Opening a Retail Store: The Complete Checklist

So you want to open a retail store.

Let’s start off by stating how much of an incredible journey this is going to be. You’re a visionary and want to share your passions and interests with the world through the means of a retail store. Your retail store is going to need a lot of preparation prior to its grand opening—from writing the business plan to hiring your employees.

Continue reading for a complete checklist on the things you’ll need to open a retail business.

Business Plan

One of the most important things your business is going to have is a business plan. Without one, you might just end up overwhelming yourself and overspending on unnecessary products, services, and even rent. Your business plan will have information like your business name, target audience, financial and marketing strategies, and other important data regarding your business’s operations.

Target Audience

Once you have your target audience, you’re going to have to promote your business, products, and services to them. You can do this through social media, your own website, and word of mouth, among other successful means of marketing.

You will also want to use an enterprise SEO company so they can help you optimize your online content creation and thus attract more people. SEO companies will help write content for blog posts and landing pages, and choose the right keywords that will generate more organic traffic to your page.

Security Systems

Another thing you’re going to have to take care of for your retail store is the security systems that will keep an eye on your products and staff around the clock. This includes security cameras, fire alarms, locks for your doors, and at least one cigarette smoke detector.

Smoke detectors help you keep your shop safe from fires as well as respiratory hazards and like toxic chemicals, vapor, and cigarette smoke. A lot of vape emissions are hard to detect, so it’s important your store’s equipped with the latest technology that can detect emissions like THC, vape smoke, and marijuana smoke.

Products

Next, you’re going to want to stock up on your products (and supplies) and make your inventory so you can begin selling them. You can even start pre-selling them so you can start generating income and accumulating clients. Once you land these pre-sales, it’s important to not forget about those clients as you will want to keep them as repeat clients.

Establishment

Also, you’ll want to find a place to sell your products. This means finding a brick-and-mortar building to nicely organize your items for sale. You’re going to want to consider everything when picking a site—from lot size, parking space, rent, utilities, and even scalability.

Signs

Your store will need a brand to represent your business and the products that you sell. To make your signs, you can start out by creating a logo and a catchphrase of some kind. Then you’ll have to research if you want to afford a banner or a 3D store sign so people know where your retail store is.

Point of Sale (POS) System

You’ll also need a POS system so you can start making sales and managing client information as well as inventory. A traditional POS system includes a cash drawer, barcode scanner, receipt printer, and a pole display that faces the client.

Shopping Carts or Baskets

Your clients are going to need something to put their items in prior to paying at the cash register. For this, you’ll want to provide them with shopping carts or baskets to keep their hands free as they go about their shopping.

This checklist will help you get started on opening a successful retail store.