A 5-step Complete Guide to launching your new store

It is more difficult to open a store than it would appear at first. First and foremost, you are going to need a well thought-out strategy for the interior design of your soon-to-open retail location in order to be successful. When you are finished with that, a good plan will not only assist you in visualising the shop, but it will also provide you with an idea of the tasks that you need to complete. Take, for example, the kind of retail store display equipment, shelving systems, merchandising solutions, furniture, countertops, displays, lightings, and so on that you will require. In addition to this, you will need to conduct an in-depth analysis of the shopfitting providers available to you and choose a provider that strikes the ideal balance between quality, cost, customer service, and after-sales support.

The following is a checklist consisting of five steps that should assist you in properly setting up your business, avoiding frequent mistakes, selecting the appropriate shop fitting manufacturers, and providing you with an idea on shop display equipment and other fittings that you need to purchase.

1. Determine the most appropriate site.

This may appear to be common sense, but you may be astonished to learn the number of firms that fail just because the owners chose an unfavourable location. Depending on the kind of company you intend to launch, you should conduct market research to identify your ideal customers and check that the location of your store offers a high level of visibility and is easy for potential clients to reach.

2. Get ready to draw up your floor blueprints.

After you have decided on the location, the next step in the process is to design your store. Where do you plan to put the merchandising solutions for your shop? Which kind of shelving solution are you looking for? What about things like the seating arrangement, billing counter, and other interior design elements? When you come with the floor designs, you are required to provide answers to all of these questions. In the event that the planning becomes too burdensome, you should consult with shop fitting manufacturers. These days, most shopfitting companies have a separate staff that focuses on planning, and they may even assist you in accurately visualising your store by using CAD (computer-aided design) and virtual reality technology (Virtual Reality).

3. Establishing the personality of your brand

The visual associations that your ideal customers make with your company are what make up your brand identity. For there to be the greatest possible amount of brand recall, the brand's logo, fonts, and colours all need to be consistent throughout. For instance, if you are opening a new fast food restaurant and want to design it around a red-and-blue colour scheme, you need to make sure that your brand is consistent across all of your brand's assets. This includes everything from the shop's equipment and furniture to the logo, menu card, and takeaway packaging; all of these things should adhere to the same design aesthetic.

4. Determine your budget

Putting up a storefront can be a costly endeavour. However, you can reduce the extent of your losses via careful preparation. Prepare a detailed budget for your prospective store, at the very least for the next six months but preferably for a longer period of time. How much money do you need to put into the storefront? What about the shop's fixtures, merchandising solutions and pieces of furniture? What will your monthly expenses like rent, salary, and the electricity bill be like? How much revenue do you anticipate generating in the first few months of operation? A well-planned and executed budget is essential to the prosperity of any company.

5. Who is going to construct the store?

It is time to choose from shop fitting manufacturers now that you have completed the planning, the budgeting, and the brand strategy for your business. Before settling on a business partner, it is essential that you deliberate carefully and base your choice on accurate information. Have conversations with a minimum of five different companies. Get quotations. Examine the services that each provider has to offer and compare them. It's not always wise to go with the least expensive alternative. You also need to consider the track record of the company in the past. Have a conversation with some of their current customers, and pay a visit to some of the establishments that they have previously serviced. Furthermore, the quality of the items, the turnaround times, the options for customization, delivery and installation, and after-sales assistance are all of the utmost importance.

Setting up your new shop is just like any other type of business in that it requires careful planning in order to be successful. If you take the time to carefully consider all of your available alternatives and come to a conclusion after gathering all of the relevant information, you will increase the likelihood that you will be able to run a successful business for many years to come.

I'm Preben Paulsen and working with Planova and they are leading manufacturer and supplier of Shelving solutions, shop fitting, retail store displays and best space planners in Europe.