Opening a brick-and-mortar store when your online store is earning bucks

Hello, there are few segments of market that work well as online and few others as offline.Brick and Mortar store is likely to work more as offline store BUT yes you can do wonders with online source in addition.

Yes, that's right! When it comes to construction model or brick and mortar store, normally people buy what they see. But suppose you have a good website with great content mentioning the right way of using and laying bricks, what are the precautions to take, that you material comes from a unit that is 100% free from child labor, various designs, FAQ like what time period it requires to go things stable etc... then you will be recognized more as a brand.
This is going to make people know about your store and would develop trust which would lead to increase in leads and conversions which finally would lead to sale.

Think Walmart

Think Drug Cartel

Forget what you THINK.. and look at the data you have right in front of you. You are selling online, which means you are shipping the products. Are you shipping locally? What percentage of your business is local? is ANY OF IT local?

No local sales and you MIGHT want to reconsider having to worry about SEO ( locally ). And again allow your sites numbers to dictate a decision to do this.

But really if you look at todays retail environment, I would question the need for a retail outlet. Whats the projected gain? whats the projected cost? There would have to be a possible kick ton of Profit out there before this would even be a consideration for me. I might start with a POP-UP store and see where that went.

Is your online business local, national or global? If it's international, opening one brick-and-mortar store is unlikely to have much of an effect.

Otherwise, it's going to depend on the nature of your business. If what you're selling requires an element of authority - for example, a professional service or something that requires a degree of expertise - having a physical outlet can certainly help with credibility. It can also provide an extra layer of confidence in potential customers if you're dealing in high ticket prices - or if you're a new entry to a market that also has a brick-and-mortar tradition.

The least of your problems, IMO, is the risk of cannibalizing your online business. More of an issue is trying to keep your costs in line. A physical store is much more expensive to operate and is going to have an impact on your overall margins. If your current business is profitable enough to absorb that, then fine. If not, you'll have to decide whether any eventual authority or credibility benefits will be worth it.

I suppose it depends on what you sell. Are your offers conducive to retail? Are there retail stores thriving that sell what you sell?

As a general trend, retail is dying. At first, it was people shopping at Wal Mart instead of small retailers. Then the country started going online. Malls are closing at a record rate...because the trend is away from brick and mortar stores...and towards online shopping. Now more (for example) clothing purchases are online than in a retail store.

Retail has high overhead and employees..and employee theft.

If you have never owned a successful retail store, don't do it....I mean that your mistakes the first few years will be costly.

Amazon tried opening retail stores....with the same idea you have....it died a quick death. Stick with what you know.

By the way, I own a retail store and have for 25 years. In 5 years, my industry will die, and convert to online sales direct from manufacturer. It ain't pretty. Every year our retail sales go down slightly, and our customers are skewing older. I'll be out in two years. My timing is based on my age, and we'll be at a point where it isn't worth the overhead.

Hello Enzo

It really does depend on what you are selling. My Daughter Sherri is doing something very similar to what you are describing, so I'll tell you about what she has done.

Her GrandPa got her involved in her first online business when she was 14. He helped her build a website to sell American teen clothing and sportswear, that was drop shipped from the US. Her Headmaster was very impressed with her starting a business and having a website at that age so let her put up posters and flyers throughout the school. She also had them in shop windows in the High Street. By the time she left school she had expanded to 3 more High Schools and had another 2 online Business's.

When she graduated school she started her first online magazine for teen girls. (We use online flip page magazines for affiliate marketing so we can promote multiple affiliate offers to a target market) She found a couple more American clothing companies plus a jewellery company that had affiliate programs, so promoted those with other offers in her magazine. So her magazine was like her website now and she was building subscribers from all over the UK.

Then John, her GrandPa suggested she try importing some clothing from Alibaba manufacturers, and advertise those in her Magazine. He said it would give her a much higher profit margin than the affiliate commissions. She ordered a small selection of summer dress's, 1000 pieces in all, and nearly sold out before her next monthly issue was due out. So now she got serious, put all the money back for more stock but started her own clothing label. If she ordered a minimum of 1000 pieces from each manufacturer they would label the clothing with her own fashion brand. Then came her 2nd magazine, this one aimed towards late teens and 20's, and she expanded her range to cover the tastes of the older girls.

Her 2nd year, she was 20 now, she decided to try her own range of bikini's. She sold more than 6,000 over that summer, then decided to use that money to open her first Boutique in town. She poached one of her x school friends who worked in another Boutique to run it for her. Her Brand, prices and range just killed her competition so it was soon time to expand again. Anna was using some of her profits from our Agency to build a small chain of Hair & Beauty Salons, so they decided to find a larger shop in a small city and combine both Business's into the one location. They could share most of the costs, leasing, electricity, advertising and so on, as well as cross promote to each others clients.

It worked like you wouldn't believe. Now they have a similar store in another small city being fitted out to open 1st of November, and it won't stop there.

Sherri's answer to your concern if an online shop would effect the offline shop is no. The offline shop is catering to the local market where the online shop (in her case being her online magazines) should be catering to a much wider audience, in her case that is the whole of the UK. She is actually encouraging her High Street shop customers to subscribe to her online magazines, as she has a broader range of affiliate products in the magazines that she can sell to them.

Re Claude's comments about retail stores closing down, that is similar over here too, including many large chain stores. But Anna and Sherri take advantage of that by being very different from the norm. Anna did this by combining Hair and Beauty into one Salon, where over here it is usually separate Salons. She is also using many of our online marketing techniques while her competition sit in their Salons hoping a client will phone to make a booking. Sherri took the lead in leasing their new store, it had been vacant for 6 months and the landlord wanted £1,300 a week. Sherri told him he was dreaming, offered him £750 a week on a 4 year lease, then they would pay more. He objected so she told him that she and Anna were going for lunch, if he wanted to ring before they finished lunch they could come back and sign papers. If he didn't ring, they would be going to look at another shop. He rang! lol.

She's only 22, but her GrandPa has taught her well. She already has 7 Business's and 15 employees. As well as her online business's this will be her 5th shop. She set up a computer service shop for her boyfriend where she holds 51% and does the marketing, and she bought a 40% share in an old fashioned lolly shop in town. It was opened before the war so bit old and tattered, never modernized. She's played on that, kept it old fashioned in looks but now spooky old fashioned, with spiderwebs and spiders on the signage and on the ceilings and shelving inside. Plus there will often be the occasional witch in there, handing out treats rather than spells. She has already doubled turnover and has plans to expand that shoppe to other towns too.

Cheers
Lindy

Here is some other things to consider, what it will it cost to open a store. How much rent are you going to have to pay monthly ? If you buy a property what are the taxes and up keep of the place?
How much does electric, gas, and water cost monthly ? Depending on the business what will the Insurance cost you ? Plus all the misc expenses like new cash registers, shopping carts, stocking the employee's bathroom, etc...

With the online only store, you don't have all those additional expenses. Even if you get a lot of more new or loyal customers can you break even or be profitable ?

I THINK IT IS POSSIBLE....

" but forget what you think and feel and let the data lead the way..."

Sounds like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Savidge sorta advice!



Lindy

Funny my brother is doing the opposite