Location can mean everything to a business. Businesses with inferior products or customer service can thrive purely based on having a great location. Stunning shops with brilliant products can fail horribly, again, purely based on location. Picking a location for your shop or restaurant is probably one of the first decisions you’ll make in retail but it might just be the most important one. Here are some of the factors you should account for:
In Part 1 of our guide on how to be a retailer, we focused on how to pick a product area and perform research in that market area. For Part 2, we’ll be covering two core aspects of running any business – retail or otherwise – margins and competition.
There are some sobering statistics about startup failures and retail closures so it is doubly important to enter a market knowing a) that there is potential for profitability at some point and b) that you can compete against your established competitors.
Margins make or break businesses. Businesses who enter markets with low gross margins will have to achieve larger sales figures to cover other business costs. Having good gross margins will give you greater flexibility and allow for additional sales and marketing tactics such as half price sales or bulk discounts.
