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Owning a store can be a great way to start up a business. It’s fairly easy to operate, you can handle most of the tasks yourself, and you can even save money on hiring staff if you’re willing to work on the floor as well. Eventually, you’ll probably want to expand your store or even have new locations in order to optimise your income. This is where it can help to expand the selection of products that you have in store, but what are some of the things that you need to consider before you do this?
Does your store get enough customers to warrant expanding your selection?
There are many effective ways to drive foot traffic and appeal to an ever-growing audience, but you need to keep in mind that unless those people are all eligible customers for your new proposed products, then you might have trouble actually selling anything. Remember that your customers are used to the lineup of products you sell and are more likely to know what they want to see added. Don’t hesitate to run surveys and speak to your customers about what new products they want you to add so that you’re more likely to be successful with your expansion ideas.
Do you have enough capital to expand your selection of products?
If you’re thinking about adding new products then you need to remember that there will be recurring costs involved. It’s not just about ordering the new products either; you may need to make new space to both display and store the products, and there might be other associated costs such as partnerships with the company you plan to work with. In order to pay for this, you may need to increase your working capital in a number of different ways. It could involve your savings as a business, it might involve a loan, or it could even be crowdfunded depending on the type of business you run.
Have you done your research on the new products and if they’re suitable?
When you want to add a new product to your store, there’s a good chance that it’s not actually a very suitable fit for your store or the image that you want to give off. This usually happens when there’s a trend going around that you want to take advantage of, or perhaps your customers see a popular product on the internet and immediately want to see you stock it. These seasonal trends come and go and can be a huge waste of money. It’s better to stick with reliable products that you know will sell instead of trying to add trendy products that may or may not be successful. Always do your research and invest early in new products that you know will work and become staples of your store.
There are a lot of decisions to keep in mind when expanding your store to offer new products. However, as long as you do your research and keep in mind what your customers want, it’ll be surprisingly easy to manage.