade and has first-hand experience of starting, running, and growing a successful business.

Prior to being a business owner, Guillaume worked in investment banking and private equity, where he spent most of his time creating complex financial forecasts, writing business plans, and analysing financial statements to make financing and investment decisions.

Guillaume holds a Master's Degree in Finance from ESCP Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Business & Management from Paris Dauphine University.

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How to create a retail store business plan

By Andrea Nazarian

business plan for retail shop

A successful retail business starts with a well-thought-out retail business plan. While you may think you have your business ideas all figured out in your head, putting them down on paper in the form of a business plan is crucial for several reasons. 

In this post, we’ll explore what a retail business plan is, why it’s different from other business plans, what to include in it, common mistakes to avoid, and how to make your plan stand out.

What Is a Retail store business plan and why do you need one?

A retail store business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines your business model, identifies your target customers, and lays out a roadmap for turning your retail store or online shop into a profitable business. 

It’s a planning and forecasting tool that provides clarity and direction for your business. With a good business plan, you’re more likely to achieve success. 

Here’s why having a retail store business plan is essential:

Planning and forecasting

A retail store business plan helps you plan and set clear goals for your business’s short-term and long-term success.

Planning helps you set goals, allocate resources wisely, and stay on track. It ensures that day-to-day operations run smoothly. Forecasting, on the other hand, helps businesses anticipate future trends and challenges, allowing them to make informed decisions and adapt to changing circumstances. 

Together, planning and forecasting help you avoid costly mistakes, reduce labor costs , seize opportunities, and achieve both short-term and long-term objectives. In essence, they’re like a GPS for your retail business, guiding it towards profitability and sustainability.

Securing investment

A retail store business plan helps secure investment by demonstrating a clear and well-thought-out strategy. It shows potential investors that you’ve done your homework, understand your market, and have a solid plan for success. 

The plan outlines your business goals, target market, competitive analysis, and financial projections, instilling confidence in investors that their money will be used wisely. It also highlights your commitment and professionalism, making you a more attractive investment opportunity. 

Essentially, a strong retail business plan reassures investors that your venture is a sound investment with a higher likelihood of delivering returns on their capital.

Guiding business operations

A retail store business plan serves as a roadmap for guiding business operations. It outlines your business’s goals, strategies, and tactics, providing a clear direction for daily activities. 

It helps you make informed decisions about product offerings, retail staff scheduling , pricing, local business marketing , online marketing and staffing. The plan also includes financial projections and budgeting, ensuring you manage resources effectively. 

Regularly reviewing the plan allows you to track progress, identify areas needing improvement, and adjust strategies accordingly. Overall, it keeps the business focused, organized, and aligned with its objectives, making day-to-day operations more efficient and effective in achieving long-term success.

Get your team in sync with our easy-to-use, all-in-one employee app.

How is a retail business plan different from other business plans?

Retail businesses are unique in many ways, and your business plan should reflect that. Unlike other businesses, retail operations involve factors such as inventory management , supply chains, order fulfillment, deliveries, and customer returns. 

Here’s how a retail store business plan differs:

Inventory management

Unlike other business plans, retail plans must handle challenges like seasonal sales variations and predicting what customers will buy. Inventory management in retail business plans is about keeping the right amount of products in stock to meet customer demand while avoiding excess or shortages. 

They also need to explain how they get products, where they store them, and how they restock when items run low. In contrast, many other businesses don’t deal with these inventory issues.

Retail store business plans focus more on handling and controlling inventory to make sure they always have what customers want and don’t waste money on too much stock.

Marketing strategy

Marketing strategy in retail store business plans, compared to other business plans, often emphasizes attracting customers to physical or online stores, creating appealing displays, and running promotions like sales or loyalty programs. 

Retail plans typically prioritize reaching a broad consumer base and enticing them with visually appealing products. In contrast, other business plans might focus on more specialized marketing, like B2B partnerships or online advertising. 

Retailers also consider factors like store location and layout, which are less significant for many other businesses. So, simply put, retail business plans concentrate on tactics to draw in shoppers and make their shopping experience enjoyable and memorable.

Growth strategy

Growth strategy in retail store business plans, unlike other business plans, often centers on expanding to new locations, introducing new product lines, or attracting more customers. Retailers aim to increase sales by opening additional stores, going online, or diversifying their offerings. 

In contrast, some businesses may focus on improving internal processes or targeting specific niche markets. 

Retailers typically rely on broadening their reach to fuel growth, making strategies like franchising, adding new store branches, or exploring e-commerce crucial components of their plans. So, in simpler terms, retail business plans tend to emphasize expanding the business footprint and customer base as a primary path to success.

What to do before you start writing your retail store business plan

Research your market.

T horough market research is essential. Investors look for evidence of a healthy market and an unmet need that your business can address.

You’ll want to gather data on who your customers are, what they want, and where they’re located. Analyze your competition to see what makes your business unique. This research helps investors see that there’s a demand for your products or services and that your business can thrive in the market. 

It’s about proving that your idea is well-informed and has the potential to succeed. So, in simple terms, thorough market research shows investors that your business plan is based on a strong foundation of knowledge and understanding.

Understand your competitors

 Know your competition inside out. Understanding what sets you apart is crucial.

You need to know who you’re up against and what makes them tick. Research your competitors thoroughly: their strengths, weaknesses, and strategies. Identify what sets your business apart – your unique selling points. 

Investors want to see that you’ve done your homework and can explain how your retail store will outshine the competition. Maybe it’s better prices, superior quality, or outstanding customer service. 

This knowledge not only helps you stand out but also shows investors that you’re ready to face the competition head-on, which can boost their confidence in your business’s potential success.

Have a growth strategy

Define a clear growth strategy to demonstrate how your business will expand once it’s up and running. It shows investors that you’re not just focused on starting your business but also on making it grow in the long run. 

You can outline different growth strategies like market penetration (selling more to existing customers), product development (creating new products for existing customers), market development (selling existing products to new markets), or diversification (introducing new products to new markets). 

This helps investors understand your vision and how you plan to increase your business’s value over time, making your retail venture a more attractive investment opportunity.

What to Include in your retail store business plan

Business overview.

Provide a high-level description of your retail business, including your company’s structure, location, and the products or services you’ll offer.

Business goals

Explain your business goals, whether they’re related to market share, product ranges, or online expansion.

It should give a clear, simple picture of your retail business. Explain whether your business will operate in a physical store, online, or both. 

Mention the legal name of your company, where it’s located, and briefly describe the products or services you plan to sell. Keep it straightforward and easy to understand, so anyone reading your plan can quickly grasp what your retail business is all about. 

This section sets the stage for the rest of your plan, helping readers get a sense of your business from the get-go.

Your industry experience

In the “Your industry experience” section of your retail store business plan, it’s your time to shine. Tell the readers about your background and expertise, especially if you’ve held important positions in recognized retail businesses. 

If you’ve previously led successful growth initiatives or managed to open new stores that flourished, this is the place to mention it. Basically, this section is all about showcasing your qualifications and experience in the retail world.

It helps build trust and confidence that you’re the right person to turn your retail business idea into a thriving reality. Keep it concise but impressive.

The “ Marketing strategy ” section of your retail store business plan is where you paint a picture of how you’ll present your store to the world. Explain your store’s image, the strategy for your brand, and how you plan to market your products or services. 

Don’t forget to dive into the 4Ps of retail marketing:

  • Product : Describe what you’re selling and what makes it special.
  • Pricing : Explain how you’ll price your products and why.
  • Place : Tell where you’ll sell your products, be it online, in-store, or both.
  • Promotion : Detail your strategies for promoting your store and products.

This section gives a clear roadmap for how you’ll attract customers and make your business a success. Keep it straightforward and compelling.

Financial strategy and forecast

The “Financial strategy and forecast” section of your retail store business plan is where you show the money side of your business. Investors want to see the numbers, so include things like:

  • Estimated capital requirements : How much money do you need to get started and keep going?
  • Profit and revenue models : Explain how you plan to make money and what your sales goals are.
  • Sales volume projections : Predict how many products you expect to sell.
  • Financial statements : Include balance sheets, cash flow projections, and any other financial documents.

These details help investors understand your business’s financial health and potential. Make sure your numbers are realistic and based on careful research and planning.

Management structure

In the “Management structure” section of your retail store business plan, you’ll provide details on how you intend to organize your team and manage your business effectively. This section involves explaining several key aspects:

Firstly, you’ll specify the number of team members you plan to hire. This is essential to understand the size and scope of your workforce.

Secondly, you’ll describe the roles and responsibilities of each team member. This clarification ensures that everyone knows their specific duties and contributes to the smooth operation of the business.

Lastly, you’ll illustrate how each team member fits into your overall business plan. This section helps investors and stakeholders comprehend how your team will collaborate and work together to achieve the business’s goals and objectives. 

A well-defined retail management structure assures potential investors that you have a competent team ready to execute your business plan effectively.

Homebase offers user-friendly employee management tools to streamline team communication , time tracking, and scheduling , helping you refine your management structure. 

Common mistakes to avoid when making your retail store business plan 

A successful business plan is as much about what you leave out as what you put in. Here are some common mistakes to avoid:

Too much detail

Avoid long, rambling text. Use visuals and graphics when possible and attach heavy content as appendices.

Poor financial planning

Account for growing expenses, taxes, and market influences in your financial projections.

Poor spelling and grammar

Basic errors can undermine how partners and investors view your plan.

Strengthening your business plan

To strengthen your business plan, consider your audience, which may include potential investors, business partners, and financial institutions. Be transparent, avoid exaggerations, and demonstrate the value of your idea.

Conclusion: Finishing your retail store business plan

A well-crafted retail store business plan is more than just a guide; it’s a tool to attract investors, secure funding, and set the foundation for a successful retail business. Leveraging tools like Homebase can help you stay competitive and efficient in the retail industry.

Don’t delay writing your plan—it could be the first step towards realizing your retail business dreams.

FAQs about writing a retail store business plan

What is a retail store business plan, and why is it important.

A retail store business plan is a comprehensive document outlining your retail store business’s model, goals, and strategies. It’s crucial as it provides clarity, attracts investors, and guides daily operations for success.

How does a retail store business plan differ from other business plans?

Retail store business plans are unique due to their focus on inventory management, marketing tactics to attract shoppers, and growth strategies centered on expanding customer reach.

What should I include in my retail store business plan’s business overview section?

In the business overview, provide a concise description of your retail business, including its structure, location, and the products or services you intend to offer.

How can a retail store business plan help secure investment?

A retail store business plan demonstrates a well-thought-out strategy, outlining business goals, target market, competitive analysis, and financial projections. It reassures investors, making your venture a more appealing investment opportunity.

What common mistakes should I avoid when creating a retail store  business plan?

Common mistakes include excessive detail, poor financial planning, and grammar/spelling errors. To avoid these, focus on clarity, accurate financial projections, and proofreading.

Remember:  This is not legal advice. If you have questions about your particular situation, please consult a lawyer, CPA, or other appropriate professional advisor or agency.

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Do you have dreams of owning your own brick and mortar retail store? Or an eCommerce website you can run from the comfort of your own home? Whichever retail option you choose, you’ll need a business plan to get started and successfully manage it.

Check out our library of retail sample plans for inspiration and guidance as you build out your own physical retail or eCommerce business.

Or to develop a more modern online plan that updates with your retail needs, we recommend you try LivePlan . It contains the same templates and information you see here, but with additional guidance, sections you can update on the fly and automatic financials to help you easily manage your business.

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Retail Business Plan

A retail business plan is a document that gives you and your potential investors a roadmap on how your new retail business intends to get started and deliver its business goals over its initial few years (usually 5 years).

It is usually broken down into sections about the company, the industry it operates in, the competition it will face and a plan that covers marketing, financials and operations over the first few years in business.

Also check out this one-page Business Model Canvas for a retail business .

Retail Business Plan Template

You can download this free retail business plan template from the link below. You will be able to edit the word file and export it into PDF format afterwards.

In the coming sections, we will explain the different components that go into the retail business plan, which you can then apply to your own plan when completing the template.

Retail Business Plan Template

Check out more free downloads .

Executive Summary

We recommend writing the executive summary at the end of the process, after you have filled out all the other sections in the retail business plan template.

In the executive summary you will cover the following points briefly:

  • Types of products sold at the store
  • Customers served by the store
  • Company mission & vision
  • Market share to be captured

You will also mention the total amount you will need to start this business, backed by the financial plan you prepared as part of this business plan.

The total amount that you want to borrow or have invested in your business will be the sum of pre-opening costs (initial inventory, equipment, rent,..) and the maximum negative cash flow as per your cash flow plan.

If you are writing this retail business plan for a financial institution to get a loan, mention how you expect to repay the loan, and you should have already included the loan installments in your financial plan.

If you are writing this plan for investors, mention how much equity they will receive in return for this investment and the expected return on investment, and expected cash distributions (dividends) based on your financial plan.

For example

An investment of 100,000$ in the business will result in the investor receiving 20% equity. We plan to distribute 50% of the profits every year, and based on our financial projections this will be a xx,xxx$ in the first year, xx,xxx$ in the second year, and xx,xxx$ in the third year,..etc.

Company Overview

Here you will write about your business and give a brief overview about the type of store you will be starting.

You can cover the following points:

  • Store category (e.g. beauty store, toy store)
  • Store location and brief description of the area
  • Product categories carried
  • Company legal structure

Industry Overview

Write an overview about the industry (retail/ecommerce) as a whole and the most recent trends specific to this industry.

Cover areas such as:

  • Total retail sales
  • Contribution of your retail category to the total sales (size of the market)
  • Online vs. Brick & Mortar trends
  • Recent industry trends and shifts in terms of products you are selling

You can find the most recent insights about retail in our Retail Statistics page.

Read Also: What is Retail ?

Target Market

Write about your target customers that you know will be interested in your products. Mention demographic and psychographic details in this section. This will help afterwards in drafting your marketing plan.

You can cover the following details:

  • Age bracket
  • Income level
  • Educational level
  • The specific needs that your products will fill for them

business plan for retail shop

FOUNDATIONS OF MARKETING

  • Learn the fundamentals of marketing
  • See how they apply to buying, merchandising & pricing
  • Real-life case studies and examples

Competition

List the current competition in the market that are serving your target customers. Mention your top 3 competitors in your area.

You can also include indirect competition, such as online stores or marketplace sellers, if you think this might affect your business.

Cover information about:

  • No. of stores
  • Size of stores
  • Product categories they sell
  • Pricing level
  • Sales per day estimates
  • Strengths & Weaknesses

You can also create a summary table like the one below

Competitive Advantage

What will make customers leave the competition and come to you? Use the weaknesses areas that you mentioned about the competition in the previous section, and mention how you will improve on them.

This could be by:

  • Superior quality
  • Better prices
  • Convenience
  • More variety
  • Better shopping experience

Marketing Plan

Describe your marketing strategy for your store and which channels you are going to use.

Cover the following areas:

  • Brand Positioning
  • Branding Strategy (Persona, tone, language,..)
  • Product Strategy (Key products and product features that will attract your customers)
  • Pricing Strategy
  • Promotional Strategy
  • Marketing Channels

Operations Plan

Write how you will operate your store and include details about your manpower plan.

This will include the management that you will hire for the store, visual merchandisers, sales staff and cashiers.

Cover the following:

  • Management structure (store manager, supervisor,..)
  • Staff plan (3 sales associates, 2 cashiers, etc.)
  • Brief role descriptions
  • Compensation structure

Read Also: Retail Scheduling

business plan for retail shop

RETAIL OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

  • Managing Store Operations
  • Areas of Responsibility
  • Assessing & Managing Performance

Financial plan

List estimates for the capital you will need to start and financial projections for the following years.

Capital Needed

Start with how much capital you will need to start the business

This will include:

  • Initial rent
  • Initial product order (Inventory)
  • Initial staff salary
  • Store fixtures
  • Store equipment

Read Also: How Much Capital You Will Need For a New Retail Store?

Financial Projections

Include a 5-year financial projection for the business based on your forecasted sales and costs.

P&L Management Excel

  • Monthly income statement (P&L) for the first year
  • Yearly income statement for the following 4 years
  • Monthly cash flow projection for the first year

Learn how to create a sales budget for a new store, and 3 years financial projections in our Retail Budgeting Course

business plan for retail shop

RETAIL BUDGETING & PLANNING

  • The step by step retail budgeting process
  • Set monthly targets adjusted to seasonality
  • Templates download & practice exercise

Break Even Point

Include a snapshot of the 5-year P&L plan here and mention the SPD (sales per day) you need to breakeven, based on your P&L numbers.

We have created a sample table with retail data in the business plan template, and you can fill it with your own numbers.

Key Assumptions

Mention the assumptions you used for creating your financial projections.

For example , you assumed that sales per day for the first year will be 1000$ and then will grow by 20% in the second year, 15% in the third year and 10% in the fourth year, etc.

Retail Business Plan Tips

Sales projections.

We recommend being very realistic about your initial sales per day projections, as your entire financial plan will be directly affected by it.

When you then forecast your growth for the coming years, you should also be realistic about how much you will grow year-on-year.

From our experience, retail stores typically see higher growth after the first year and then this starts to level off from the third year onwards.

Having said that, there might be other growth drivers that can affect your business and accelerate your growth in the following years. This could be for example that your new store is in an area that is still under development and will be fully developed by the third year.

What we want to say is, do your due diligence thoroughly and based on that set realistic expectations.

Inventory Projections

The biggest asset you will hold and the biggest part of the investment/loan you will need to start your retail business will go for inventory.

So it is important to calculate your inventory needs correctly.

This will be based on your sales forecasts and the inventory turnover rate you expect or the forward stock cover you intend to maintain.

For example, if your inventory turnover target is 2, this means you maintain a 6 months cover. If your inventory turnover is 3, you maintain 4 months stock cover,..and so on.

We recommend checking out the benchmarks we have listed for different retail categories for inventory turnover and reading our complete Open to Buy guide to get started with calculating exactly how much inventory you will need.

Good luck in your new venture!

THE PROFESSIONAL RETAIL ACADEMY (PRA) ™

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  • Learn the best practices of the industry
  • Download ready-to-use professional templates
  • Get certificates of completion for each course
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More Resources

Thank you for reading this article on Retail Business Plan. We recommend the below free resources as well:

  • Retail Management
  • Starting a Retail Business
  • Buying a Retail Business

Join the academy and get all access to all our resources, which will help you manage your retail business more efficiently.

CONNECT THE DOTS

Learn how to manage a retail business end-to-end.

We’ve put together a curriculum, specifically designed for retail owners or retail professionals who want to advance into senior management roles.

Learn how to connect the dots of the business and take the basic knowledge to the next level of application . 

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Home » Sample Business Plans » Wholesale & Retail

How to Write a Retail Store Business Plan [Sample Template]

Are you about starting a retail business? If YES, here’s a complete sample online retail store business plan template & feasibility report to help you get started. Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting a retail store. We also took it further by analyzing and drafting a sample retail store marketing plan template backed up by actionable guerrilla marketing ideas for retail stores. So let’s proceed to the business planning section.

Why Start a Retail Store?

There are times when one might not be disposed to buy stuff in bulk. This might be due to financial constraint or other contingencies. This is one of the reasons why retail outlets are scattered all over the world. They know the importance of reaching all and sundry, and that is why they want to provide services that can reach all classes of people.

Those who are already in the trade know the huge profit levels which they attain always. If you have decided to start a retail business, then good news is that you are in a profitable trade, as nearly all the type of goods that are being dealt in is such that is important to all

A Sample Retail Store Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

When we talk about retailing, we talk about a business that deals in loads of consumer goods; which can be categorized into three major areas. These categories are: general merchandise, apparel, and furniture. In other words, retailers are engaged in the selling of finished goods; they get the goods from the manufacturers and they sell to the end users (consumers).

Retail goods can also be categorized into durable goods and non – durable goods. Durable goods are goods such electronics, computers and accessories, furniture, and other large appliances et al and non – durable goods are good such as food, toiletries, drinks, beauty products, jewelry, clothing and shoes et al.

The retail industry is a major sector of the economy of the united states which generates a whooping sum of well over trillion annually from more than a million retail outlets scattered all around the United States of America.

The industry is responsible for the employment of well over 15 million people which is about 12% of the workforce of the U.S. eMarketer.com published that in 2014 alone, the retailing industry on a global scale generated a revenue of well over $22 trillion; it goes to show that the industry is indeed a very large industry.

It is a fact that an estimated two-thirds of the United States’ gross domestic product (GDP) comes from retail consumption. This is why the United States of America’s economy is measured with the yardstick of how well the retailing business is fairing in the U.S. In essence, when there is an unstable economy, purchasing power drops and it impacts the retailing industry negatively which may result in the closure of some retail stores.

In recent time, the retail landscape has seen tremendous changes in the last 20 years; it has grown from the usual mom and pop outlets to a more organized and far reaching venture. The introduction of franchise and online store makes it easier for a retailer to reach out to a larger market far beyond the areas where his physical store is located.

It is interesting to note that more retail shops; especially lager retail outlets have started to include self-serve checkout lanes in their stores. It creates shorter lines that appeal to consumers; the average customer would not want to stay longer on queue.

Over and above, the retail industry is a profitable industry and it is open to any aspiring entrepreneur to come in and establish his or her business; you can chose to start on a small scale in a street corner like the average mom and pop business or you can chose to start on a large scale with several outlets in key cities.

2. Executive Summary

People’s Choice Retail Shop is a retail shop that will be located in one of the busiest streets in Columbus, Ohio. We have been able to lease a facility that is big enough to fit into the design of the retail shop that we intend launching and the facility is located in a corner piece directly opposite the largest residential estate in Columbus, Ohio.

Our retail shop will retail a wide range of durable goods and non – durable goods at affordable prices from different brands. We retail goods such as groceries, clothes, sports equipment, beauty products, jewelry, baby stuffs, children’s toys, home furnishings and home appliances et al.

We are aware that there are several large and small retail outlets all around Columbus, which is why we spent time and resources to conduct our feasibility studies and market survey, so as to offer much more than our competitors will be offering. We have sell service options for our customers, and our outlet is well secured with the various payment options.

Much more than selling the goods and products of top brands in the manufacturing industry, our customer care is second to none in the whole of Columbus, Ohio. We know that our customers are the reason why we are in business, and that is why we will go the extra mile to get them satisfied when they visit our retail shop and also to become our loyal customers and ambassadors.

People’s Choice Retail Shop will ensure that all our customers are given first class treatment whenever they visit our shop. We have a CRM software that will enable us manage a one on one relationship with our customers, no matter how large the numbers of our customers base. We will ensure that we get our customers involved in the selection of brands that will be on our racks and also when make some business decisions.

We are aware of the trend in the retail industry and we are not only going to operate a system where our customers would have to come to our shop to make purchase or whatever they want but we will also operate an online store and our customers can order goods online and they will get it delivered to their houses or any location they want us to deliver the goods to within Ohio.

People’s Choice Retail Shop is a family business that is owned by Bob Wesley and Family. Although the business is launching out with just one outlet in Columbus, Ohio, but there is a plan to open other outlets all around Ohio.

3. Our Products and Services

People’s Choice Retail Shop is in the retailing industry and we will ensure we go all the way to make available a wide range of goods and products from top manufacturing brands in the United States and other countries of the world.

We will have available in our store a wide range of durable goods and non – durable goods at affordable prices. We retail goods such as groceries, clothes, sports equipment, beauty products, jewelry, children’s toys, baby stuffs, home furnishings and home appliances et al.

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

  • Our vision is to establish a one stop retail shop in Columbus, Ohio and in other cities in Ohio.
  • Our mission is to establish a retail business that will make available a wide range of goods and products from top manufacturing brands at affordable prices to the residence of Columbus, Ohio and other cities in Ohio.

Our Business Structure

People’s Choice Retail Shop do not intend to start a retail business like the usual mom and pop business around the street corner; our intention of starting a retail business is to build a standard retail outlet in Columbus, Ohio. Although our retail business might not be as big as Wal-Mart or Marcy, but will ensure that we put the right structure in place that will support the kind of growth that we have in mind while setting up the business.

We will ensure that we hire people that are qualified, honest, customer centric and are ready to work to help us build a prosperous business that will benefit all the stake holders (the owners, workforce, and customers).

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of three years or more. In view of that, we have decided to hire qualified and competent hands to occupy the following positions;

  • Chief Executive Officer (Owner)
  • Store Manager

Merchandize Manager

Sales and Marketing Manager

Information Technologist

  • Accountants / Cashiers

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Officer – CEO:

  • Responsible for providing direction for the business
  • Creates, communicates, and implements the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
  • Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals
  • Responsible for recruitment
  • Responsible for payment of salaries
  • Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
  • Evaluates the success of the organization

Store Manager:

  • Responsible for managing the daily activities in the restaurant
  • Ensures that the store facility is in tip top shape and conducive enough to welcome customers
  • Interfaces with third – party providers (vendors)
  • Controls the sales floor inventory
  • Ensures that goods and products are properly arranged
  • Supervises the entire sales staff and workforce
  • Any other duty as assigned by the CEO
  • Manages vendor relations, market visits, and the ongoing education and development of the organizations’ buying teams
  • Helps to ensure consistent quality of goods and products on our rack
  • Responsible for the purchase of goods and products for the organizations
  • Responsible for planning sales, monitoring inventory, selecting the merchandise, and writing and pricing orders to vendors
  • Ensures that the organization operates within stipulated budget.
  • Manages external research and coordinate all the internal sources of information to retain the organizations’ best customers and attract new ones
  • Models demographic information and analyze the volumes of transactional data generated by customer purchases
  • Manages the organization website
  • Handles ecommerce aspect of the business
  • Responsible for installing and maintenance of computer software and hardware for the organization
  • Manage logistics and supply chain software, Web servers, e-commerce software and POS (point of sale) systems
  • Manages the organization’s CCTV
  • Handles any other technological and IT related duties.

Accountant / Cashier:

  • Receives payments on behalf of the organization
  • Issues receipt to customers
  • Prepares financial report at the end of every working week
  • Handles all financial transaction on behalf of the company
  • Interfaces with our bankers
  • Responsible for payment of tax, levies and utility bills
  • Any other duty as assigned by the CEO / store manager
  • Responsible for cleaning the store facility at all times
  • Ensures that toiletries and supplies don’t run out of stock
  • Cleans both the interior and exterior of the store facility
  • Any other duty as assigned by the restaurant manager,

6. SWOT Analysis

Our intention of starting just one outlet of our retail store in Columbus, Ohio is to test run the business for a period of 2 to 5 years to know if we will invest more money, expand the business and then open other outlets all over Ohio. We are quite aware that there are several retail stores all over Columbus and even in the same location where we intend locating ours, which is why we are following the due process of establishing a business.

We know that if a proper SWOT analysis is conducted for our business, we will be able to position our business to maximize our strength, leverage on the opportunities that will be available to us, mitigate our risks and be welled equipped to confront our threats.

People’s Choice Retail Store employed the services of an expert HR and Business Analyst with bias in retailing to help us conduct a thorough SWOT analysis and to help us create a Business model that will help us achieve our business goals and objectives. This is the summary of the SWOT analysis that was conducted for People’s Choice Retail Store;

Our location, the business model we will be operating on (physical store and online store), varieties of payment options, wide range of products and our excellent customer service culture will definitely count as a strong strength for People’s Choice Retail Store.

A major weakness that may count against us is the fact that we are a new retail outlet and we don’t have the financial capacity to compete with multi – billion dollars retail outlets like Wal-Mart and co when it comes to retailing at a rock bottom prices for all their goods.

  • Opportunities:

The fact that we are going to be operating our retail store in one of the busiest streets in Columbus, Ohio, provides us with unlimited opportunities to sell our goods to a large number of people. We have been able to conduct thorough feasibility studies and market survey and we know what our potential clients will be looking for when they visit our retail outlets; we are well positioned to take on the opportunities that will come our way.

Just like any other business, one of the major threats that we are likely going to face is economic downturn. It is a fact that economic downturn affects purchasing power. Another threat that may likely confront us is the arrival of a new retail outlet in same location where ours is located.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

  • Market Trends

Retailing business has been in existence for as long as humans started trading goods, but one thing is certain, the retailing industry is still evolving. The introduction of technology and subsequently online retail store has indeed helped in reshaping the industry.

It is now a common phenomenon for retail outlets to leverage on technology to effectively predict consumer demand patterns and to strategically position their shop to meet their needs; in essence, the use of technology help retailers to maximize supply chain efficiencies. No doubt data collected from customers goes a long way to help retail shops serve them better.

Another common trend in the retailing industry is the pricing system. Aside from having varieties of products in a store, one of the easiest ways for retail stores to sell the goods on their racks as fast as they can and keep re – stocking is to ensure that the prices of their goods are a bit lower than what is obtainable elsewhere. For example; it is common to see items with prices in this format; $3.99, $99 and $199 et al as against $4, $100 and $200.

Retailers also engage in massive clearance sales and discount sales to attract customers. It is a strategy that helps them welcome new customers and also reinforce the loyalty of old customers.

8. Our Target Market

Perhaps the retailing industry has the widest range of customers; everybody on planet earth has one or more things that they would need in a retail shop. It is difficult to find people around who don’t patronize retail shops.

In view of that, we have positioned our retail store to service the residence of Columbus, Ohio and every other location our retail stores will be located all over Ohio. We have conducted our market research and we have ideas of what our target market would be expecting from us. We are in business to retail a wide range of products to the following groups of people;

  • Corporate Executives
  • Business People
  • About to wed couples
  • Expectant Mothers
  • Sports Men and Women

Our Competitive Advantage

People’s Choice Retail Store is launching a standard retail shop that will indeed become the preferred choice of residence of Columbus, Ohio. Our retail store is located in a corner piece property on a busy road directly opposite one of the largest residential estates in Columbus, Ohio. We have enough parking space that can accommodate well over 100 cars per time.

One thing is certain; we will ensure that we have a wide range of products available in our store at all times. It will be difficult for customers to visit our store and not see the product that they are looking for. One of our business goal is to make People’s Choice Retail Store a one stop shop. Our excellent customer service culture, online store, various payment options and highly secured facility will serve as a competitive advantage for us.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

  • Sources of Income

People’s Choice Retail Shop is in business to retail a wide range of products to the residence of Columbus, Ohio. In essence, our source of income will be the retailing of a wide range of durable goods and non – durable goods at affordable prices. We will retail goods such as groceries, clothes, sports equipment, beauty products, jewelry, children’s toys, baby stuff, home furnishings and home appliances et al.

10. Sales Forecast

It is important to state that our sales forecast is based on the data gathered during our feasibility studies, market survey and also some of the assumptions readily available on the field. One thing is common with retailing business, the larger a retail store the larger the numbers of customers that will patronize them.

Although we may not be as large as Wal-Mart, but we will ensure that within our capacity we make available a wide range of goods from different manufacturing brands in our retail outlet. Below are the sales projections that we were able to come up with for the first three years of operations;

  • First Year-: $200,000
  • Second Year-: $450,000
  • Third Year-: $700,000

N.B : This projection is done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and natural disasters within the period stated above. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

  • Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

Before choosing a location for People’s Choice Retail Store, we conducted a thorough market survey and feasibility studies in order for us to be able to be able to penetrate the available market and become the preferred choice for residence of Columbus, Ohio. We have a detailed information and data that we were able to utilize to structure our business to attract the numbers of customers we want to attract per time.

We hired experts who have good understanding of the retail industry to help us develop marketing strategies that will help us achieve our business goal of winning a larger percentage of the available market in Columbus, Ohio. In order to continue to be in business and grow, we must continue to sell the products that are available in our store which is why we will go all out to empower or sales and marketing team to deliver.

In summary, People’s Choice Retail Store will adopt the following sales and marketing approach to win customers over;

  • Introduce our business by sending introductory letters to residence, business owners and organizations
  • Promptness in bidding for contracts
  • Advertise our business in community based newspapers, local TV and radio stations
  • List our business on yellow pages ads
  • Leverage on the internet to promote our business
  • Direct marketing
  • Word of mouth marketing (referrals)

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

Despite the fact that our retail store is well located, we will still go ahead to intensify publicity for the business. We are going to explore all available means to promote our retail store. People’s Choice Retail Store has a long term plan of opening outlets in various locations all around Ohio which is why we will deliberately build our brand to be well accepted in Columbus before venturing out.

As a matter of fact, our publicity and advertising strategy is not solely for winning customers over but to effectively communicate our brand. Here are the platforms we intend leveraging on to promote and advertise People’s Choice Retail Store;

  • Place adverts on both print (community based newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
  • Sponsor relevant community programs
  • Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook , twitter, et al to promote our brand
  • Install our Bill Boards on strategic locations all around Columbus, Ohio
  • Engage in road show from time to time
  • Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
  • Position our Flexi Banners at strategic positions in the location where our retail store is located.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

Pricing is one of the key factors that give leverage to retail stores, it is normal for consumers to go to places (retail outlets) where they can goods at cheaper price which is why big player in the retail industry like Wal-Mart will attract loads of consumers. Products in their store are tagged with the cheapest price you can get anywhere in the United States.

We know we don’t have the capacity to compete with Wal-Mart or any other big retail store, but we will ensure that the prices of all the products that are available in our store are competitive with what is obtainable amongst retail stores within our level.

  • Payment Options

Our payment policy is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different people prefer different payment options as it suits them. Here are the payment options that will be available in every of our outlets;

  • Payment by cash
  • Payment via Point of Sale (POS) Machine
  • Payment via online bank transfer (online payment portal)
  • Payment via Mobile money

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will help us achieve our payment plans without any itches.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

This is the key areas where we will spend our start – up capital;

  • The Total Fee for Registering the Business in Ohio – $750.
  • Legal expenses for obtaining licenses and permits as well as the accounting services (software, P.O.S machines and other software) – $1,300.
  • Marketing promotion expenses for the grand opening of People’s Choice Retail Store in the amount of $3,500 and as well as flyer printing (2,000 flyers at $0.04 per copy) for the total amount of $3,580.
  • Cost for hiring Consultant – $2,500 .
  • Insurance (general liability, workers’ compensation and property casualty) coverage at a total premium – $2,400.
  • Cost for payment of rent for 12 month at $1.76 per square feet in the total amount of $105,600.
  • Cost for Shop remodeling (construction of racks and shelves) – $20,000.
  • Other start-up expenses including stationery ($500) and phone and utility deposits ($2,500).
  • Operational cost for the first 3 months (salaries of employees, payments of bills et al) – $60,000
  • The cost for Start-up inventory (stocking with a wide range of products) – $100,000
  • Storage hardware (bins, rack, shelves, food case) – $3,720
  • Cost for serving area equipment (plates, glasses, flatware) – $3,000
  • Cost for store equipment (cash register, security, ventilation, signage) – $13,750
  • Cost of purchase and installation of CCTVs: $10,000
  • The cost for the purchase of furniture and gadgets (Computers, Printers, Telephone, TVs, Sound System, tables and chairs et al): $4,000 .
  • The cost of Launching a Website: $600
  • The cost for our opening party: $7,000
  • Miscellaneous: $10,000

We would need an estimate of $500,000 to successfully set up our retail store in Columbus, Ohio. Please note that this amount includes the salaries of all the staff for the first month of operation.

Generating Funding / Startup Capital for People’s Choice Retail Store

People’s Choice Retail Store is a private business that is solely owned and financed by Bob Wesley and family. They do not intend to welcome any external business partner which is why he has decided to restrict the sourcing of the start – up capital to 3 major sources. These are the areas we intend generating our start – up capital;

  • Generate part of the start – up capital from personal savings
  • Source for soft loans from family members and friends
  • Apply for loan from my Bank

N.B: We have been able to generate about $200,000 ( Personal savings $150,000 and soft loan from family members $50,000 ) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $300,000 from our bank. All the papers and document have been signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited with the amount.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

The future of a business lies in the numbers of loyal customers that they have the capacity and competence of the employees, their investment strategy and the business structure. If any of these factors is missing from a business (company), then it won’t be too long before the business close shop.

People’s Choice Retail Store will ensure that all the factors listed above are reinforced on a regular basis and also we will engage in continuous capacity building of our workforce. As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of three years or more.

We will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that staff welfare is well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and re – training of our workforce is at the top burner.

Check List / Milestone

  • Business Name Availability Check:>Completed
  • Business Registration: Completed
  • Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts: Completed
  • Securing Point of Sales (POS) Machines: Completed
  • Opening Mobile Money Accounts: Completed
  • Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
  • Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
  • Application for business license and permit: Completed
  • Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
  • Leasing of facility and remodeling the shop: In Progress
  • Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
  • Generating capital from family members: Completed
  • Applications for Loan from the bank: In Progress
  • writing of business plan: Completed
  • Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
  • Drafting of Contract Documents and other relevant Legal Documents: In Progress
  • Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
  • Graphic Designs and Printing of Packaging Marketing / Promotional Materials: In Progress
  • Recruitment of employees: In Progress
  • Purchase of the Needed furniture, racks, shelves, computers, electronic appliances, office appliances and CCTV: In progress
  • Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
  • Creating Awareness for the business both online and around the community: In Progress
  • Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement (License): Secured
  • Opening party / launching party planning: In Progress
  • Compilation of our list of products that will be available in our store: Completed
  • Establishing business relationship with vendors – suppliers of all our needed raw materials: In Progress

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Retail Store Business Plan

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Retail store is a competitive business as competition is intense in this segment. Moreover, many big giants are investing more in e-commerce and digital marketing, making this business even tougher day by day.

Having a physical retail store that offers a shopping experience along with products is a dream for many. It is not only because of the size of a business but the potential and opportunities such a business offers.

And if you are an individual who likes to interact with people, constantly improve your way of doing business, and form communities that work towards something, then you might have thought of having your retail store business.

Now, a retail store has great potential for success, but it is also a very competitive business. You’ll need a retail store business plan to help you stand apart from your competition and have a thriving business.

Industry Overview

Research suggests total retail sales in the United States were projected to amount to 6.03 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022, up from around 5.4 trillion U.S. dollars in 2018, according to the National Retail Federation .

Retail businesses come in many forms such as grocery stores, restaurants, and bookstores. There are around 4 million retail businesses in the United States alone.

The domestic retail market in the United States is very competitive, with many companies recording strong retail sales. Walmart, a retail chain giving low prices and a wide selection of products, is the front-runner in the United States. Amazon, The Kroger Co., Costco, and Target are a selection of other notable U.S. retailers.

Now, to have any genuine hope of getting noticed in such a jammed industry, you need a solid business plan to get success.

Say goodbye to boring templates

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Plans starting from $7/month

business plan for retail shop

Things to Consider Before Writing Your Retail Store Business Plan

Build a brand image.

A brand image goes a long way for any business, especially for a retail store. It is crucial to pay attention to what people think about your store, what emotions they associate your brand with, and how they perceive your products in general. Above all, what qualities make you different from your competitors?

Pick the right location

A retail store’s location can make or break the deal. Hence, it is very important to pick a location that is both convenient and accessible for your customers. As people are always running short of time, they prefer a store that is on the way and takes less time to get to. It can also act as your USP over the bigger retail stores.

Plan a good store design

A good store design that follows the major principles of consumer psychology is essential for a retail store. The strategic placement of products influences a customer’s buying decisions. Hence, you need to pay attention to it and design your store in a way that maximizes your sales.

Build communities that promote your brand

Building communities that stand by and promote the idea of your brand can be extremely beneficial for your retail store. Hence, ensure that you work towards building one. These communities can be driven by anything from a common belief to a certain cause that your brand stands for.

How Business Plan Can Help?

Regardless if you’ve been operating for a long time already, by writing up a business plan for your retail store, you can get an overview of what you want to achieve with your business, and guidelines for how you’ll achieve your goals.

A retail business plan is a solid foundation for the success of your business, whether you seek funding or not. It helps you see clearly what your business looks like and how it’s positioned in your target market.

If you need to get funding, your retail business plan will work as proof that you and your business are good for investment. Studies suggest you can double your chances of securing a loan with a business plan and grow your business.

How to Write a Retail Store Business Plan?

Writing a retail store business plan requires a good amount of research, a thoroughly competitive and customer analysis, and a little bit of extra help.

You can get help for writing your plan either through a premade template on the internet or through an online business plan software which will help you write a customizable plan anywhere and at any time.

Before you start writing your business plan for your new Retail store business, spend as much time as you can reading through some examples of retail & e-commerce-related business plans .

We have created this sample business plan for you to get a good idea about how a perfect retail store business plan should look like and what details you will need to include in your stunning business plan.

Retail Store Business Plan Outline

This is the standard business plan outline which will cover all important sections that you should include in your business plan.

  • Company Profile Summary
  • Market Research Summary
  • Marketing Summary
  • Finance Summary
  • Business Overview
  • Company History
  • Legal Structure Vision & Mission
  • Industry Profile & Market Size
  • Local Market
  • Target Market
  • Competitor Analysis
  • Keys to Success
  • Customer Survey Summary
  • SWOT Analysis
  • Products and Services
  • Pricing Strategy
  • Marketing Strategy
  • Primary Marketing Activities
  • Positioning Statement
  • The Sales Process
  • Strategic Alliances
  • Location(s)
  • Legal Issues
  • Insurance Issues
  • Human Resources (Or Team)
  • Process/Production
  • Risk Assessment
  • Startup Funding & Capital
  • Start-Up Costs
  • Sales Forecast
  • Projected Profit & Loss

What to include in a Retail Store Business Plan?

A retail store business plan consists of several different aspects. The major ones are as follows:

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary gives an overview of what your business stands for the reader. It should be written in such a way that even an outsider could get an idea of what your business is all about.

This section mainly comprises your business summary, your vision and mission statement, and your financial summary.

2. Company Profile

The company summary or company profile section of your business plan would consist of everything about your company, ranging from its location to information about your team.

While the executive summary section consists of information about the functional aspects of your business, a company summary consists of information about the structural aspects of your business.

While writing a company summary, it is a good practice to take suggestions from your team, as this section represents you as a team of individuals more than representing you as a brick-and-mortar company.

3. Market Research

Conducting market research helps you understand what you are getting yourself into. It helps you understand your target market, your competitors, and the working of the industry in general.

You can conduct thorough market research by using tools like PESTEL analysis or SWOT analysis . These tools help you conduct research specific to your business and prevent you from wasting your time on vague data.

4. Marketing Plan

As a retail store, it is your primary job to let your customers know about your existence. And to retain them once they start coming to your store.

A good marketing plan would help you do just that.

Based on the information you have gathered about your target audience through market research you can design your marketing campaign and promotional offers that’ll appeal to your customer base.

5. Operations

As a retail store, a proper operations plan can prevent your business from turning into a chaotic mess. An operations plan consists of your business’s logistic and functional information. It helps an outsider see what a typical day at your business looks like.

It also consists of your long-term and short-term goals. As well as the milestones you’ll have to reach for achieving them.

As a retail store business, your operations plan would consist of your supply renewal cycles, your backup distributors, a plan for the working of your store, your daily sales targets, and your long-term expansion goals, etc.

6. Financial Plan

A financial plan ensures that your business sails smoothly through tough times and also generates maximum profits.

It would consist of your funding requirements, cash flow projections, and profit forecasts.

As a retail store, your financial plan would consist of the funding requirements for setting up your store, buying supplies, and hiring people. It would also consist of your projected profits and break-even analysis.

Download a sample retail store business plan

Need help writing your business plan from scratch? Here you go;  download our free retail store business plan pdf  to start.

It’s a modern business plan template specifically designed for your retail store business. Use the example business plan as a guide for writing your own.

The Quickest Way to turn a Business Idea into a Business Plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

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Retail Store Business Plan Summary

In conclusion, a retail store business plan helps you organize and manage your store better. It takes care of everything that goes behind the scenes of running a retail store, so you can greet your customers with a smile.

From angry customers to poorly stocked supplies, a business plan can save you from all of it.

After getting started with Upmetrics , you can copy this retail store business plan template into your business plan and modify the required information and download your retail store business plan pdf or doc file.

It’s the fastest and easiest way to start writing your business plan.

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About the Author

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Upmetrics Team

Upmetrics is the #1 business planning software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners create investment-ready business plans using AI. We regularly share business planning insights on our blog. Check out the Upmetrics blog for such interesting reads. Read more

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How to write a business plan for a retail store?

6 June 2022

A retail store business plan is a formal document. It provides a snapshot of what your business is and how it can develop. Typically, a retail store business plan will forecast the next five years. Think of it as a map which shows you where you are going. And how to get there. A plan can help you anticipate potential pitfalls. A retail store business plan helps you think about what you will be doing months or years ahead. It is also something you can show to investors. Crafting a business plan is a creative experience.  Ankorstore can help you.

What’s a retail store business plan? 

7 steps of the business plan, what are the essential elements of a retail business plan, who to present the business plan to, what exactly is a business plan.

A business plan is a document which contains all your important business goals, the methods of attaining them and the resources and timescale needed for this. It is a summary of everything you want to achieve. All your strategy will need to be set out to enable you to get sales for your product or products.

It will also contain all your professional details. It is one of the most important documents you will ever create. . It is better to get it absolutely right through lots of in-depth research. So much depends on it, so…

  • Don’t rush it..
  • Take the time it needs.
  • Every word is important.
  • Think through every concept.

Why making a business plan helps the success of the retail project

Many new entrepreneurs are creative. They have things to sell that you won’t find elsewhere. But creativity needs a structure, a good business plan for your retail store . A good retail business plan is a necessary step to save you from making expensive mistakes. It will also help you look professional and is an absolute necessity if you are looking for investors.

Start by setting your goals

Do you have dreams of a high-street store or an e-commerce website? You need to plan every aspect from finances to marketing. As you do your research you will clarify your own ideas and understand your business better.

A plan should include both your short-term and long-term goals. There are also internal and external objectives. The internal ones might not be a public part of the plan. They might involve discussing goals with employees and offering incentives to them. In the external objectives you set goals for overall performance. Pricing and customer service are important here.

How to efficiently analyse the market

Entrepreneurs come from all sorts of backgrounds. Some have had a wealth of experience in the retail trade before deciding to go it alone. Others are straight out of school or university and have brilliant ideas they want to put into operation. Entrepreneurs are starting concept stores offering brands and authentic goods of the sort you cannot find on Amazon or in the average supermarket. Your specialty might be:

  • gourmet foods;

It can be almost anything that is a bit special. You can learn by looking at the business plan s of other retail stores , particularly those who are offering similar lines of products.  If you have a high street store you can also check out similar businesses in your area.

A few tips to analyse customer behaviour

Who is your ideal customer? What is their age, background, education, financial status? Is this going to be a rare expensive purchase? Or is it something people will need to buy frequently? How do you get repeat custom? Word of mouth is one of the best recommendations. You have to inspire trust to get that.

How to set you retail strategies

Make a one-page summary to start with. You need to find an answer to the following questions:

  • Who is your target market?
  • Who are your competitors?
  • Will you need staff?
  • Who are your suppliers?
  • What is your market plan?
  • How will you run your business?
  • What is the supply chain?

Besides, you will need a merchandising plan to make sure you get the best return on your investment. And how will you record your sales, returns, purchases of materials, etcetera? And what is your positioning in the market? What makes your brand different?

The importance of making short-term plans

Not everything in your plan will be long-term. With a retail store some things will be seasonal. You could focus on the next sales period. Or do you have products suitable for Mother’s Day? Or for Christmas gifts? Do you want to run a Black Friday campaign, American style? Do you want to celebrate your store’s opening day with special offers for customers?

How to implement your plans

Make sure all the legalities are in place before you start. Who owns the company? Does it have a separate correspondence address? How can the public contact you?  Are there other directors involved? If so, what are their roles? Try to keep to your original goals within the times set. Stick to your aims. Try to meet specific targets.

In-depth analysis of your performance

The analysis of performance will be an ongoing process as your business progresses. Choose intervals at which you want to reassess this analysis . This will help you improve on several aspects:

  • Are you reaching the goals you set out at the start?
  • Is anything getting in your way?
  • Has a new competitor appeared?
  • What do you need to do to improve profits?
  • Who is responsible for keeping all the pages on social media and your website up to date?

And you will also need to do a thorough financial analysis. Have you started to make a profit after the start-up costs?

Project presentation

Explain your products. This part can be great fun. Let the world know what you are selling and why you are so enthusiastic about your goods. How do your products differ from those of your competitors? Make sure you have professional photographs to enhance the image of your products online.

Publicity is another thing to consider. Where do you want to advertise online and offline? What is your budget? Does your shop have a website? Can you make additional use of Facebook, Instagram and all the other host of places in social media to promote your goods online ? Consider the four Ps otherwise known as the marketing mix:

Products and restocking

Products can be dispatched on your behalf from warehouses or distribution centres. Some entrepreneurs prefer this. Others like a more hands-on approach which could involve anything from a bricks-and-mortar store to a thriving regular market stall. The choice is yours. Online or offline or better still both.

Make sure you are always well-stocked with the most popular products. Customers can be fickle. If they can’t buy what they want when the mood takes them, they may take their cash elsewhere. It is more important to keep successful lines well-stocked than to attempt to stock everything. But also look at new products. Keep up with the competition.

Market research

Find your target market. Who are they and why should they buy from you? Is your product something basic everyone needs like foods, beauty products, clothes? Or are you targeting a specific luxury market?

It is useful to gather information on your competitors as well as possible clients. If you are working from a shop rather than solely online by e-commerce, location will be an important aspect. Is there a similar business nearby? What can you do better than them?

Look at general trends in retail. What is selling? And what isn’t? How can you boost sales ?

Presenting to investors

Investors may be family or friends you have known all your life. Or they may be people who have a particular interest in the products you are selling. Or they could be those who think that you and your business look like a promising investment.

Presenting to banks

Banks are cautious investors, and you will need the best of business plans to get a loan these days. But they have financial acumen and will know a good business proposition when they see one.

Be complete and precise in your retail store business plan. Have it proofread for feedback. Include all the essential information and practical details. Write about goals, ideas, strategy, innovation, marketing, and performance. But remember – it is not fixed in stone. As your business grows you may want to adjust your original ideas. The market is always changing, and you will want to stay ahead of the competitors to maximise your profits.  Ankorstore helps you to get all the details right.

A business model is a one-size-fits all statement. It is useful up to a point but not as essential as a business plan. A business plan is specific to you, your business and its location.

A business plans needs to be written right at the start of any business. It is essential as a tool to clarify your own ideas. It is also important as a mark of professionalism to secure cash investors.

Whether your store is going to be offline or online you will need to begin your business plan with a good company description. What is the company’s name? Where are you located? Is it online or offline? Or both? Let the world know what product or products you are selling and why your products are better than everybody else’s. The rest is aims, finances and a general picture of the sales market for your product

Related posts "Build my business plan"

If you’ve ever wondered why you need a business plan or what it’s used for, read on. From market research to budgeting, there is so much day-to-day managing for small businesses that it’s critical to maintain clear objectives and a concise repository for all that information.

The executive summary or operational summary is essential for attracting funders. With the advice of Ankorstart’s experts, strengthen your business plan.

Before starting an e-commerce business, it is important to be well prepared. Here is a step-by-step guide to writing an effective business plan tailored to the specificities of retail e-commerce.

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Retail Store Business Plan Example

JUN.30, 2013

retail store business plans

Retail businesses come with enormous potential and tremendous risk.  How do you dramatically tip the odds in favor of your business’s initial and continued success?  You do so with a comprehensive retail store business plan . Retail stores rise like weeds and fall much more easily.  Part of the reason is the unforgiving environment, but the lack of a clear and comprehensive company strategy is perhaps even more to blame.  Without this policy, how will you know how to keep your company from failing due to a challenging economy, inappropriate pricing, theft, unforeseen loss of inventory, disruptions in supply chains, or changing consumer tastes? All these factors can sink a retail store overnight if they are not anticipated and scheduled for long before they happen.  A complete company strategy will address these issues as well as expected profits, inventory management, advertising strategies, and environmental sustainability measures.  In short, it will plot out the necessary steps to success.

Our approach to Retail Business Strategy

Properly targeted industry research done for your company strategy will help you to know what to sell to draw customers in and to keep them coming back, how to build and maintain inventory, and how to price items appropriately for maximum profit.  At the same time, you will need to know how to hire, train, and effectively utilize staff to make them assets instead of liabilities and to motivate them for best results.  Plus, you must be aware of market conditions and know how to respond to them should you need to slash expenses during rough times or capitalize on trendy opportunities. Success in the world of retail is never an accident.  You can work steadily toward it with one of our unique retail store business plans .

Please complete the contact form for more information today.  There is a lot to consider when opening any business, and we can help to make sure that you don’t miss a thing.  We give you the right kind of help so that your business can thrive even when others do not. Before cutting the red ribbon to inaugurate the small size retailing shop in your vicinity, certainly, have a fast look at nook and corners of the retail company. The bright and dynamic conception on retailing trading must be helpful to a newcomer to start a local departmental store to sell goods/services.

retail store business plan sample

Retail Store Business Plans

Well retailing company is operated through multiple channels. That means, it is a complete cycle to take the products to end customers who will buy the products from vendors of the retail stores. You should understand this marketing method to sell products at smart prices. It must be a smooth transaction between vendors and customers. To brief up, a vendor or retailing outlet needs to communicate with wholesalers and manufactures so far as the transaction is concerned.

However, a vendor is not bound to communicate with the manufacturer or company. A vendor is found doing deals with the wholesalers who buy products from the companies or manufacturers for sale. The difference between a wholesaler and retailer lies in the product distribution process. A wholesaler sells products in bulk whereas retailers are seen selling products to individual customers. Therefore, customers have to find the best vendors to buy products at good prices. In this supply chain, the manufacturer has no direct communication with customers. Wholesaler is the buyer to purchase products from the start-up manufacturer and later wholesalers try to sell these products to retailer in bundles. Customers are end users to have products in small quantity.

Vendors have the stock of new products in large quantities to distribute. Vendors are generally seen selling products at prices pre-designed by manufacturers including VAT/service taxes. Well, when you have a start-up company strategy, you should not overlook the trend in this lucrative e-commerce advertising. Start-up retail stores must have custom products at discounts and customers are happy to buy products without trouble.

Launch a Custom Trade store- Overview Study

The Retail company is of many types and one should be very meticulous to tailor the best retail business policy for fast investment. To be frank, a trade shop or departmental storefront promotes new branded products manufactured by companies. In the retailing shop, new showpieces are on display. This exhibition is really fantastic when people visit the shop to track the line of innovative/attractive products for sale.

Moreover prices of these products are good as vendors have to lure customers by declaring amazing discount or promotional codes to enhance the cost efficiency. Sample products are on sale at comparatively reducing rates. Prices of saleable goods must not be cumbersome and uneasy for customers to buy products.

So discount outlets must have better solutions for tempting customers to buy products at discounts. However, it must be remembered that wholesalers sell goods at comparatively low margin. Wholesalers earn money on bulk goods. So prices of these products in cluster are low. On the other hand, retailers buy these products and then resell to customers. A vendor has to bear handful of expenses ranging from product selling, transaction processing charge, products relocation and the entire paperwork cost. He has to pay movers and packers. He has to put existing employees on attractive payrolls. For this reason, certainly, vendors have to set a new price tag which must include VAT and incidental charges to have good profits in the long run.

Therefore, retail stores increase the product prices to ensure the good returns. A start-up retail store business plans template must have a strong platform for product promotion. It needs a collection to preserve whatever is meant for being sold to customers. So, to open a small or medium size discount units one should establish a small infrastructure, storing unit, billing system, electric, furniture pieces, and talented employees to manage the retailing business.

retail store business plan sample

Important Facts to Remember

A trade store keeps different types of products to sell directly in the market. Well, you must collect a sample checklist to see what sort of product is in the storage unit of a local outlet. Soft products like clothes and durable/non-durable products are also in the list made by the vendor.

  • Durable and non durable goods
  • Artifacts like crafts, musical instruments
  • Footwear products

Amazon, Wal-Mart and Flipkart are such big start-up vendors to spoon feed over million customers. At these trade units, obviously products of different companies are sold at interesting prices. So, you must decide how to start a new general store for having many profits.

Various Types of Retailers

  • Local departmental storefront
  • Special exhibitions
  • Online retailing centers

Initially, vendors must not go beyond the limit. They should understand the basic format of advertising and then they will have to transform their ideas into reality. Maybe, people are not interested to buy such cheap products which are available in plenty in the dime stores. Therefore, meticulous market analysis and research are needed to learn how to invest in the local market without facing sudden financial crunch. In the beginning, be a regular online visitor to check multiple sites to track the way of all local discounts stores run smoothly. Fluctuation, temporary recession and sudden financial downtime are hurdles to occlude the fast growth or expansion of the regional market. Well, why do you want to invest in trading industry?

UK Start-Up Visa Business Plan

Basically, retail industry is the platform for better business branding and product promotion. In a multi-functional general/dime store, there are various types of saleable commodities like foods, tangible and movable products for being sold. People have interest to go through reviews, short product descriptions and features of products stored for sale. Retail stores are run by competent entrepreneurs who have better ideas to sells products in the market.

Certainly, physical entity of start-up trade stores is an excellent thing. A customer has no problem to place orders visiting the store located in his vicinity. However, the advent of e-commerce product sale option must be an innovation to boost up modern generation to buy products from virtual shopping carts being boxed up inside the rooms. So, you won’t ignore the miniature virtual world in which everything seems to look much fairer in glossiness. Then again you must have motivational spirit and much more energy to innovate the basic business expansion project. Think how to proceed? For better promotion, new strategies are needed. So, the best business consultation service providers must be contacted for table work.

retail store business plan template

They have model formats for inaugurating small size storefronts. For instance, retail store business plan must include a compact budget, a perfect product checklist, a track record to preset the prices, a digital pdf file to have a product promotion policy, thesis, term papers and screenshots of modernized e-commerce plaza with excellent décor. Innovation is not temporary. Nor is it stagnant. Kindly don’t stop innovating your thoughts/ strategies. Borrow knowledge from eminent persons and think tanks who will upgrade your views. A compact online demo and training program with sample retail store business plan must be a booster to energize you to have new ideas/ retail business plan template to launch store front for business branding.

Truth is always bright. Never succumb to hypocrisy. You must reconstruct your ideas and thoughts through innovation. Local physical trade stores are obviously much more known to people in that home town. People living in the town are eager to visit such a smart warehouse to have the best product for sale. Certainly, everyone likes to buy products from a reliable storefront. However, online storefronts in this booming organization are more visible in global market. It is not an old structure but much more dynamic platform to enable customers to buy products any time without geographical barrier. The portal mobile start-up retailing marketing system is certainly a revolution in the global arena.

Bring a Change through Innovation to Open Departmental Storefront

Don’t be pessimist. You are not much familiar with the global e-commerce tool. It is not a problem as many newcomers are seen hovering on Google with well prepared retailing business expansion projects/strategies with models free to inspire people to do trials. So again you need a quick switchover. Conventional legacies, traditional new business expansion guidelines, norms, policies and basic business promoting programs must be remodeled. Retailing business ethics should be constructive. Optimize your views/ strategy to make yourself more energetic, bold and innovative. Technology is exclusively for mankind.

Conventional scenario of retailing market must be changed. Optimize a nice looking site which must be the vehicle for promoting what you sell. This glossy e-commerce site for retailing business expansion must be compatible with i-devices/smart phones /tablets/iphones/android supported devices. Online retailing business promotion must not be expensive. It is more powerful, extensive and flexible for customers to keep in touch with an awe-inspiring portal to explore. The business management courses in the particular field also put emphasis on the virtual tle marketing.

On a single go, you have million customers who use just mouse clicks to visit your sites to check the demos/products promoting shows. Upload more glossy pictures, videos, logos, festoons, graphic pictures and informative blogs to remodel the thoughts of customers. At an instant mouse click, a new website with a glossy inventory is visible. Retail store online is so impressive that even oldies can’t overlook your dynamic portal. Be more strategic plan for marketing . Video parlors, you tubes and online streaming are some of the latest examples to speed up the product promotion. Videos showcase demos free. Your marketing strategies proposers and executives will be busy of doing live demos to train customers. This online product premier show is certainly magnificent.

Your site is more beautiful with majestic elegance. Trade shops have high compatible inventory with a gallery. Maybe you have more futuristic product branding policies, projects and models to present. Obviously, your open source product promoting platform will disclose what you think. Customers will go through your futuristic retail store business plan to reshape e-commerce portal. The marketing strategies must not be outdated and dull. It is one of the most important things to take care of.

How to Become a Legitimate Retailer? A Short Preview

It is a dream to see. It is your ambition to nourish that you will be a magnet in the retailing business portal. Trading industry is overcoming hurdles to become one of the biggest places for financers to invest money. Global scenario is also fast changing. America, Russia, China, the UK and France are putting much focus on the trading industry. So, you must have dazzling strategies, retail store business plan and retailing business promotion projects to implement. To become a successful retailer, one should be a hard worker. Secondly, his ideas to promote retail plan business must be reinforced with a compact ground work. A retailer must be devoted to his regular tasks. He should be a good disciplined guy with marvelous retail store business plan to finance the retailing business.

To become a competent retailer, you should abide by law. First of all, locate a specific place for investment. Your money is not easy to arrange. You must value your assets. So, before buying land to establish a retail store, evaluate various aspects of retailing business/industry. You need to finalize the deals successfully. None can avoid the local administration. He is legally compelled to get a license to start business in this industry. Then, he must have an authorized license to operate a departmental store. In addition, to form the management, you must have proper papers with registration certificates.

One of the most important things to mobilize the retailing business legally is to collect EIN or Employer Identification Number which resembles social security number. You must be responsible to pay taxes to run the departmental store. Retailing business rules and regulations are also changeable. So, legal support from experienced attorneys must prevent the harassment. Basic rules are same and flexible too.

However, when you start dealing with international business clients, it will be a different texture to face. Therefore, you must be eager to talk to experienced lawyers for assistance to prepare the papers to legalize the business running in a far better way. In this connection, start-up business analyzers and experts must guide you to overcome darkness to have success within short span of time. Take fruitful training as well as guidance from professional writers to learn how to write a retail business plan. At the same time, free retailing business models and retail business plan sample remove many drawbacks to enable entrepreneurs to have new projects to design for the mobilization of the retailing business/industry. A top notch start-up retail store business plan is necessary for a guy to review for tracking loopholes in the existing retailing business.

retail store business plan template pdf

Choose Cross Channel Retailing Business – Essential Facts

If you are not a newcomer in the trading industry, you must have good communication with customers. Well, certainly you have basic marketing strategies, product selling platform and bunch of projects to do proper implementation. So, you must add more flavor and spices to make your retailing experiences more awesome. Right now, global trading industry is based on omni-channel/multiple channels. Boundaries of conventional retail store business plans  are expanding overtaking all obstacles. The smart digital technology is perfectly blended with physical structures of storefronts to give an omni-channel merchandise preview.

This slideshow is really unforgettable due to the variation in hues. Local people are limited in number. They are not interested to buy products visiting plazas at midnight. In that case, the flexibility in e-global marketing platform is undoubtedly innovative. Any time, anyone is able to hit online shops to check products before making purchases. They have mobile phones with instant order processing option. They get instant messages from retailers to buy newly launched tangible products at superb eye-catching prices. An online trade shop is not closed on weekends. It is open round the clock. It is a typical buying option.

Over there, none is present to welcome you. Buyers are found creating accounts for free registration. They need to place multiple orders as per their requirements. Automatic transaction form is generated with a fast transaction option. If the products are in stock for your home town, you have the permission to buy products. The smooth transaction is one of the best features of the online retailing units. Paperless deals, fast shipment, quick processing and instant confirmation are all unbelievable.

Rough marketing seems to have a bouncing switchover to become one of the magnificent platforms for trading. Simultaneously, the method of product advertisement, selling and invoice processing must have new format to help customers to buy products in care free mind. They are getting easy product buying technology with a smart device to close the business deals on the virtual portal. To be frank, brick and mortal trade unit is now also decorated nicely with an eye-catching virtual product purchase tool. In this section, customers need a better organization or retail business consortium which will share interests to provide the best services to consumers. Online retail business organizations are certainly integrated through internet.

Create Customer Friendly Ambience to Expand the Business

The organizational support and good leadership quality must gear up the business/industry expansion process. Your employees should be much more industrious with excellent entrepreneurial skill to handle customers of different natures. Initially, it seems to be difficult for a newbie to tackle rough customers who are stubborn and not modest. These customers raise odd questions and issues to put the retailers in embarrassing situation. Therefore, you must have good marketing management and online support team to train employees how to deal with online customers. Your employees should not be weak and ill-tempered.

Though technology is advanced, people need to be accustomed to such smart environment. The technological progress is really excellent with lot of opportunities for customers to utilize in the real life. Well, as a good entrepreneur, you must not close your eyes. You should be magnificently smart, cunning and meticulous to observe the changes in the existing marketing system. The retailing business ambience needs to be understood. It is the most important factor for you before going for fast investment in retailing business Customers need affordable service. They don’t understand the intricate product purchasing platform.

These customers are not comfortable to place orders through a mini shopping cart. In that case, choose proper customers who are computer literate with expertise in opening e-commerce mobile sites for fast shopping. This paperless transaction should be done fast. Customers need to complete the registration to buy products. They must check updates and then select the specific products to buy instantly. Naturally, your e-commerce industry specific websites must be operated by customers. Find the customers who are not incapable of operating internet based marketing platforms.

Tradition and innovation are different aspects. Consumers must be trained how to operate the fast innovative shopping portals on internet. To be a forerunner, you must have sets of advanced tele-marketing tools and strategies to enhance the trouble free compact deals. You are a good rival with lot of changes in the products selling format. Industry for retailing business is surely upgraded due to the technological innovation. Moreover, people are becoming much literate to do more experiments. Their self-pace studies are optimized through technology. So, this revolution must be valued to open new horizons in the virtual marketing and product promotion industry.

Introduction of Virtual Storefronts for Customers

General stores are visible widely. These virtual shopping centers are rimmed in glossy psychedelic light. New things are added to the shopping carts. Customers are able to download the sample models with strategy and images of products for offline exhibition. Gorgeous videos, mock strategy, slide shows, demos, and online previews are ads-on features to renovate the conventional buying style. Well, don’t discard social media portal.

Gradually and steadily, social media portal is becoming more intimate to entice trillion young hearts. What a nice platform for dating, entertainment, gossip and live chatting options! Social media portal is free for everyone. To pull up or accelerate the scores, buy online customers’ likes to enhance the smooth exposure of your retailing business. These instant ‘likes’ messages attract others to visit the sites you sponsor. Retailing business industry undergoes such an inspirational innovation.

Watch your rivals to compete. Try to discover where they are going right and wrong. Similarly, you must do patchwork to reinforce the retailing business removing cluster of problems. Retailing business is not expensive if you change your conventional business set-up into the virtual trading center. This easy transformation from the traditional business into the upgraded trade stores must be a turning point. At present, cross channel retailing business exposure is highly appreciable. Customers have both options of buying different products/services from physical units as well as the online storefronts. The physical e-commerce trading structures are equipped with instant e-billing, e-shopping and product shipment options.

So, this criss-cross business dealing is much profitable. Customers enjoy shopping by visiting the specific retail stores. Secondly, if required they are also very much enthusiastic to purchase products from internet. Therefore, you must design your retail store in much innovative way. Frankly speaking, when you launch an online retail store business plan , definitely data security must be a good priority. Customers have to provide their bank details, and street address including contact details to complete the registration. Now, if your e-shopping sites are not developed with strong anti-hacking tools, it is the threat to innocent customers.

Many incidents of online theft, pilferage, and wrongdoings are taking place to discourage online customers to continue purchasing products from e-commerce centers. So, hire professional website designers, coders, programmers, software developers and SEO experts to make the compatible websites more customers friendly. A perfect start-up sample retail business plan assists an entrepreneur to estimate the gross expenses to run a new trade storefront. It is a model performance metrics worksheet or parameter to evaluate your entrepreneurial expertise, leadership quality and overall competence to handle the trade stores even in dried period. During recession, the cost of shipment, products packing for delivery, and other expenses must be higher. This recession or financial downtime is harmful to entrepreneurs. So in the demo marketing plan/retail business policies, you will have to do lot of experiments, trials and graphs to minimize the hazards to operate such a big organization under the umbrella of security.

Write a good retailing business plan. Jot down a number of unavoidable factors. Write short reviews with constructive conclusion. You must not give up your innovative business expansion ideas. Truly speaking, a novice entrepreneur can’t brief up all his requirements to enhance the inauguration of the organization. He has much confusion how to manage complicated issues boldly. Professional retail experts are experts to compose the complete dissertation paper and sample retail store business plan template/strategy. They analyze meticulously. Their observational skill, and innovation in writing the whole retail store business plan can’t be devalued.

These professional content writers first collect information from clients to write totally organized content maintaining full fledged quality. They are experienced writers with extremely excellent content evaluation skill to type the content. So when you contact these competent writers, they must discuss extensively. They will simplify your retail business planning. So, it is a quick guide to enable you to put everything in order to compose an effective retail store plan.

Innovation and Modernization Upgrade the Structures for Product Selling

Retailing business booms fast through the phase of modernization. It gallops with more quick investments of financers to energize this industry. Conventional product selling/ management system has been innovated with the introduction of sophisticated technology. It has been detected that in past, this domestic trading industry had little scope to thrive because of strict laws, geographic obstructions and lack of advanced infrastructures to take the products/services to remote areas.

retail store business plan template

People had to walk on foot to visit local outlets for buying products. They had not any smart tool to have updates before completing their outdoor sopping. In addition, natural calamity, rain, fire and big carnivals are also obstructive to make them unable to buy products from stores which are closed. Legal formalities were also complicated. They had to pay vendors in cash. They had to wait for manual order processing. The shipment process was not easy and it was also expensive. Especially, rural belts and remote far flung areas were neglected by retailers. To be frank, modern retailing outlets are equipped with advanced shopping tools. These outlets are air conditioned with good air vents to enhance the product freshness. Foods are stored in eco-friendly storage rooms.

The saleable products in retailing outlets /industry are not damaged. Well, to modernize your old and conventional retail outlets, you should go for complete modification. Customers must not be endangered. They are buyers who finance your retailing company. They are resources to provide financial assistance to make you much stronger to run the retailing outlets. So, you can’t deny their demand. They should be properly entertained. These customers have to be given all amenities in relation to the merchandise. So, be liberal, proactive and much more innovative to expand the start-up organization smoothly.

In your new trade stores, products must be properly visible. So you should optimize the infrastructural facility by installing glass insulated furniture pieces to showcase the line of products on display. At the same time, start-up retailing shops must be illuminated in bright light. Customers must not have discomfiture to buy products at the stores. Now, there are other aspects to take care of. For example, your modern retailer shops must have automatic billing system, and top security tools. To stop theft and pilferage, you must spend dollars to install smart cam, and powerful automatic alarming systems to ensure the security.

Your products must not be stolen. Nor are customers found in Catch 22 situation when they buy expensive products from your stores. Certainly, you can’t stop experiment. You must have a machine to track progress in the retailing company. You must compare and contrast depending on template models, theories as well as the extrapolated facts. In ultra-modern merchandise companies and stores, you will see logistics departments. Evaluate the activities of logistic offices of these stores. A complete logistic department with organized retail store business plans  sample retail is open to manage product packing, invoice processing and billing methods. It helps a customer to complete the start-up merchandise and necessary transactions brilliantly. Money is also saved to have the fast support from such corporate logistics department. So, ask your expert proposer to draw a graph with a small budget to open an adjacent logistic department.

Change the environment of the logistics department by installing mainframe computers, internet and sophisticated tools to complete regular deals/tasks meticulously. Employees must know the computer and they are available online to assist customer on demand. Your merchandise office must be newly decorated and well polished. Visitors must not be disheartened when they are interested to meet top brass. In a new digital ambience, all official assignments must be managed through internet. In previous decades, single miniature stores or retailing shops were built for customer care.

Customers bought available products from these mini stores. However, these products were not in good stock. People had to visit a number of stores to purchase different types of saleable commodities at cost effective prices. This was the severe drawback. Customers had no alternative to buy products if they didn’t get that product during emergency. Now, this untold misery and inconvenience of customers have been reduced by taking quick initiatives. To upgrade your old discounts store, you should opt for more subsidiaries to keep products in huge quantity.

To make your retailing shop more popular, you need to extend the single storage room into a large departmental storefront. This shopping mall must have series of spacious product storing rooms for preserving wide range of collected products. Variance in these multi-channel selling shops is brilliant to attract customers to check the list before buying any product. However, in that case, entrepreneurs have to arrange more fund to refinance the company expansion scheme. It must be a big issue and people have to find the best ways to get fund. Commercial money lenders, banks and even government are desirous of assisting entrepreneurs to become self-employed. Unemployed youths need hard cash to start small company.

So, you must have such an effective start-up company refinancing project to collect proceeds from various financial organizations. Apply for secured or unsecured loans to run the organization. You must pledge property or assets to have such company expansion loans. Trade stores with smart competitive online retail store business plans should be eco-friendly. Therefore, expenses will be higher if you install HVAC systems, smart cams, better food protection tools, modern furniture pieces and security devices to enhance the compact device protection. Secondly, prices of these fresh products must be affordable.

Online free retailing business templates/ retail store business plans must be downloaded for meticulous research. You must have better retailing business projects/retail policy to mobilize the start-up business on reliable foundation. Truly speaking through a compact integrated retailing portal, it is much easy to reach trillion customers. However, if your services are not qualitative even after the effective modernization, it is ultimately debacle with zero improvement.

So, you should have better sample business plan for retail store how to strengthen up the multi channel storefronts to have large volume of profits in the long run. Useful guidance from professional retailers and expert strategy analyzers to evaluate small retail store business plans must make your dream project/ retail store policies productive eventually. Sample retail business templates, free tips, retail store business plan, advices and informative blogs are surely tools for you to navigate extensively to find the best option to operate a lucrative retail company plaza dynamically.

Finally, you should not be a grandiose narcissist with stubbornness to discard everything which is modern. Instead, you must accept advanced and upgraded tools, methods and compact theories to renew the whole product selling process without decelerating structural growth of your own outlets for retailing.

Download Retail Store Business Plan Sample in pdf

OGS capital writers specialize in business plan themes such as corner store business plan , funeral home business plan , bra business plan , jewellery business plan , business plan for a grocery store , souvenir shop business plan and many others.

OGSCapital’s team has assisted thousands of entrepreneurs with top-rate business plan development, consultancy and analysis. They’ve helped thousands of SME owners secure more than $1.5 billion in funding, and they can do the same for you.

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Starting a Business | Templates

4 Free Retail & Online Store Business Plans

Published December 13, 2019

Published Dec 13, 2019

Blake Stockton

WRITTEN BY: Blake Stockton

This article is part of a larger series on Starting a Business .

A retail business plan can help entrepreneurs analyze their business concept and explain why it will be successful. Many banks and investors like to see companies’ strategic plans before agreeing to provide funding. All business plans for retail and online stores should showcase their products and services, financial projections, and marketing strategies.

Before starting your retail or online store, it’s important to register it as a legal entity with the state in which it’s doing business. A legal business entity would protect the business owner’s personal finances if a lawsuit were to ever occur against the business. Rocket Lawyer is an online legal service that assists small business owners with the paperwork needed for legal entity registration. Register your business with Rocket Lawyer for $99 plus state fees.

Visit Rocket Lawyer

Retail Business Plan Templates

We’ve included four retail business plan templates below and separated them into different types, including one for retail product-based storefronts, retail service-based storefronts, retail companies with a storefront and an online store, and retailers that run their business completely online. To understand each section of the business plan template better, we recommend you read our step-by-step business plan guide . All of the templates below include the necessary sections to obtaining funding from a bank or investor.

We’ve included template copies that are in both Microsoft Word and Google Docs. To save the Word document, click on your desired template’s link below. Once it downloads, click “File” within the document, then “Save As” to save the template to your computer.

To save the Google Doc, click your desired template’s link below. Copy all of the words in the document, open a new Google Doc on your account, and paste in the template. The new template will automatically save to your Google Doc account.

Product-based Retail Storefront

Product Based Retail Storefront

Word / Google Doc

Retailers with Storefront And Online Business

Retailers with Storefront and Online Business

Service-based Retail Storefront

Service-Based Retail Storefront

Online Only Retail Store

Online Only Retail Store

How Retail Business Plan Templates Work

These retail and online business plan templates walk you through how to create a plan for your business. They all come with questions in each section and subsection to spark creative thinking and provide direction.

It’s important to note that some businesses will have information that fits into all of the template categories. For example, a bakery can sell products in person and online in addition to providing a service with educational classes to aspiring chefs. If your business happens to have diverse revenue sources like this, choose the template that applies to how the majority of your revenue is earned. For example, if the online store will only earn 1% of overall sales, you should choose the storefront-based business plan template.

Product-based Retail Storefront Template

This template is for a retail business with a storefront that primarily sells products rather than services to customers. Typically, these types of businesses have a local marketing focus. Additionally, inventory and sales staff are important topics to discuss in the business plan. Examples that fall into this business category include clothing boutiques, food businesses, and jewelry companies―essentially, any store that buys and resells items in small quantities, not in bulk like wholesalers.

Download the product retail storefront business plan in Google Doc or Microsoft Word format. PDF isn’t available, because the Table of Contents’ page titles and numbers won’t update after you add new information to the template.

Service-based Retail Storefront Business Plan Template

The service-based retail storefront template is right for anyone who primarily provides a service to its customers. This type of business has a local marketing focus. Additionally, hiring and managing quality staff are discussed in this business plan. Examples of service-based retail storefronts include massage therapist companies, nail salons, product repair, shops, and rental-based businesses.

Download the service-based retail storefront business plan in Google Doc or Microsoft Word . PDF isn’t available because the Table of Contents’ page titles and numbers won’t update when you add new information to the template.

Business Plan for Brick-and-Mortar Retailers With Online Stores

This template is for any retail business that has a storefront and is selling a product online as well. The business plan discusses ecommerce and online marketing strategy in depth. Examples of brick-and-mortar retailers with online stores include memorabilia or comic book stores in addition to shops that sell clothing, outdoor goods, and spices.

Download the retail storefront and online business plan template in Google Doc or Microsoft Word . A PDF version isn’t available, because the page titles and numbers within the Table of Contents won’t update when you add new information to the template.

Online Retailer Business Template

The online store business plan template is for retailers that primarily sell products online. The template emphasizes ecommerce, online marketing, and shipping. It’s best for niche businesses that cannot fund a storefront, such as stores that sell artisan soaps or custom items. Dropshipping businesses will also find the template useful.

Download the online retail business plan in Google Doc or Microsoft Word . A PDF version isn’t available because the Table of Content page titles and numbers won’t update when you add new information to the template.

What All Retail Business Plans Should Include

If you’ve looked at the above templates, you may have noticed that several sections are similar on all four business plans. That’s because no matter your type of business, when writing your business plan , bankers are looking for certain sections, including the Executive Summary, Company Summary, Market & Industry Analysis, Marketing Strategy, Financial Projections, and Appendix.

Executive Summary

This section is an overview of the business plan and is typically one to two pages in length. We recommend completing the executive summary last so that you know which sections are most important to emphasize and expand upon.

It’s important to make the executive summary as persuasive and compelling as possible. Interested investors often request the executive summary first to determine if they should spend time reading the rest of the plan.

Company Summary

The company summary highlights the company’s successes if already in business or why it will be a success if you have a new business. In this section, include information about what you need to purchase to start your business and how much it will cost. Additionally, briefly discuss the company’s ownership structure and its competitive advantage, which is the one big feature that gives your business an edge over competitors.

Market & Industry Analysis

In the market and industry analysis section, make your case as to why your business will be a success. Market analysis is a deep dive into research that you can use to show that there are sufficient customers who need your business. You should research the need in your local area, especially if you’re not operating online, to help prove your business can be successful. Use software like ReferenceUSA to research for free at thousands of local libraries across the United States.

For industry analysis, you need to show evidence that the industry in which you’re starting a business is growing, not shrinking. You can use a paid service like IBIS World to pull industry data. IBIS World’s industry experts update industry forecasts and data around every four months.

The marketing section is where you outline the marketing strategy for your business. The information in this section will vary depending on the type of business you own. For example, some businesses may want to showcase the quality of their interior buildout while others expand into their online marketing strategy. You may even want to discuss the high-quality materials you’ll be creating to promote the business.

Regardless of the marketing strategies you mention, we recommend including as many visual examples as possible. You may want to include one or two visual marketing materials in this section. If you have more materials to showcase or large graphics―a menu or interior rendering―place them in the Appendix ( discussed below ).

Financial Projections

The financial projections are the most important part of any business plan. Unfortunately, they are also the most difficult for business owners to create. In the financial projection section, you should predict how much revenue and expenses will flow through the business during its first three years in operation.

Calculating financial projections can be time-consuming, especially if you have a physical location because you have to research specific costs such as construction, inventory, and utilities. Software can also be a big expense. For instance, payroll tools like Gusto , accounting software like Intuit QuickBooks , cloud-based point-of-sale (POS) systems like Vend , and so on.

Additionally, it can be difficult to predict how much each product or service line will sell month-by-month over the first three years in business. Use software like Biz Miner to obtain yearly startup financials for your industry.

To organize your financial projections, you can use a free Excel workbook from the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). In the workbook, you’ll find tabs for financial statements that need to be completed, such as the Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Profit and Loss Statement.

The appendix is optional but recommended for a business plan. This is where you will put supporting documentation for your business. Include items like marketing materials, licenses, permits, leases, purchase agreements, and illustrations.

When to Use a Template Alternative

An alternative to the more traditional retail business plan templates above is a more modern business plan called the Business Model Canvas (BMC) . The BMC is a visual business plan that can be used in a team-building exercise and completed by upper management. Additionally, you should note that if you’re pressed for time, you can complete the BMC in under an hour. The downside of the BMC is that most banks and investors won’t accept it as a business plan.

Many business owners find that creating a business plan is a daunting task. Staring at a blank screen can be intimidating. If you need an alternative to using the templates above, consider using a business plan software to walk you step-by-step through the planning process. LivePlan is an affordable and easy-to-use business plan software that provides more than 500 business plan examples from which to learn. Get started with LivePlan for only $11.66 per month.

Visit LivePlan

Bottom Line

Every retail business owner needs to go through the exercise of creating a business plan. The process helps the owner understand the strengths and potential weaknesses of their business. Use our business plan templates along with the SCORE financial projections workbook to obtain necessary funding for your retail business. You may find yourself struggling with portions of the financial projections. If so, contact an accountant for assistance or use a business plan software.

If you’re on a tight budget and need legal advice about your business, you can contact an online legal service. Rocket Lawyer provides affordable expert legal advice to business owners. Get started with a 30-minute consultation from a Rocket Lawyer attorney for $59.99.

About the Author

Blake Stockton

Find Blake On LinkedIn Twitter

Blake Stockton

Blake Stockton is a staff writer at Fit Small Business focusing on how to start brick-and-mortar and online businesses. He is a frequent guest lecturer at several undergraduate business and MBA classes at University of North Florida . Prior to joining Fit Small Business, Blake consulted with over 700 small biz owners and assisted with starting and growing their businesses.

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14+ SAMPLE Retail Business Plan in PDF | MS Word

retail business plan

Retail Business Plan | MS Word

14+ sample retail business plan,  a retail business plan, benefits of having a business plan, elements of a retail business plan, how to write a retail business plan, why is a business plan necessary when starting a retail business, what are acceptable retail margins, how do you boost gross profit margins.

Retail Business Plan Template

Retail Business Plan Template

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Residential Retail Business Plan

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Retail Business Plan Grant Program Application Form

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Household Retail Business Plan

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Sample Retail Location Business Plan

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Ultimate Retail Business Plan Template

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Retailers Integrated Business Planning

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Retail Kids Store Business Plan

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Incorporating Wholesale and Retail Business Plan

Retail Business Plan in DOC

Retail Business Plan in DOC

What is  a retail business plan, 1. provide a brief description of your business., 2. incorporate data from the target market’s and industry’s analysis, 3. justify your products, 4. attend to operational requirements, 5. establish a formal organizational framework, 6. analyze marketing, 7. develop a financial strategy, share this post on your network, you may also like these articles, 12+ sample hr induction plan in pdf | ms word | google docs | apple pages.

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Sample Clothing Store Business Plan

Growthink.com Clothing Store Business Plan Template

Writing a business plan is a crucial step in starting a clothing store. Not only does it provide structure and guidance for the future, but it also helps to create funding opportunities and attract potential investors. For aspiring clothing store business owners, having access to a sample clothing store business plan can be especially helpful in providing direction and gaining insight into how to draft their own clothing store business plan.

Download our Ultimate Clothing Store Business Plan Template

Having a thorough business plan in place is critical for any successful clothing store venture. It will serve as the foundation for your operations, setting out the goals and objectives that will help guide your decisions and actions. A well-written business plan can give you clarity on realistic financial projections and help you secure financing from lenders or investors. A clothing store business plan example can be a great resource to draw upon when creating your own plan, making sure that all the key components are included in your document.

The clothing store business plan sample below will give you an idea of what one should look like. It is not as comprehensive and successful in raising capital for your clothing store as Growthink’s Ultimate Clothing Store Business Plan Template , but it can help you write a clothing store business plan of your own.

Example – StyleSaga Boutique

Table of contents, executive summary, company overview, industry analysis, customer analysis, competitive analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, management team, financial plan.

StyleSaga Boutique, situated in the vibrant heart of Columbus, OH, is a fashion-forward retail initiative designed to meet the diverse sartorial needs of our local community. Our boutique prides itself on offering a wide range of unique and fashionable clothing options that cater to individuals looking for pieces that reflect their personal style. We are committed to sustainability, ensuring that a significant portion of our inventory is eco-friendly and ethically sourced. Our goal is to provide a one-stop-shop for fashion enthusiasts, environmentally conscious shoppers, and young professionals seeking trendy yet professional attire.

Our boutique’s success can be attributed to several key factors and accomplishments. First and foremost, our dedication to offering a curated selection of unique, fashionable, and sustainable clothing has set us apart in the local market. We’ve built strong relationships with suppliers and vendors, ensuring we provide high-quality merchandise at competitive prices. Our adeptness at forecasting and adapting to fashion trends has allowed us to consistently meet our customers’ needs and preferences. Additionally, our commitment to exceptional customer service and community engagement has fostered a loyal customer base and established StyleSaga Boutique as a prominent and respected presence in Columbus, OH.

The fashion retail industry is experiencing a significant shift towards sustainability and ethical production practices, driven by increasing consumer awareness and demand for transparency. The rise of digital marketing and e-commerce platforms has also transformed how boutiques engage with their customers, making online visibility and social media engagement crucial for success. Despite these challenges, the industry presents ample opportunities for growth, especially for businesses like StyleSaga Boutique that prioritize unique, sustainable fashion and harness the power of both online and offline marketing strategies to build a strong brand identity.

Our primary target market includes local residents in search of distinctive clothing that reflects their individual style. We cater to fashion enthusiasts who value uniqueness and quality, as well as environmentally conscious shoppers looking for sustainable and ethically produced apparel. Additionally, we aim to attract young professionals seeking versatile, trendy attire suitable for both office and social settings. By offering a diverse range of styles and sizes, along with eco-friendly options, StyleSaga Boutique addresses the varied preferences and values of our customer segments, ensuring a broad appeal.

Top competitors include local boutiques with similar target markets and large retail chains offering fast fashion at lower price points. Despite this competition, StyleSaga Boutique’s competitive advantages lie in our focus on sustainability, unique product offerings, and exceptional customer service. Our commitment to ethical fashion and ability to quickly adapt to changing trends allow us to meet customer demands in ways that many competitors cannot, setting us apart in the Columbus market.

Our marketing plan revolves around highlighting our unique selling propositions, such as our sustainable and ethically sourced products, through various channels. We leverage social media platforms, email newsletters, and in-store promotions to engage with our target audience and drive traffic to our boutique. Our product range is carefully curated to ensure diversity in style, size, and price, catering to a broad customer base without compromising on quality. Competitive pricing strategies are employed to offer value while maintaining profitability. Promotions and discounts are strategically used to attract new customers and reward loyalty among existing ones.

At StyleSaga Boutique, our daily operations are focused on inventory management, exceptional customer service, maintaining an inviting store presentation, and executing targeted marketing campaigns. We monitor sales data to understand customer preferences, manage financial transactions to ensure boutique health, and invest in employee training for superior service. Strong supplier relations and compliance with legal requirements are also key. Our milestones include expanding our product line, enhancing our online presence, and further engaging with the Columbus community to strengthen our brand and customer base.

The management team at StyleSaga Boutique brings together a group of passionate individuals with extensive experience in retail, fashion, and business management. Our team’s expertise in trend forecasting, customer service, and financial management positions us to successfully navigate the competitive landscape of fashion retail. We are united in our commitment to sustainability and innovation, driving StyleSaga Boutique towards a future of continued growth and success in the fashion industry.

Welcome to StyleSaga Boutique, a fresh and vibrant clothing store now gracing Columbus, OH. As a local establishment, we’ve recognized a significant gap in the market for high-quality, local clothing stores – a gap we are here to fill. Our commitment is to provide an unparalleled shopping experience, offering a diverse range of products that cater to the unique styles and needs of our community.

Our product lineup is both comprehensive and exclusive, featuring everything from casual T-shirts and jeans to more formal dresses and skirts. We also offer a selection of outerwear, including jackets and coats, designed to keep you stylish and comfortable regardless of the weather. Additionally, our activewear range ensures that you look your best, even during the most intense workouts. Each piece in our collection is carefully selected to ensure the highest quality and the latest trends, ensuring that our customers always find something that resonates with their personal style.

Located in the heart of Columbus, OH, StyleSaga Boutique is perfectly positioned to serve the local community. Our presence in Columbus allows us to understand and cater to the unique tastes and preferences of our customers, providing a personalized and immersive shopping experience.

Our confidence in the success of StyleSaga Boutique stems from several key factors. Firstly, our founder brings invaluable experience from previously running a successful clothing store, providing a solid foundation for our operations. Moreover, our commitment to quality and variety sets us apart from the competition. We take pride in offering better clothing options and a wider variety of styles than any other store in the area, ensuring that our customers always find something they love.

Since our inception on January 3, 2024, StyleSaga Boutique has made significant strides as a business. We are officially registered as a S Corporation, a testament to our commitment to professionalism and growth. Our accomplishments to date include designing our unique logo, developing our distinctive company name, and securing a prime location for our store. These milestones mark just the beginning of our journey, and we are excited about the future of StyleSaga Boutique in Columbus, OH.

The Clothing Store industry in the United States is a significant and thriving market. According to recent data, the market size was estimated to be around $292 billion in 2020. This demonstrates the immense opportunity and potential for growth within the industry. Furthermore, it is projected that the industry will experience a steady growth rate of 3.6% annually over the next five years. This optimistic outlook indicates that the Clothing Store industry is poised for further expansion.

Several trends have emerged in the Clothing Store industry that bode well for StyleSaga Boutique. One notable trend is the increasing demand for eco-friendly and sustainable fashion. Consumers are becoming more conscious of the environmental impact of their clothing choices and are actively seeking out brands that prioritize sustainability. StyleSaga Boutique can capitalize on this trend by offering a range of ethically sourced and environmentally friendly clothing options, setting itself apart from competitors and appealing to a growing market segment.

Another trend that favors StyleSaga Boutique is the rising popularity of online shopping. In recent years, there has been a significant shift towards e-commerce in the retail sector, and the Clothing Store industry is no exception. With its online platform, StyleSaga Boutique can tap into the growing number of consumers who prefer the convenience and ease of online shopping. By providing a seamless online shopping experience and leveraging digital marketing strategies, the boutique can reach a wider customer base and drive sales.

Below is a description of our target customers and their core needs.

Target Customers

StyleSaga Boutique will target a diverse clientele, with a primary focus on local residents who are seeking unique and fashionable clothing options. This group is expected to have a keen interest in fashion trends and will appreciate the boutique’s curated selection of apparel. Their purchasing decisions are often influenced by quality and exclusivity, making them ideal customers for StyleSaga Boutique.

The boutique will also cater to young professionals in Columbus, OH, who are aiming to enhance their wardrobes with stylish yet professional attire. This segment values convenience and quality, and will seek out StyleSaga Boutique for its unique offerings that cannot be found in larger retail stores. They are likely to become repeat customers, relying on the boutique for seasonal updates to their wardrobes.

Furthermore, StyleSaga Boutique will tailor its offerings to attract fashion-forward students from local colleges and universities. This demographic is always on the lookout for the latest trends at affordable prices. The boutique will leverage this by offering a mix of high-quality yet budget-friendly pieces, ensuring it becomes a go-to destination for students aiming to maintain a stylish appearance without breaking the bank.

Customer Needs

StyleSaga Boutique emerges as a beacon of high-quality clothing for those residents in Columbus who prioritize excellence in their wardrobe. They can expect a curated selection of apparel that not only meets but exceeds their expectations in terms of fabric quality, craftsmanship, and durability. This commitment to quality ensures that customers have access to pieces that not only look stunning but are also built to last, providing them with value for their investment.

In addition to quality, StyleSaga Boutique understands the importance of offering unique and trendy options for its customers. Shoppers can find themselves enveloped in the latest fashions that cater to a variety of tastes, from the classic and timeless to the avant-garde. This wide array of choices guarantees that customers can express their individual styles while remaining on the cutting edge of fashion trends.

Moreover, StyleSaga Boutique addresses the need for personalized and attentive customer service. Customers can expect a shopping experience that is tailored to their needs, with staff members who are knowledgeable and eager to assist in the selection process. This level of service not only makes the shopping experience enjoyable but also ensures that customers feel valued and understood, fostering a sense of community and loyalty to the boutique.

StyleSaga Boutique’s competitors include the following companies:

Tigertree is a well-regarded competitor known for its unique blend of clothing and lifestyle products. It offers a carefully curated selection of apparel, accessories, gifts, and home decor items. The price points at Tigertree cater to a mid-range budget, making it accessible to a broad segment of customers. Tigertree’s revenues stem from both its brick-and-mortar location in Columbus, OH, and its online store, which extends its reach beyond local customers. The store’s key strengths include its distinctive product selection and strong brand identity. However, its reliance on non-essential, discretionary items could be seen as a weakness in economically challenging times.

Second Chance Consignment Boutique specializes in high-quality, gently used clothing and accessories for women. This store appeals to budget-conscious consumers looking for designer brands at a fraction of the cost. Price points vary widely depending on the brand and condition of items, but are generally significantly lower than retail prices for new goods. Located in Columbus, OH, Second Chance Consignment Boutique serves a local customer base. The store’s key strength is its ability to offer luxury brands at affordable prices, attracting both bargain hunters and environmentally conscious shoppers. A potential weakness is the inconsistency of inventory, which can vary greatly in size, style, and brand availability.

College Traditions focuses on apparel and merchandise for fans of Ohio State University. It offers a wide range of products from clothing and accessories to home decor and gifts, all branded with OSU logos and colors. The store’s price points are designed to be accessible to a broad audience, including students, alumni, and sports fans. Situated near the OSU campus in Columbus, OH, College Traditions benefits from a loyal customer base of students, alumni, and local sports enthusiasts. Its key strength is its niche focus on OSU-branded merchandise, which capitalizes on the strong community spirit and sports culture in Columbus. A potential weakness is its limited appeal to non-OSU fans, which could restrict its market reach.

Competitive Advantages

At StyleSaga Boutique, we pride ourselves on offering superior quality clothing that clearly stands out from what our competition can provide. Our commitment to excellence is evident in every piece of garment we produce, ensuring that each item not only meets but exceeds the expectations of our discerning customers. This dedication to quality is a cornerstone of our competitive advantage, allowing us to attract a loyal customer base that values craftsmanship and durability in their clothing. We understand that in the fashion industry, the quality of the materials and the finesse in the manufacturing process can make a significant difference in the end product. Therefore, we meticulously select premium fabrics and employ skilled artisans who share our passion for creating exceptional clothing.

Furthermore, we offer an unparalleled variety of clothing options to cater to the diverse tastes and preferences of our customers in Columbus, OH. We believe that variety is key in keeping our offerings fresh and exciting, ensuring that every visit to our boutique presents a new opportunity for discovery. Our extensive range includes the latest trends, timeless classics, and unique pieces that can’t be found anywhere else. This variety not only sets us apart from our competitors but also positions us as a one-stop-shop for all fashion needs. Our ability to provide a wide array of choices means that every customer can find something that perfectly matches their personal style and occasion, making us a go-to destination for fashion enthusiasts seeking quality and diversity in their wardrobe.

Our marketing plan, included below, details our products/services, pricing and promotions plan.

Products and Services

Embarking on a new journey in the fashion industry, StyleSaga Boutique emerges as a beacon of style, offering a diverse range of clothing options that cater to the fashion-forward individuals of today. With a commitment to quality and the latest trends, StyleSaga Boutique ensures that every customer finds something that not only resonates with their personal style but also adds a touch of uniqueness to their wardrobe.

At the heart of StyleSaga Boutique’s collection are the T-Shirts, a staple in everyone’s wardrobe. These aren’t just any T-shirts; they are a blend of comfort, style, and statement. Customers can expect to find a variety of designs, from minimalist to graphic tees, ensuring there’s something for every taste. The average selling price for these T-shirts is set at a competitive $25, making fashion accessible without compromising on quality.

Understanding the importance of versatility in clothing, StyleSaga Boutique offers an extensive selection of Jeans and Bottoms. From high-waisted jeans to comfortable leggings, the range is meticulously curated to cater to different occasions and preferences. The boutique takes pride in providing pieces that are both stylish and durable, with prices averaging around $50. This ensures that customers are investing in items that are not only trendy but also offer value for money.

For those looking to elevate their wardrobe with feminine flair, the Dresses and Skirts section is a treasure trove of options. Whether it’s a casual day dress or an elegant skirt for a night out, StyleSaga Boutique has something to match every mood and event. With an emphasis on quality fabrics and flattering fits, the average selling price for these items is thoughtfully set at $60, allowing customers to indulge in premium fashion at reasonable prices.

Recognizing the need for versatile outerwear, StyleSaga Boutique presents a collection of Jackets and Coats that are both functional and fashionable. From cozy winter coats to lightweight jackets perfect for transitional weather, the boutique ensures customers are prepared for any season. With prices averaging at $100, these outerwear pieces are an investment in style and comfort, designed to last through the seasons.

Last but not least, the Activewear section caters to the modern lifestyle, combining fashion with functionality. Understanding the dynamic needs of today’s consumers, StyleSaga Boutique offers activewear that is perfect for the gym, outdoor activities, or simply for those who prefer a sporty aesthetic. With an average price of $40, customers can expect high-quality, durable pieces that don’t compromise on style.

In summary, StyleSaga Boutique stands as a one-stop fashion destination in Columbus, OH, offering a wide range of clothing items that cater to various tastes and occasions. With competitive pricing and a focus on quality, the boutique is poised to become a favorite among those who appreciate fashion that’s both accessible and distinctive.

Promotions Plan

StyleSaga Boutique leverages a multi-faceted promotional strategy to attract and retain customers in the competitive Columbus, OH, marketplace. At the core of these efforts, online marketing plays a pivotal role. Through a combination of social media engagement, targeted ads, and a robust email marketing campaign, StyleSaga Boutique ensures a constant and engaging online presence. Social media platforms, particularly Instagram and Facebook, serve as primary channels for showcasing the latest collections, sharing fashion tips, and engaging directly with the fashion-forward community. Tailored ads, based on customer interests and browsing history, help in reaching potential customers efficiently.

Beyond online marketing, StyleSaga Boutique also embraces the power of local collaborations. By partnering with local influencers and fashion bloggers for sponsored posts and event collaborations, the boutique amplifies its reach and credibility among the local fashion community. These partnerships not only increase visibility but also endorse the boutique’s unique offerings in a more personal and relatable manner.

In-store events are another key promotional method. StyleSaga Boutique hosts exclusive shopping nights, fashion shows, and styling workshops, transforming the store into a community hub for fashion enthusiasts. These events not only create buzz but also provide a tangible experience of the brand’s identity and values, fostering a loyal customer base.

Loyalty programs and exclusive member discounts further incentivize repeat business. Customers expect rewards for their loyalty, and StyleSaga Boutique meets these expectations with a well-structured rewards program. This program offers points for purchases, referrals, and social media engagement, which can be redeemed against future purchases, thus encouraging continuous engagement with the brand.

Lastly, public relations efforts, including press releases and features in local lifestyle magazines, play a crucial role in building the boutique’s reputation. By highlighting the unique aspects of StyleSaga Boutique, such as its commitment to sustainable fashion or its support for local designers, these efforts elevate the boutique’s profile and attract a wider audience.

Overall, StyleSaga Boutique employs a dynamic mix of online and offline promotional tactics to establish a strong brand presence in Columbus, OH. Through targeted online marketing, local collaborations, engaging in-store events, rewarding loyalty programs, and strategic public relations, the boutique ensures it remains a preferred destination for fashion lovers in the area.

Our Operations Plan details:

  • The key day-to-day processes that our business performs to serve our customers
  • The key business milestones that our company expects to accomplish as we grow

Key Operational Processes

To ensure the success of StyleSaga Boutique, there are several key day-to-day operational processes that we will perform.

  • Inventory Management: We continuously monitor and update our inventory to ensure that popular items are always in stock, while also introducing new and trendy items regularly to keep our offerings fresh and appealing.
  • Customer Service: Our staff provides exceptional customer service, assisting shoppers in finding what they need, offering fashion advice when requested, and handling returns or exchanges promptly and courteously.
  • Store Presentation: We maintain a clean, organized, and inviting store environment. This includes regular cleaning, creating attractive displays, and ensuring that merchandise is well-organized and easy to browse.
  • Marketing and Promotions: We execute targeted marketing campaigns and promotions to attract new customers and retain existing ones. This involves managing social media accounts, sending out newsletters, and running in-store promotions.
  • Sales Monitoring: We closely monitor sales data to understand customer preferences and trends. This information helps us make informed decisions about inventory, marketing strategies, and potential adjustments to our product offerings.
  • Financial Management: We diligently track all financial transactions, including sales, expenses, and profits, to ensure the financial health of the boutique. This includes managing budgets, forecasting future financial performance, and making adjustments as necessary.
  • Employee Training and Management: We invest in regular training for our employees to ensure they are knowledgeable about our products and skilled in customer service. Additionally, we manage staff scheduling to ensure adequate coverage during peak times and events.
  • Supplier and Vendor Relations: We maintain strong relationships with our suppliers and vendors to ensure we receive high-quality merchandise on time and at the best possible prices. This also involves negotiating contracts and managing any issues that arise.
  • Compliance and Legal Requirements: We stay informed about and comply with all local, state, and federal regulations affecting our business, including those related to employment, sales tax collection, and consumer rights.
  • Community Engagement: We actively seek ways to engage with and contribute to our local community, such as participating in local events, sponsoring local sports teams, or collaborating with other local businesses. This helps build a strong, positive brand presence in Columbus, OH.

StyleSaga Boutique expects to complete the following milestones in the coming months in order to ensure its success:

  • Securing a Prime Location : Finding and securing a retail space in a high-traffic area of Columbus, OH, that aligns with StyleSaga Boutique’s target market. This is critical for attracting foot traffic and establishing the store’s presence.
  • Obtaining Necessary Permits and Licenses : Completing all legal and regulatory requirements to operate a clothing store in Columbus, OH. This includes business registration, sales tax permits, and any other local requirements.
  • Building Out the Store : Designing and outfitting the retail space to create an inviting and brand-aligned shopping environment. This involves interior design, purchasing fixtures and displays, and setting up a point-of-sale system.
  • Sourcing Inventory : Establishing relationships with clothing suppliers and designers, and purchasing initial inventory. This includes selecting a range of products that align with the brand’s identity and target customer preferences.
  • Hiring and Training Staff : Recruiting, hiring, and training employees who are passionate about fashion and provide excellent customer service. This will include sales associates, a store manager, and possibly a marketing or social media coordinator.
  • Launch Our Clothing Store : Officially opening StyleSaga Boutique with a launch event or promotion to generate buzz and attract initial customers. This milestone marks the transition from setup to operation.
  • Implementing a Marketing Strategy : Developing and executing a marketing plan that includes social media, local advertising, and community engagement to build brand awareness and drive traffic to the store.
  • Establishing an Online Presence : Creating a professional website and e-commerce platform to extend the store’s reach beyond local customers. This includes online marketing efforts to drive traffic to the website.
  • Monitoring and Adjusting Inventory Based on Sales Data : Using sales data to adjust product offerings, stocking more of what sells well, and phasing out what does not. This will help in managing inventory costs and improving profitability.
  • Get to $15,000/Month in Revenue : Achieving this level of monthly sales is crucial for covering operating expenses and reaching profitability. It involves continuously refining marketing efforts, inventory selection, and in-store experience based on customer feedback and sales data.

StyleSaga Boutique management team, which includes the following members, has the experience and expertise to successfully execute on our business plan:

Mia Anderson, CEO

Mia Anderson brings a rich background in the retail clothing industry, with an impressive track record of entrepreneurial success. Her experience includes running a successful clothing store, where she honed her skills in business management, customer relations, and inventory strategy. Mia’s leadership abilities and deep understanding of the fashion retail market make her an invaluable asset to StyleSaga Boutique. Her vision for the boutique encompasses not only leveraging her past success but also implementing innovative strategies to adapt to the ever-changing fashion industry, ensuring StyleSaga Boutique’s growth and sustainability.

StyleSaga Boutique is seeking additional funding to reach our growth goals. This investment will be directed towards expanding our inventory with a focus on sustainable and ethically sourced products, enhancing our marketing efforts to increase brand awareness and customer engagement, and improving our online presence through website development and e-commerce platforms. Our financial strategy is designed to ensure long-term profitability and sustainability, positioning us for success in the competitive fashion retail market.

Financial Statements

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Income Statement

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Cash Flow Statement

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Retailers Plan for Big Changes to the Way People Shop in 2024 

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With a record-breaking peak 2023 season in the books, retailers are taking a hard look at lessons learned and making pivotal changes to the way people shop. In a recent study by Retail Dive, retail executives shared key strategies they’re continuing and those they’re abandoning this year. Much of it is driven by how shoppers responded to last year’s tactics, which revealed the need to walk a more tenuous line between cost containment and customer experience.  

Economists predict that 2024 retail sales will grow by 6.7% USD and overall volume will increase by 2%, bolstered by a decrease in inflation, but countered by dwindling household savings. Online retail is expected to move into double digit growth for 14.6% of total global retail sales. Yet, experts caution that challenges remain. Retail executives continue to journey through post-pandemic recovery and grapple with rising labor costs, lack of visibility into the supply chain, global political and economic hotspots, and consumers’ increasing need to seek out discounts regardless of brand.  

Still, there is much to be hopeful about in retail. eCommerce and brick-and-mortar are facing positive outlooks as they fine-tune their omniexperience strategies and navigate this current wave of AI transformation. The study reveals that retailers are willing to pivot quickly when a key initiative fails to drive intended results – indicating positive agility to change course in a fluid environment.  

It also reveals what retailers are doing right and affirms that their devoted efforts to improve customer experience paid off in the 2023 peak season – and will continue to do so.  

Peak 2023 Was “Far More Successful” Than 2022 

In comparison to peak 2022, three out of four retail executives reported that peak 2023 was “more successful” or “far more successful” across the board:  

  • 89% overall sales more successful – 35% far more successful 
  • 84% overall profitability more successful – 41% far more successful 
  • 83% inventory management related to merchandise availability more successful – 34% far more successful 
  • 81% access to supply chain data more successful – 37% far more successful 
  • 79% ability to provide responsive customer service – 37% far more successful 
  • 75% cost related to returns more successful – 28% far more successful 
  • 75% cost related to shipping more successful – 34% far more successful 

Energized by this positive experience, retail executives are looking at what’s working, what needs to change, and they’re taking action.  

Order Fulfillment Remains a Challenge 

An area of persistent challenge is order fulfillment . Retail executives report they’re tackling the following:  

  • 43% order processing speed 
  • 41% order accuracy 
  • 37% offering fast shipping 
  • 36% sales forecasting 
  • 35% real-time reporting and analytics on fulfillment  
  • 33% real-time visibility/reporting on order delivery 
  • 31% carrier reliability to respect delivery deadlines 
  • 30% scaling for demand 
  • 26% return management  
  • 19% fraud detection delaying order processing 
  • 9% multi-channel inventory management 

Customer behavior data is fueling retail decisions about what strategies to continue, abolish, or put into place in 2024. Here’s what they had to say about consumer behavior.  

Order Fulfillment 

Customers continue to choose convenience when it comes to order fulfillment, regardless of channel. While in-store fulfillment continues to be popular, there has been a marked increase in traditional doorstep delivery.  

Traditional Delivery is Booming 

Compared to 2022, retail executives report that the following channels have seen significant increases in customer utilization: 

  • 83% report that home delivery has increased – 41% say significantly so 
  • 81% report that ship from store has increased – 39% say significantly 

The rise suggests that customers are moving fluidly between fulfillment channels, with a normalization of omniexperience shopping, where shoppers view their interaction with a brand holistically and do not break it down into different channels.  Convenience remains a priority, and retailers must ensure their fulfillment operations are able to meet customers’ preferences.  

Shipping & Delivery 

Retailers have been rescinding free shipping as status quo and either eliminating it entirely or requiring spending thresholds or reward memberships to obtain it. We’re starting to see data on how shoppers are reacting to these constraints.  

Free Shipping or Fast Shipping?  

Retailers charging for shipping found that shoppers still want choices in delivery speed and cost. As a percentage of all orders, customers chose the following fulfillment options:  

  • 29% free shipping 
  • 26% a ‘faster’ solution (usually 2-3 business days.) 
  • 24% ECO/Standard/Ground delivery (usually 3-7 business days) 
  • 21% a ‘fastest’ solution (usually 1-2 business days) 

Cost is More Important than Speed 

More than half of retail executives found that customers will give up 1-2 day delivery (speed) for:  

  • 65% free shipping 
  • 64% less expensive shipping 
  • 55% consolidated shipments 
  • 48% in-store pickup 

Consumer willingness to trade speed for cost may reflect their current cost-conscious mindset. This trend may easily reverse when economic conditions improve, which means retailers need to remain agile when it comes to fast fulfillment processing and delivery.  

Next, we’ll look at what retail executives are changing their minds about.   

Major Changes in the Retail Experience  

Retailers have adapted remarkably well in the last few years, navigating their way through crises that temporarily shuttered their doors and shifted the bulk of their operations to eCommerce. The pendulum has swung again, with a post-pandemic influx of shoppers wanting in-store experiences AND the ease and convenience of digital commerce. Customers have shifted to omniexperience retail – flowing among channels and assuming it will be a smooth journey. Retailers have done an amazing job in rising to meet these expectations.  

Perhaps one of the biggest lessons retailers have learned since 2020 is the need to be able to implement and discontinue tactics quickly. Retailers can no longer afford to take their time in changing strategies, they must be responsive and proactive to survive. This lesson learned backs the survey data: retailers are willing to stop major initiatives in 2024 that were put only the year before.  

Here’s what retail executives said they’re planning to do.  

Soften Return Policies 

In a recent report , we noted that 81% of retailers were charging for returns and 53% saw a drop in return rates. However, 48% also experienced a decrease in average order value and in overall sales. Retailers continue to navigate these uncertain waters. While a majority are staying the course, a significant number are rescinding stricter return policies and fees.  

Charging fees for return shipping  

  • 41% made change in 2023 will continue in 2024 
  • 41% made change in 2023 and will not continue in 2024 
  • 15% did not made change in 2023, but will institute in 2024 

Charging fees for restocking 

  • 51% made change in 2023 will continue in 2024 
  • 28% made change in 2023 and will not continue in 2024 

Offering a shorter window to accept returns  

  • 49% made change in 2023 will continue in 2024 
  • 32% made change in 2023 and will not continue in 2024 
  • 13% did not made change in 2023, but will institute in 2024 

Enacting stricter standards and restrictions (i.e., original packaging, never been used before, etc.) for eligible returns 

  • 37% made change in 2023 and will not continue in 2024 
  • 15% did not made change in 2023, but will institute in 2024 

Enhance the AI They Already Use 

Most retailers that have implemented artificial intelligence (AI) for inventory, customer service, risk management/ fraud protection , predictive analytics, and customized shipping intend to enhance their AI for improved performance.  

AI in inventory management (e.g., forecasting demand, managing inventory levels, optimizing the allocation of stock across different locations, etc.) 

  • 59% currently use AI and plan to enhance   
  • 33% currently use AI and do not plan to enhance  

Additionally, 42% of retail executives say they plan to enhance their forecasting capabilities for anticipating product demand by enhancing collaboration with suppliers for real-time market insights. They also anticipate:  

  • 25% investing in advance data analytics tools 
  • 21% implementing machine learning for predictive modeling  
  • 11% exploring partnerships with forecast solution technology providers   

AI in customer service (e.g., chatbots and virtual assistants providing real-time support to customers, helping customers track shipments, answering queries, etc.) 

  • 57% currently use AI and plan to enhance  
  • 36% currently use AI and do not plan to enhance   

AI in risk management and fraud detection (e.g., detecting anomalies in shipping patterns, identifying potential fraudulent activities, etc.) 

  • 53% currently use AI and plan to enhance  
  • 35% currently use AI and do not plan to enhance   

AI in predictive analytics for returns (e.g., analyzing historical data to predict potential returns, enabling proactive measures to streamline the returns process, etc.) 

  • 51% currently use AI and plan to enhance   
  • 39% currently use AI and do not plan to enhance   

AI in customized shipping solutions (e.g., tailoring shipping solutions based on individual customer preferences) 

  • 45% currently use AI and plan to enhance  
  • 43% currently use AI and do not plan to enhance 

Enhancing AI will help improve operational efficiency and leverage the AI investments that retailers have already made.  

A Positive Outlook 

2024 will see a reshaping of the retail experience with a broader utilization of AI tools and the reversal of returns policies to improve the customer experience. Retailers face eCommerce fulfillment challenges, but are well positioned to innovate to meet those challenges. Those that need support are partnering with third-party logistics experts, like Radial, to fast-track their modernization and enhance their eCommerce fulfillment capacities.  

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Bob & Berts reach 30 stores, as founder reveals plan to open 100 coffee shops

North-coast coffee chain opens its first shop in strabane.

Exterior photo of a Bob & Berts coffee shop in Strabane.

Coffee chain Bob & Berts has reached 30 stores after opening its first outlet in Strabane.

The new Co Tyrone coffee shop has opened at Strabane’s Pavilion Retail Park.

It’s the first time the fast-growing coffee chain has set up shop in an out of town retail park location.

Founded in Portstewart in 2013 by Colin McClean, Bob & Berts now has 30 sites across Northern Ireland, Scotland and the north of England.

business plan for retail shop

Ryanair: APD puts UK regional airports at ‘enormous disadvantage’

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Bob & Berts reach 30 stores, as founder reveals plan to open 100 coffee shops

The company has been rapidly expanding since BGF pumped £2 million into the Co Antrim business during 2017.

Bob & Berts was last year named among the UK’s 100 fastest growing founder-led private companie s.

The new Strabane shop and the recent opening on Belfast’s Ann Street bring to 17 the number of Bob & Berts stores in the north.

The company also has six sites in Scotland and seven in England.

Inside Strabane’s first Bob & Berts store in Pavilion Retail Park.

“Opening our 30th store and our first out of town retail park location has been a huge achievement for Bob & Berts,” said Colin McClean.

“We have always wanted to move into the out of town retail park market. When the opportunity arose in Pavilion Retail Park it fitted our profile and size requirements, and we knew there was an opportunity to meet the needs of the community and provide a relaxed environment with affordable food and drink.

“Short term our goal is to double over the next three years to become a 70-site business, with the longer-term ambition to be a 100-site brand across the UK.

“We continue to look for opportunities across Northern Ireland, but our focus is now firmly in England.”

  • Bob & Berts confirm location of new Belfast city centre coffee shop Opens in new window
  • Bob & Berts named among the UK’s 100 fastest growing founder-led private companies Opens in new window
  • Bob & Berts report record year following English expansion Opens in new window

Fellow owner, David Ferguson, added: “Bob & Berts has positioned itself as a leader amongst independent coffee chains, constantly adapting to the market and investing in new locations and stores across Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

“The move into the out of town retail park market is a new area for growth, not yet tapped into by Bob & Berts and we look forward to seeing the potential of this new market.”

Bob & Berts' co-founders, David Ferguson (left) and Colin McClean (right).

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Scientists discover the secret to making an intense espresso

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Only 7% of coffee sold in the UK meets Fairtrade standards, research shows

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Climate change will cut land available for coffee by more than half, says report

Jefferson Mall owners seek to demolish former Sears building. Here’s what’s planned

business plan for retail shop

Update: A BJ's Wholesale Club is coming to Jefferson Mall. The Massachusetts-based warehouse store company is set to build its first location in Kentucky on the site of the former Sears department store anchor of the mall. The redevelopment plan for the Sam's Club and Costco competitor was approved by Louisville Metro Government in late 2023.

A 100,000-square-foot-plus warehouse store, the new-to-market BJ's Wholesale Club, is set to replace the shuttered Sears department store at Jefferson Mall in Louisville.

Big changes may be in store at Jefferson Mall in southern Jefferson County.

Mall ownership is seeking to level one of its anchor buildings formerly home to Sears department store, which closed in 2019.

A one-story, 103,100-square-foot “retail center” would be built in its place along with a fuel center, according to plans filed with the city’s Planning and Design Services department.

The paperwork didn't detail what type of retail would occupy the new building, nor was a timetable given for the proposed development.

For reference, a typical Best Buy is around 36,000 square feet, newer Kroger Marketplace stores range from 100,00 to 130,000 square feet and the average Costco is an average of 146,000 square feet.

The 14-acre property has an assessed value of nearly $3.8 million, according to Jefferson County Property Valuation Administration records.

Jefferson Mall is owned by Chattanooga, Tennessee-based CBL Properties . A mall spokeswoman told the Courier Journal she was unable to share additional details. The company also owns The Outlet Shoppes of the Bluegrass , in Simpsonville, Kentucky.

Sears opened in 1978 at the Okolona shopping destination. The one-time largest retailer in the U.S. announced in October 2018 amid bankruptcy proceedings that it would close the location , the last traditional Sears store in Louisville, as part of a wave of 142 store closures.

In early 2018, the Oxmoor Center Sears closed its doors and the location at Green Tree Mall in Clarksville, Indiana, shuttered in 2017.

Overstock Furniture & Mattress currently occupies the former Sears building, 4807 Outer Loop, at Jefferson Mall.

Tami Spraggins, regional manager for Overstock Furniture & Mattress, said the shop was carrying on with business as usual and had not yet heard of the plans for the site.

Malls for years have been forced to adapt and reinvent in the face of a retail environment that continues to shift online.

Also faced with a vacated Sears anchor, Oxmoor Center, 7900 Shelbyville Road, has redeveloped that wing of the mall with a focus on entertainment and dining.

Topgolf opened in late 2022 on the site of the old Sears building, which was demolished in 2021.

New tenants in the south wing include Sandbox VR and Condado Tacos . A second Louisville location of Southern-style eatery  The Eagle is set to open this year and an upscale  mini-golf experience Puttshack  is expected to open early next year.

Growth & development reporter Matthew Glowicki can be reached at [email protected], 502-582-4000 or on Twitter @mattglo. 

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    Written by Dave Lavinsky Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their retail businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning.

  6. How to Start a Retail Business in 13 Steps

    When opening a retail store, we recommend following a traditional business plan as it's more detailed—it can never hurt to be too prepared. Plus, it will provide a more concrete outline for you and your business partners or possible investors. Elements of a Business Plan Writing Your Business Plan FILE TO DOWNLOAD OR INTEGRATE Download as PDF

  7. Everything You Need to Know to Start a Retail Business

    From your store's appearance to inventory to the manager you hire, there are a multitude of factors that impact the creation of a prosperous retail business Follow along and we'll cover the steps you should take to start your retail business, the resources and tools you'll need to manage your store, and how to find the right employees to work in...

  8. Ultimate guide to writing a business plan for a retail store

    The Profit and Loss Statement (P&L) shows how much income the retail store generates over time. The Balance Sheet shows the store's assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific point in time. The Cash Flow Statement tells you if more money is coming in or going out over a period of time.

  9. How to Write An Attention-Grabbing Retail Business Plan

    What are retail business plans for? They're planning and forecasting documents. Retail business plans explain your business model, who your customers are and how you plan to take your store or online shop from an idea to a profitable reality. Why are retail business plans different? Because retail businesses are different. You know this.

  10. How To Write a Retail Business Plan in 8 Steps (And Why)

    Updated June 24, 2022 A retail business plan is a document that explains the details of a retail business idea. Varying in length and purpose, a retail business plan often provides information on how a business would achieve its goals and daily operations.

  11. How to Create a Retail Store Business Plan

    A retail store business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines your business model, identifies your target customers, and lays out a roadmap for turning your retail store or online shop into a profitable business. It's a planning and forecasting tool that provides clarity and direction for your business.

  12. Retail & Ecommerce Business Plan Examples

    Ecommerce Business Plans. Children's Website Business Plan. Cigar Manufacturing Business Plan. E-commerce Internet Business Plan. E-Commerce Retailer Business Plan. E-Commerce Start-Up Business Plan. Ecommerce Fabric Store Business Plan. Fish Breeder Business Plan. Home, Garden Gifts Online Business Plan.

  13. Retail Business Plan [Free Template Download]

    A retail business plan is a document that gives you and your potential investors a roadmap on how your new retail business intends to get started and deliver its business goals over its initial few years (usually 5 years).

  14. Business plan template for shops and retail companies

    1. Location, location, location For shops and retail companies, whether you're opening a community greengrocer or an exclusive boutique, one of the most important aspects of your business model is your location. Pulling a plan together will encourage you to think about the most viable location for success, as well as the cost implications. 2.

  15. Retail Store Business Plan [Sample Template for 2022]

    1. Industry Overview When we talk about retailing, we talk about a business that deals in loads of consumer goods; which can be categorized into three major areas. These categories are: general merchandise, apparel, and furniture.

  16. Retail Store Business Plan

    Download Template Create a Business Plan Retail store is a competitive business as competition is intense in this segment. Moreover, many big giants are investing more in e-commerce and digital marketing, making this business even tougher day by day.

  17. How to Write a Great Retail Business Plan for Your Store

    15/10/2020 Every successful business has a strong retail business plan. It's one of the first things many investors and donors ask for when inquiring about your business. Why, you ask? That's because a business plan details your business' short- and long-term goals, and lists the steps and financial requirements necessary to achieve those goals.

  18. How to write a business plan for your retail store

    Why making a business plan helps the success of the retail project. Many new entrepreneurs are creative. They have things to sell that you won't find elsewhere. But creativity needs a structure, a good business plan for your retail store. A good retail business plan is a necessary step to save you from making expensive mistakes.

  19. Sample Retail Business Plan Template

    A retail business plan form is an easy to edit business plan to help you get your retail business plotted out. Regardless of whether you plan to get a business loan or seek out investors, a retail business plan can help you come up with a plan to follow. It explains not just where your business will be located, but will also discuss what you'll ...

  20. Retail Store Business Plan Example [Update 2024] OGScapital

    Evaluate the activities of logistic offices of these stores. A complete logistic department with organized retail store business plans sample retail is open to manage product packing, invoice processing and billing methods. It helps a customer to complete the start-up merchandise and necessary transactions brilliantly.

  21. 4 Free Retail & Online Store Business Plans

    We've included four retail business plan templates below and separated them into different types, including one for retail product-based storefronts, retail service-based storefronts, retail companies with a storefront and an online store, and retailers that run their business completely online. To understand each section of the business plan ...

  22. 14+ SAMPLE Retail Business Plan in PDF

    What Is a Retail Business Plan?. A retail business plan might be a lengthy multi-page document developed using specialized tools or a page torn from a notepad. The goal of your business plan dictates the amount of information that should be included and the structure that should be used. According to research, the average gross profit margin in retail is 53.33 percent globally.

  23. Sample Clothing Store Business Plan

    Our sample clothing store business plan includes the key elements to help you create your own successful clothing store business plan. ... Building Out the Store: Designing and outfitting the retail space to create an inviting and brand-aligned shopping environment. This involves interior design, purchasing fixtures and displays, and setting up ...

  24. Here's what the Starbucks of the future looks like

    On its site, the company has a "Retail Checklist" available to download, which lays out a tiered plan for designing inclusive spaces "that elevates retail environments, beyond the ADA."

  25. Retailers Plan for Big Changes to the Way People Shop in 2024

    Economists predict that 2024 retail sales will grow by 6.7% USD and overall volume will increase by 2%, bolstered by a decrease in inflation, but countered by dwindling household savings. Online retail is expected to move into double digit growth for 14.6% of total global retail sales. Yet, experts caution that challenges remain.

  26. Nike to Lay Off More Than 1,600 Workers

    Nike on Thursday said that it will reduce its workforce by about 2%, or more than 1,600 people, in a bid to cut costs. Nike Chief Executive John Donahoe said the company is using its resources to ...

  27. Bob & Berts reach 30 stores, as founder reveals plan to open 100 coffee

    Bob & Berts was last year named among the UK's 100 fastest growing founder-led private companies.. The new Strabane shop and the recent opening on Belfast's Ann Street bring to 17 the number ...

  28. New IKEA plan and order store in Katy gets opening date

    Officials with IKEA have set the opening date for a new store format at LaCenterra Cinco Ranch in Katy. The plan and order point with pickup IKEA will open on Feb. 28, per a Feb. 21 news release ...

  29. Former Sears location at Jefferson Mall in Okolona to be demolished

    The site of the former Sears department store at Jefferson Mall in Okolona is set to undergo changes that include a new retail building. ... plan for the Sam's Club and Costco competitor was ...