The sector of retail trade is extremely important for a city economy as it has direct impact on all spheres of business and levels of population, it is the indicator of the general well-being in the country. Retail trade is presented by a considerable quantity of enterprises and faces a lot of manifold problems. Definition of a place of trade, attraction of buyers, competent human resources management – all these and many other important aspects of successful activity demand the well-thought-out strategy and the modern approach. Retail enterprises sometimes do not have the important information necessary for realization of effective activity and planning of perspective development.

Retail business has a number of characteristic features. Sales are in most cases connected with direct sale of goods to the end user who has possibility to choose the most favourable offer out of all spectrum of presented brands and prices. Also we should not forget that retail trade is often unplanned purchases, that is it is not that easy to predict the assortment matrix in advance. Besides, the buyer should be interested in visiting your shop, that’s why when creating a point of retail sales it is necessary to consider such factors as convenient location, proximity of competitors, business hours, convenient approach and parking place availability, etc. the Correct work organization within the limits of retail trade promotes goods turnover growth, satisfaction of consumers demand and commercial success.

Consulting company CONCOL has a wide experience of work with retail enterprises. For such enterprises we offer the following services:

• full consulting support of opening business (consulting services);
• definition of a social-demographic portrait of a potential consumer, management of assortment;
• business automation;
• the analysis and optimization of the price policy;
• finding of an optimum location for points of sales;
• the analysis of competitors and making recommendations about increase of the enterprise competitiveness ;
• working out of targeting strategy and of the marketing plan;
• working out of the business plan for attraction of investments;
• the analysis of business processes and business optimization;
• the analysis of personnel efficiency, optimization and working out of complex system of motivation (both material, and non-material);
• logistics optimization (consulting logistics) and many other things.

Our project on a mini-market of printed goods can serve an example of efficiency of carrying out of marketing researches for retail enterprises. A company referred to us with the request to develop the document confirming investment and financial attractiveness of introducing a new format sales points of printed matter. In the frame of the project the research of consumer opinion concerning an offered format of sales points, which showed high interest of consumers and a potential demand, has been carried out. Calculation of demand volume and necessary investments for the organization of new format sales points proved high financial efficiency of the project which allowed businessmen to raise capital for realization of their project and to be convinced of profitability of the idea. On termination of research CONCOL company experts gave their recommendations on the further perspective development of sales outlets network (business development).

Buyers’ opinion concerning the location of point of trade is extremely important for sales of any kind of goods. Today to sell products by means of advertising becomes more and more complicated, the competition grows. For successful realization of goods it is not enough to have rich assortment, a brand and acceptable prices on products, it is necessary to have also the best point of sales without which fulfillment of all other conditions of reaching a commercial success comes to naught. Thus, for example, realization by our experts of the project on optimization of distribution of points of sales for one of fast food networks allowed the company to increase a turnover and profit without increase of the budget on advertizing: after all when choosing a fast food restaurant the consumer, first of all, pays attention to its location, and then on its brand.

And what to do in a situation when the business idea has just emerged but it takes yet long time till the moment of choosing a point of trade?

We would like to make an example of full support by our experts of opening a boutique of fashionable clothes. Business of fashionable clothes and accessories sales is rather sophisticated; it depends on constantly changing fashion trends and preferences of buyers. Out-of-fashion goods happen difficult to sell even at a considerable discount, and the insufficient volume and poor assortment can scare off potential buyers. Experts of CONCOL company conducted marketing researches for the purpose of studying of assortment of competing shops and offers of the brands in greater demand. On the basis of the received data, the idea of the most demanded assortment has been created and the boutique effective price policy was suggested. As the consumer psychology is that that it demands encouragement, the system of discounts in the boutique has been developed as well.

Next step was to choose the location for the outlet. To sell fashion clothes it is more rational to dispose the shop in places where there are a lot of young people. As the optimum alternative in that case s a pavilion in one of shopping centers of Moscow was chosen. However it turned out to be rather complicated to find a shopping center with proper visitors contingent, as in new shopping centers the turnout and streams are not defined yet, but to rent an area in well established shopping centers where there are large streams of visitors is practically impossible. With the help of competitors review and social-economic analysis of the district development, and also bearing in mind budget restrictions imposed by the project sponsors, our specialists defined the suitable variant of a shopping center. As the shopping center opened not long time ago, the rent during first months was not as high, but at the same time due to active property development in this are an increase in visitors streams was anticipated in the nearest future.

After the shop premises have been chosen, the necessary list of equipment was formed, tenders for software, shop equipment and money office equipment supplies were carried out. The interior designers and subcontractors for repair works were chosen as well. The planned PR actions also added to the shop success.

To define the project financial effectiveness and evaluation of general demand in investments the estimation of expected profits and expenses according to the project was made (carrying out of financial analysis). The resulting financial plan enabled the businessman to evaluate the monetary means necessary for successful boutique operation, to know the pay-off period and also the potential profit. The expert support of the process of the shop opening allowed the owner to avoid possible risks and put money into a really gainful business.

It is also important in modern conditions of tough competition to find a catchy and rememberable name for a shop, to think of a drawing attention slogan. Quite often a businessman is not able on his own to concentrate both an idea and the shop concept in one offer, to think of the name to interest the necessary audience. In this case you will also be given the support of our experts: we have wide experience of forming an image of a potential consumer, of definition their interests and a psychological portrait, as well as copywriting .

For the enterprises working in sphere of trade, the competent policy of motivation of the personnel is also very important, as the general profit of the company strongly depends on success of each separate manager or a salesperson. Our experts develop complex motivational programs (including methods of material and non-material motivation), allowing to keep valuable employees and stimulating them to become result-oriented in their work (motivation of the personnel).

If you are also involved business in sphere of retail trade, and you have faced a problem which demands the deep analysis, experience and understanding of factors of its occurrence, contact our experts by phone:

(495) 763 28 63
(499) 145 74 77

Or by e-mail info@concol.ru