How to choose a room for an online store in real

Marketing shop in real begins with the choice of location. There are two ways to solve the problem: the so-called "ass-firing", that is, an intuitive decision-making and thoughtful miscalculation.

The overall problem is this:

• There is an online store, you need a point in real life;
• The place should contribute to the greatest profit points as a separate retail store;
• And work well as an online store pickup point.

Immediately I warn you against a popular idea to open somewhere cheaper, as a rule - somewhere far away from the city center and main traffic flows. At first it may seem that the rent money is small and, like, you can try and see. In fact, it should be borne in mind that such premises are almost always the most unfavorable.

Why?

Because any room should bring you profit .
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Example: you have an online store that consistently brings in 30,000 rubles a month (hereinafter, all the numbers are for illustrative purposes) . You choose a place for it, considering that purchases "from the street" depend on attendance. In general, the picture will be something like this:



If we consider that the seller is likely to appear in the costs (you will not sit there every day after the first weeks), then the prospects for everything in the example, except for the most visited point, do not look very good.

The main reason for the mistakes - the uncomfortable choice

Psychologists who have examined soldiers in Vietnam have discovered a very interesting fact. In difficult circumstances, a person does not build several models of solutions in order to choose the optimal one, but does the first thing that comes to mind if it approximately looks like a reasonable idea. So with the room: many clutch at the first-looking reasonable option.

Part of my job is launching new stores. Very often, the first room is taken almost on the "chance", without any preliminary research. Perhaps this is due to the desire to open up quickly, and then we'll figure it out, perhaps - the reluctance to waste time, perhaps - a lack of understanding how to do it. There was even an enchanting case when a person from the three proposed options stubbornly insisted on the worst: as it turned out later, in front of this room he had a girlfriend.

We leave on a place and we look

First you need to get up near the door of your potential room and start counting people passing by. The calculation is done ten minutes three times: in the morning, at lunch and in the evening. In the end, after the assessment on weekends and weekdays, you get average permeability of the place.

• If you are renting a room in a shopping center or a shop with several departments, you need to consider not at the entrance to the building, but at the entrance to the department. There are far fewer people reaching dead-end zones and floors above the first than it seems at first.
• Check in person. I have repeatedly come across the fact that the shopping centers in the reports are "cunning": for example, 150 thousand people write about the permeability, despite the fact that 40 thousand go only to McDuck in the territory, and another half of the rest quickly buy food and don’t even look something else.
• Before you count, make sure that you do not hit the local minimum or maximum. For example, counting people at flower shops on March 8 is clearly not the best idea for obtaining average annual data.

Suppose you know what percentage of passers-by will come to your store (based on sales experience in their field). If not, go up to a couple of competitors with a similar assortment and consider the number of people entering and the number of people passing by.

Suppose the average permeability of your point is 4500 people per working day. If every 300th of them makes a purchase, this is 15 purchases. Moreover, 15 purchases are simply due to the fact that people are passing by, and not from self-pickup from your online store. That is, the purchase, which gives the room "by itself" solely because you work in this place.

We continue to count. If in the described situation the average profit per check is 200 rubles, then we get 15 * 200 = 3,000 rubles of profit per day. Point brings you 3,000 * 30 = 90,000 rubles per month.

Now you need to take into account the cost of installing outdoor advertising, garbage collection, cleaning, electricity and even staff, if due to the new premises you need to hire more people to trade. After evaluating all the factors, a comparison should be made.

After walking around the points, something like this tablet will appear. Expense - this is the payment of rent, outdoor service, seller, electricity, garbage collection and other things at the rate that we will sit on the point year.

Total

Expected profit = (Permeability per day * conversion rate * 30 days * average profit per check) - (Rent + associated costs)

An average check or a similar parameter (for example, the average purchase price and the average number of purchases in an order) is the basis of the calculation. This is the first information you should get. For evaluation, the data of the parent organization are used when opening a franchise (you can also search in open briefs), personal experience, data on competitors or, much less often, specialized marketing research. When you are looking for a place for an online store, you already know the average check: at first it will not be very different from what it is at the time of working without a room.

Three rules of street retail: place, place, place

A table with a variance is usually obtained as above. If there is an opportunity to open immediately in a good place at 4, then we do not hesitate to go there.

However, there is a “but”: start-up capital is a limited thing. For the first month of rent, in fact, you have to pay twice: the rent itself and the deposit. And in the shopping center and even more: there you have to pay at least for the last two months. Plus, we have just considered one-time expenses such as outdoor advertising, “stretching” them for a year, and we will have to pay immediately, even before the opening.

Accordingly, if we cannot take “all at once”, now the choice is made between addresses 1, 3 and 5.

To understand what we need, you need to make sure of two things:

1. The premises do not have shoals that prevent us from doing business;
2. Other things being equal, choose a more appropriate area.

General criteria

• Transport accessibility. No one will go to pick up the goods from the online store where it is difficult to reach or reach. This means that without transport accessibility, you open just a separate point of sale in real life. And it is necessary that the point of self-collection still be obtained: this will give more orders on top of those online purchases that already exist. The principle is simple: if you have more than two short phrases to explain how to get to the store, the place does not fit.
• Nice area. If you are already on the market, estimate where you ship more often and where the average check is higher. Most likely, in the area and sales "on the street" will be higher.
• On the first line (that is, on a large street) or on a secondary street, but always in direct view from the main traffic flow. Your point should be easy to find and be visible to many. Do not forget that your sign is a very important element in attracting customers from all over the region.
• Well, if there is a showcase . It greatly increases conversion. If your product fits a wide enough audience, then the showcase often becomes one of the most important factors.
• It is worth assessing the presence of a number of cafes, office centers, universities and other facilities that generate flows of people.

Next step

Now we make appointments with each room owner and are looking for a catch. Always try to find out why the premises are being rented, where and why the previous owner has gone and so on. In principle, there is never any space anywhere in nature without jambs and problems : your task is to find them all and understand how critical they are for your business.

Census rake

• The owner does not want to meet . You need to understand that as you do not need an owner-tyrant, so he doesn’t need an inadequate tenant at all. If he does not want to meet, it means that he doesn’t care who - it means, wait for the trick.
• Provider included . Some costs may be indirect: this is a mandatory provider for this building for space pricing, security and other related services. Check, ask, evaluate all factors.
• “ Hi, we are plumbers! ". If the place is a basement or ground floor, then there may be a piece of engineering network that is important for the entire building. And this means that about three times a month the work schedule for a few hours will be disrupted by plumbing and other charismatic characters.
• You should think in advance how the goods will be unloaded . A suitable window or a second entrance is a plus, otherwise you risk paralyzing the work of the point at the time of receiving the goods.
• You must have a sketch of outdoor advertising (this is usually a sign and a sign) at the time of signing the contract as an application. Then there is every chance not to agree.

Possible problems with the contract

• The signing of the contract immediately annuls all verbal agreements. If the owner tells you "well, that is already clear," this is a clear sign that the issue under discussion should be immediately entered into the contract. Why not write, if everything is clear? Not made - themselves to blame.
• Sign a long-term contract. Some very smart room owners can see what you are selling, wait until you “feed” the place, and then just put you out ... and open the next day with the exact same store and even, in especially frostbitten cases, directly with your former staff . If the owner does not want to sign a long-term contract - this is a symptom of some problems, ranging from official with documentation and ending with different types of divorces. The alignment is possible, when the premises have already been handed over, but the new tenant enters after 3 months, and the “window” needs to be shut up by someone.
• On paper should be fixed exact rental price including VAT . It is important to understand what amount you are discussing: with or without tax. Wrong - the difference, you know, will be your loss.
• Well, if you limit the growth of rental prices right in the contract. The rate is considered to be an opportunity to increase by 10-15 percent once a year. A related point is that if you terminate the contract, you must have a priority right to rent on new terms.
• Make sure that there is a clause in the contract that the transfer of ownership of the premises does not change the conditions . Otherwise, a surprise may be waiting for you, starting with the phrase: “Hello, I am the new owner of the building. Who are you, anyway, and why are you still here? ” In the comments olegsuv suggests that it is correct to issue through a penalty when changing ownership.
• Look at the freshness of architectural documents and check the purpose of the premises , otherwise you may be pleased that, generally speaking, you trade in a warehouse.
• By law, in the commercial premises you need to have a bathroom with a toilet, sink and cold water. By the way, if anything, any customer of the store has the right to ask to go to the toilet - and you must give him access to the bathroom. Otherwise, you are waiting for a not very large fine. Usually asked once every three months.

Timing

Finding a room (if you do not take into account negotiations with shopping centers) rarely takes more than two weeks. Moreover, good options can be found in a couple of days.

More useful information

With such a description of the calculation of the efficiency of the place, many large franchise-books begin. The data of this topic is based on the experience of directly opening 21 retail outlets in different cities of the CIS and the advice of a person professionally engaged in real estate for retail chains. Please write down in the comments how interesting the topic is: I can continue to talk about what else can be done for the online store and the point of sale in real life. Part of my task is to convince colleagues that this kind of information should be open, and not be stored as a commercial secret inside the company.

PS Here is the continuation of the point in the shopping center with specific numbers