How to open a gift shop
Today we will talk about how to open your gift shop and souvenirs. What are the advantages of this business? First, the type of goods. Any souvenir and gift products are mostly small in size, which makes it easy to transport and store. Unlike food, the shelf life of the sale and sale of souvenirs can not expire.
Secondly, the demand for goods. Several times a year we celebrate major holidays, including the New Year, February 23rd, March 8th. And add to them various professional holidays, the day of all lovers, birthdays and anniversaries, after all! And for all these holidays, people buy each other gifts. Competently approaching the organization of the gift shop, you will not be left without buyers.
Gift Shop Business Plan
Opening even a small shop, it is important to make a high-quality business plan. It will provide you with the reliability and stability of your business, and all potential problems will be taken into account in advance. Here we offer you to download a sample business plan with calculations for a gift shop.
There is nothing easier than registering such a business – you only need to design yourself as an individual entrepreneur. How to do this, you can read in our article: How to open individual entrepreneurship. You will not have to obtain licenses or special permits, as gift and souvenir products do not require licensing. Only children’s toys are subject to certification, if such a category of goods will be presented in your store.
Search for premises
The room for the gift shop must meet the requirements of the fire service and the sanitary-epidemiological station. Since you will not deal with food, the process of checking the premises and issuing permits usually takes place in a simplified mode. It is better to immediately search for a room that is already in a non-residential fund, otherwise you will have to tinker with the documents for the transfer of space from residential to non-residential. The dimensions of the room will depend solely on your abilities and preferences. You can open a very small shop with one shop window and a stand behind it, or a rather large store with goods of several different categories.
Location
Choosing a good location is very important. No matter how exclusive and luxurious goods are sold in your store, no one will go after them to the outskirts of the city or look for your shop in difficult alleys. The two most successful gift shop locations are the city center or any large shopping complex. In the first case, you can choose a suitable room on the first floor of any non-residential building on the main streets of the city. It is desirable that the entrance to the store was located not in the courtyard of the building. So passers-by will quickly remember your store, and they will already know where to go in search of a gift for loved ones.
In the second case, the leased area will be suitable in any of the shopping centers in your city. In shopping centers, even in those that are on the periphery of the city, there are always a lot of people, so the flow of potential customers will be provided to you. If you are going to bet on the sale of tourist souvenirs, it makes sense to place a store near the main city attractions. In a word, there, where first of all tourists and guests of the city go.
If you have problems with the rental of premises, you can consider the option of trading in a collapsible tent. This option, of course, is more suitable for the sale of a small amount of goods, mostly small size. You get permission to trade in the city administration (this is not easy, but it is realistic) and go ahead.
Equipment and interior
For the internal equipment of the store you will need ordinary commercial equipment – shop windows, racks, shelves, racks. To showcase souvenir magnets, you will need to purchase a large-sized magnetic board. For especially fragile and easily beaten goods glass closed show-windows will be required. Before the process of placing equipment on the sales area, it is advisable to think in advance about which product will be located. For example, if you sell paintings or wall clocks, then you need to immediately select a separate wall for them, to which shop windows and shelving will not adjoin.
You will also need a cash register, a stand for the seller, preferably a computer. Through it, the seller or administrator will be able to monitor the store’s website and immediately process purchase orders.
For the exterior of the store you will need a bright colorful signboard. Make it creative and large enough so that it can catch the eye even from a great distance.
Interior make light and unobtrusive. You can come up with an interesting room design or create your own symbols associated with the name of the store. As an option: your shop is called “Elephant”, indoors, place stickers on the windows in the form of cute elephants or hang small paper elephants on the ceiling.
