Three tips for expanding a retail business

Running a retail store is getting a lot harder in the face of the rise of online shopping and if you want to thrive, you need to find ways to compete with the convenience and price of e-commerce stores.

If you can do that, you should be able to build a successful business and even start thinking about expanding.

If your retail store is doing well, you need to capitalise on that success and start growing the business while you still have that momentum. But expanding a business is always a risk and if you don’t go about it in the right way, you could lose the business entirely.

If you want to expand your retail business, here are a few important things to consider. 

Research new locations 

If you want to open a second location, you need to choose the location very carefully. It’s important to find an area where there is a demand for your products and pick a location that gets a lot of foot traffic. If you open a store in the middle of nowhere, you won’t get people through the door.

When you’re looking for a new location, you should consider opening a pop-up store for a while to see what the reception is like. It’s a great way to get an idea of how successful the store will be, without all of the risks involved with opening a permanent store. 

Focus on convenience 

The reason that people like online shopping is that it’s convenient, and if you’re ever going to compete, you need to be able to match that experience in your own store.

That’s why you have to make the whole process as easy as possible for them. Put some thought into the layout of the store and make sure that all of the most popular items are front and centre.

You also need to invest in a more efficient POS system that you can use on tablets and phones. The faster you can get people through the till, the more convenient the shopping experience, and the shorter the queues will be. If people are waiting too long, they may just leave. 

Introduce new product lines 

Opening a new location isn’t the only way to expand your business and if you don’t have the money to invest in that, you should consider introducing some new product lines instead. You won’t be able to continue your initial success if you haven’t got anything new to offer your customers.

The best way to design and develop new products is to think about what made your previous products so successful in the first place.

If possible, you should use email marketing to get some feedback from customers to get an idea of what kind of products they might want to see in the future. If you can expand your product lines, you’ll be able to get more repeat customers.

To know more about developing a new product check out this amazing guide from Tcgen.

Expanding your retail business is always going to be a risk but if you follow these basic rules, you should be able to make it a success.