How to smoothly relocate your retail store

There are lots of different reasons why you might need to relocate your retail store. Maybe you’ve outgrown your current location and you want a fresh start in a spot that gives you more space. Or perhaps you’re identified a location that offers better opportunities in terms of passing trade.

Whatever your reason for needing to relocate your retail store, it’s important to consider how you’re going to approach the move and how you’re going to ensure it all happens smoothly. It’s easier said than done, so read on now if you want to learn more about the tips that’ll help you get this move right.

Take note of all items you need to move

First of all, you should probably go through all of your inventory and try to take note of everything that needs to move to your new location.

That way, you’ll have a checklist that you can refer back to in the future when you’re making sure that everything is on its way to the new place and that nothing of importance is getting left behind. It’ll offer the basis for the rest of your move and ensures you’re keeping things organised from day one.

Plan well in advance

Planning out the move well in advance is massively important. The more planning you do and the more prepared you are for moving your store to a new location, the less bumps in the road you’ll be likely to experience along the way.

If you go into it thinking that it’ll all be easy sailing, you should prepare to fail because there’s a lot that needs to be taken care of. Be prepared and always get things done sooner than whatever their final deadline is. That way, you’ll avoid getting caught out.

Ensure your new location offers everything you need

Of course, part of the relocation process is about making sure that your new place is offering what you need and actually finding it to begin with. Try not to rush the process of finding a new location if you haven’t found one already.

This is going to be the base for your business for the foreseeable future, so you’ll want to make sure the changes that you’re making are going to be the right ones. It’s not something to rush.

Work with a conveyancing lawyer you can rely on

If you’re buying your commercial building, the process can take a little longer and that’s because the legal ownership of the building needs to be transferred.

This is known as the conveyancing process and it’s something that can take up quite a lot of time in some instances. You’ll be able to speed things along, however, if you’re working with a top conveyancing lawyer who you know you can trust and rely on to get the job done efficiently.

Make the most of professional packing services

It’s usually a good idea to use a professional packing service if you want to make sure that everything is packed up and that it’s done so safely and securely.

When you’re moving an entire store and everything that it depends on to operate, there’s a lot that can go wrong and there’s a lot that can get broken and damaged along the way.

But when you’re using packing services delivered by professionals, you can at least make sure that everything is packed up correctly and your items are secure and ready for the move.

Get rid of anything that doesn’t need to move

There are lots of things that you might be able to get rid of or simply leave behind during the moving process. This is your chance to have a clearout of those things, and that might be something that you’ve been putting off for a long time.

If it’s no longer needed by your business, it doesn’t need to come along as part of the move. This is a fresh start for your business, so it makes sense to treat it that way.

Get help with the move to avoid unnecessary injuries 

You definitely need to make sure that you hire the right moving company to take care of the physical moving process for you.

There are lots of heavy furniture that usually has to be moved as part of the commercial moving process, and it’s probably not something that you’ll want to be taking care of by yourself.

You’ll run the risk of damaging your stuff and even injuring yourself, and that’s not what you want at all. So find the right help as soon as possible.

Ensure your team can hit the ground running in the new place

Once the move has taken place, you need to make sure that you get everything set up as early on in the process as possible.

After all, you’ll be opening up soon and using the space as a functional retail store. In order to keep business and sales flowing, you’ll need to hit the ground running. Your employees need to know how everything works and how things have changed compared to the old place. 

Don’t forget to communicate with your customers

You also need to make sure that you’re communicating this major change to your customers consistently in the lead up to the move.

You don’t want them to think that you’re still based in your old place and be confused when they find you’re not there. Tell as many people as possible, put up posters ahead of time notifying people of the move and ensure that you give out the address of your new location to anyone and everyone.

As you can see, there’s plenty to think about when you’re relocating your retail store. It’s important to consider each of the points raised above if you want the whole process to go down how you imagine it should.

Don’t leave anything to the last minute and don’t do anything that’s going to make the process more difficult for yourself.