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How to open a department of an online store in a mall or why we are now standing next to the department of PocketBook

In the past, I talked about how to choose a place for an online store in real life. There were basic theoretical calculations in it, after which many requested continuations with specific numbers. In this topic - specific tips on opening a shopping center on the example of one of our points.

The topic will be useful to those who:

Squeeze:


Why open at a mall?
  • The shopping center provides excellent attendance;
  • A shopping center is an advertisement, because a significant part of the population will very quickly find out about you;
  • TC is a convenient pickup point, because it is usually conveniently located.

Short checklist:


  • Find a place by the correct calculation
  • Send a presentation and initiate negotiations to convince the mall that you are suitable.
  • Sign the contract and pay
  • Make a place and catch up on the guidelines of the shopping center
  • Find Sellers
  • Make an opening advertisement
  • Bring the product and post it
  • Expand infrastructure (we have an Internet, 1C-terminal, etc.)
  • Change advertisements “opening soon” to normal
  • Make fun on the opening day (for example, promoters with leaflets or advertising outside the shopping center)
  • Test display in combat conditions and revalue

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Looking for a place


When a place is made available in a shopping center, then something like a tender with the participation of several companies takes place. The fact is that the place in the shopping center is usually “tasty”, so there are several companies (if this is not the case, then most likely you don’t need a place). The shopping center receives the same amount from each company, so the task is to show the intangible benefits in the formation of your particular department.

How to explain the shopping center that your point is happiness


Send a presentation and try to get into the negotiations. The following should be clearly seen in your materials:
  • Prove the seriousness of the company, that is, the stability of payments TC . We list our stores, call the turnover point and show the geography. Sometimes we put a short success story. Startup is logical to call the investor, if known.
  • Show that you have the right assortment . If you sell tires in a shopping center, where the audience is mostly women and children, then you will be less happy than the lingerie department. In our case, board games are a great gift that fits well with the entertainment concept of Dreamtown.
  • What you bring the right atmosphere, that is, create and maintain interest for customers of the shopping center . Assortment + general sales style with high service gives such a guarantee. It must be emphasized that the customer comes out of your store a little happier than he was before him.
  • What do you meet the requirements . As formals, such as clean and good-smelling sellers are usually put forward, adequate unobtrusive service, compliance with a bunch of design parameters, working hours, lighting, availability and design of price tags, etc. Often, three sellers in the heap, the seller with the included cellular or ice cream - this is also a joint. If interested, I can send in a personal example of strict requirements.


Then there is a personal conversation with the person responsible for your “settling”. As practice shows, abstruse do not like: try to behave openly and positively, this is half the success. If you arrange each other, then you will be given a contract (fortunately, he is always on hand at the shopping center). Important items such as deposit, cost, order of payment and other payments are fixed for all.

After that, you make out a department, put an ad on it “soon opening”. By the way, when drawing up a work plan, you need to clearly understand that deadlines are always broken for 1-2 days. After you have to make some noise at the opening, test the display again and start everything up.

The staff is better to start recruiting before opening, but not too early. We try to have one or two sellers (even from other points) at the time of launch, which will quickly be trained by new ones. The newcomers will be interviewed and called for a field test on the very first day, where they work under the auspices of older comrades.

Another frequent “rake” is the additional conditions that are inconsistent with the management from the employees of the shopping center itself. For example, you may want money for wiring, finishing or something else. In this case, you need to go to the leadership and explain that you have already agreed on everything, but here and here conditions have arisen that prevent us from doing business: let's solve this common problem. The question of interest for 90 is removed literally in minutes, and the remaining 10% is actually the right expenses, which are more profitable to pay than delay the opening.

Concrete


So, at the beginning of November in Kiev, we had a pick-up point, located two blocks from the metro station Kontraktova Square.



With the growth of our interest in the region and the understanding that the market is already ready for production, it was decided to open a store in a place with a lot of natural traffic. To begin with, we took measurements from our closest competitors (retail chains with board games in stock, departments similar to Detsky mir in shopping centers, etc.), which confirmed the conclusions.

Base for calculations


Data on the average check, the average number of games in the check, the average conversion of a passerby / client we had both in Kiev and in other regions, that is, the base for calculations was good. A week before the first departure, the head of the Kiev office began to select places for us. He walked around the areas where there is a high demand for games with delivery and in the city in general, and then picked up ads on the network.

After the selection of options as described in the first material , there are three left (one hryvnia is about 4 rubles) :
  • Two blocks from the metro in a residential area of ​​25 square meters, advertising was planned for the next house (the beginning of the last century). Clearance is low. There are no large stores and other objects nearby. 16 thousand hryvnia per month (60 thousand rubles). It was found after the bypass area "feet".
  • Excellent street in the center with a cafe, a university and a bunch of other objects, with high natural traffic, but 10 square meters (the former kiosk with flowers). 14 thousand hryvnia per month (53 thousand rubles).
  • Another option for 20 meters, near the subway, but in the yard. Low traffic. 12 thousand hryvnia per month (45 thousand rubles).


The third option did not suit us (we already had something similar), the second was good for everyone, except for a small area, the first did not fit the calculations. We called the owner of the second, but he did not want to meet at all: it meant an instant rejection of the option.

At this time we managed to find options in the malls. A trip to the first showed that the attendance was not the real, and the departure of the second left only positive impressions. So we decided to open up in Dreamtown. This is a new shopping center a stone's throw from the metro, which potentially has the potential to become one of the best in Kiev. The only thing that strained me personally was the huge ass of the dinosaur, which greets guests at the middle entrance.

"Dreamtown" is very good in its atmosphere: it is beautiful, it is pleasant to walk on it, there are many different wonderful places to see. If we chose the place ourselves, we would stand on the second floor (where is the children's store now). Unfortunately, the place was too big for us and already occupied. We got up on the top floor (usually it’s definitely not worth doing this), but near the restaurant block, which gives us a high cross. In addition, when taking measurements, we took into account that the customer on the street and the customer in the shopping center are not the same thing: in the shopping center, the conversion is still much higher.

"Dreamtown" is actively unwound, designed for entertainment (that is, for frequent returns of the public core) is located near the metro and allows you to beautifully present our products. In general, this is not only and not so much a point of direct sales, but also an ideal pick-up point for an online store.

Opening process


Then the problems started. At the time of signing, we were exposed to a number of requirements that seemed to have been forgotten earlier. Either we showed interest, which made it possible to “push” on us, or it was normal practice, or they really forgot, it is difficult to say. The result is a situation where conditions are either added to the contract, or we do not receive a place. As a result, the cost of opening unplanned rose by about 5%.

The administration of the shopping center demanded to find an expensive construction company (so that it was “white-white”). Of course, it is impossible to work in the shopping center during the day, which automatically means increased payments to builders / repairmen and more complicated conditions. In short, if we did not have the necessary operational means, we would simply lose our place. Taking into account the payment of three months of rent at once, the situation did not look very pleasant.

Opening Costs


Three months of rent: approximately 69 thousand hryvnia.
Repair (wiring, tile, drywall, painting walls, ceiling installation) 9500 hryvnia for work and 4 thousand more for materials (drywall, paint, glue, tile, cable, meter, sockets, switches) + ceiling and lamps for 5.5 thousand .
All the furniture (shelves, economy panels) together with the installation and the project cost about UAH 26,700 under the contract. Work on the loading material and installation were carried out at night.
The time of the sellers and the manager is not taken into account, but in total it was spent around the working month.
So, for opening it was necessary the starting sum about 115 thousand hryvnias . It is about 450 thousand rubles.

It is important that the product was already in the right quantity. In other cases, the opening of the initial amount is often more, because the product tends to "fill" the storefront, that is, to remain there forever (occasionally changing the names). In any retail storefront - this is something like a buffer, which must always be full - respectively, the cost of the goods can be safely deducted from starting costs. A certain amount is always “frozen” in the showcase, and the smaller and more diverse the product, the larger. The cost of the first batch of goods for our store was 250-300 thousand hryvnia at least (about a million rubles). We dragged a part from the available point, a part was brought from Moscow.

By the way, another feature of the shopping center is the lack of a warehouse at small points. In our case, two cabinets play the role of a warehouse (they are like a cache), and the showcase works as a battery. Every three days there is a delivery.

Opening




At the time of departure, the department was sealed with red sheets of film with the name of the store and the inscription "Opening of the 6th". This, by the way, was a cant, because we didn’t remove the film until the 12th, which “turned off” 6 days after the opening, when people walked and thought that the department was not working.

While we were driving, the designers made us a new outdoor design project for the department. At first, a short inscription was planned: “Board games are the best gift”. It turned out on the spot that I would have to make a tag cloud, because our Pocketbook neighbors similarly wrote “Everyone wants Pocketbook” in Ukrainian. In general, the photograph shows how they have decorated their department in a cool way: if the goods themselves attract our attention, then it is advertising that works for them.



The layout in the shopping center should attract people


The general rule applies: the more elite a department is, the stronger it is visually separated from the shopping center. The more massive - the more open and the more all sorts of interesting things should be visible inside.

Now the specifics of the range. The most recognizable turned out to be a huge desktop "Starcraft" and "Warcraft" (well, still!), The traditional "Monopoly" and a number of games such as "Erudite", the towers "Dzhengi", "Mafia" and "Twister" (it was advertised in "Sex in big city ": the guys do not know what it is, but the girls grin understandingly). All the games and photos of the boxes can be viewed on mosigra.ru . The developers honestly warned that after this reference, the site could drastically pophlaet.



These games should be visible from the entrance, so that people immediately understand what is inside the department. Next we put children's games: they are not recognizable separately, but together they look like children, which attracts parents.

The display (with the removal of everything from the shelves), by the way, can also be done only at night, so we played “tag” for a long time, moving one item at a time.

After re-laying, there was also a series of measurements. We look at the time of viewing the window, the walking speed of a passing person (slows down or not), the conversion has passed / stopped and pay attention to who is watching the games outside, and who is not. There is also a small remix - and there is a result.

A strange feature of the place was that people often got up in the doorway of the department and did not go inside. This is the problem of the absence of intelligible furniture (a table for the middle of the hall came later). A rather small department, in which everything is immediately visible, is not very interesting.

Timings:
- Two or three weeks to search for a place (with a shopping center it is longer than usual);
- Two weeks to negotiate;
- Three weeks to start (repair, furniture, delivery of goods);
- Another week for a full launch with all the furniture, display, posters and a full sales team;
- Three weeks after that before the release on the calculated momentum. This is because the end of the year, everyone needs gifts. In the middle of the year they would have been going for two months.

After reaching the calculated turnovers, we closed the first pickup point.

If the material is interesting and useful, I can continue to talk about the peculiarities of the layout at retail outlets, service in real life, receiving phone calls and normal service in this area, organizing the interaction between points in the city (logistics and communication) and a lot of other things. Please write down in the comments what exactly will be the most interesting.

Even in the comments it would be interesting to hear the stories of those who have already opened in the shopping center, to replenish the rake collection.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/109870/

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