shoe shop setup ?

buttercups88

I worked in a shoe shop for 5 years (i've been out of it 4 years though so mightn't be much use) from what I can remember the mark up's were fairly high apart from the bigger brands

Graham

bob5666 wrote: »

get real

Great idea. This is going to be blunt:

Have you done your homework!

Have you spoken to any of the shoe & footwear wholesalers? They should be able to answer most/all of your questions relating to supply/margins and if you find a friendly one they may be able to give you an idea of stock requirements, expected turnover etc.

Try getting in touch with the Independent Footwear Retailers Association in the UK. They even have a book "How to Open a Shoe Shop" http://www.ifra.org.uk/open-a-shoe-shop

Learn how to use Google. I already have a ballpark profit margin of around the 40% mark but I don't know if that includes returns.

Look for shoe shops for sale, they will quickly give you a ballpark for turnover/profit. You might also get the opportunity to visit them, ask them questions maybe even look at their figures.

You will find you get much much better advice and feedback from this forum if you can demonstrate that you have put more than 2 minutes into researching your intended business/market.

Bandara

bob5666 wrote: »

all i see is nobody has answered my simply questions on
how much mark in the norm in this sector .?
Can you order select sizes or do you have to take all the odd sizes too?
How much stock be needed for a shop in medium sized town?
Is it hard to get brands to stock if someelse is selling them all in my town are small companies 2 others in total

The reason no one is answering your questions is because they are so basic that the fact you are asking them is a huge red flag. It's just not on to be asking things like that when your on the verge of sinking thousands of euro into a business, your being completely reckless and we are actually trying to talk some sense into you here, w no one is having a pop at you, we are trying to stop you losing your money.

You can't learn on the job, it's not possible.

Your questions are irrelevant at this stage, it's the fact you are going to open a store and on day one your going to stand in the middle of the floor and not know what to do. If you build it they are not going to come, you are going to have to get them in, and you simply don't have the ability/experience to do this.

Anyway, I hope you try to take some of what every person is saying on board, we all admire your drive and desire, but your not channelling it responsibly.

Take your stubborn hat off, taken a step back and consider what you would do if a friend told you he wanted to be a chef and open his restaurant, but he couldn't cook.

That's what your doing.

Regards,
HT

bob5666

Hammertime wrote: »

The reason no one is answering your questions is because they are so basic that the fact you are asking them is a huge red flag. It's just not on to be asking things like that when your on the verge of sinking thousands of euro into a business, your being completely reckless and we are actually trying to talk some sense into you here, w no one is having a pop at you, we are trying to stop you losing your money.

You can't learn on the job, it's not possible.

Your questions are irrelevant at this stage, it's the fact you are going to open a store and on day one your going to stand in the middle of the floor and not know what to do. If you build it they are not going to come, you are going to have to get them in, and you simply don't have the ability/experience to do this.

Anyway, I hope you try to take some of what every person is saying on board, we all admire your drive and desire, but your not channelling it responsibly.

Take your stubborn hat off, taken a step back and consider what you would do if a friend told you he wanted to be a chef and open his restaurant, but he couldn't cook.

That's what your doing.

Regards,
HT

Im trying to sell shoes its not a trade like a chef which takes years all i have to do is buy a good product at a good price and sell it to as many people as possiable in a nice store and be a goodsales man not excalty rocket science
Just be smart and innovative that about it you see problems ill get solutions lol
Think i got my answers that i want from the 2 posters before you ,
ask you a question get ten questions back

Bandara

bob5666 wrote: »

Im trying to sell shoes its not a trade like a chef which takes years all i have to do is buy a good product at a good price and sell it to as many people as possiable in a nice store and be a goodsales man not excalty rocket science
Just be smart and innovative that about it you see problems ill get solutions lol
Think i got my answers that i want from the 2 posters before you ,
ask you a question get ten questions back

Ok, fair enough.


Best of luck with your business.

Atomico

bob5666 wrote: »

all i have to do is buy a good product at a good price and sell it to as many people as possiable in a nice store and be a goodsales man not excalty rocket science

If that's the case, why isn't everyone doing it then?

bob5666

Atomico wrote: »

If that's the case, why isn't everyone doing it then?

I guess they dont have my sales skills

Peterdalkey

This thread is definitely a wind up. Well done Bob! You got us all going... My money is on you being Bob-a-Job!

Atomico

bob5666 wrote: »

I guess they dont have my sales skills

If only that was all there was to it

Graham

Peterdalkey wrote: »

This thread is definitely a wind up. Well done Bob! You got us all going... My money is on you being Bob-a-Job!

I thing you're right Peter.

Only 4 months ago bob was going to rent a commercial unit to run a takeaway.
5 months ago it was a menswear shop.
Before that Bob was looking for wholesale jumpers which appeared to cross with the Halloween costume project.

It's either a wind-up or pretty soon you'll be able to go into Bob's Fantastical Emporium in small-town Donegal and come out with shiny new brogues, designer jeans, matching reindeer jumper and a gorilla mask. All that shopping will probably have made you hungry so don't forget to grab a bag of chips as your leaving.

Payment will only be accepted in Danish Krone, as Denmark is apparently Bob's preferred banking location. :rolleyes:

Peterdalkey

Will the real Bob please step forward!

bob5666

Graham wrote: »

I thing you're right Peter.

Only 4 months ago bob was going to rent a commercial unit to run a takeaway.
5 months ago it was a menswear shop.
Before that Bob was looking for wholesale jumpers which appeared to cross with the Halloween costume project.

It's either a wind-up or pretty soon you'll be able to go into Bob's Fantastical Emporium in small-town Donegal and come out with shiny new brogues, designer jeans, matching reindeer jumper and a gorilla mask. All that shopping will probably have made you hungry so don't forget to grab a bag of chips as your leaving.

Payment will only be accepted in Danish Krone, as Denmark is apparently Bob's preferred banking location. :rolleyes:

This is no ordinary bob lol

bob5666

Peterdalkey wrote: »

Will the real Bob please step forward!

Just looking for a few answers

Peterdalkey

repetitio est mater studiorum

sandin

Either you are genuine, but at wits end as to what to do with a premises you have or you are just trolling.

Benefit of the doubt, I'll say its the former.

I worked at a senior level in the shoe trade in UK and France - both retail and distribution.

It sounds easy - buy shoes at x price, then sell them at y price. But if it was that simple, there'd be shoe shops in every village.

You need to know your local market and what part of that market you are going for. Paul Byron is a great local town shoe shop whereas Fitzpatrick's in Dublin are a great city fashion store.

Once you understand your customer, you source the brands/styles that customer wants. e.g. older more mature lady would be looking at Ecco, Elmdale, Vandal, Hotter, Rohde etc (not sure if all these brands still exist), whereas high city fashion would be designer names along with the likes of marco moreo, UGG, sebago, timberland.

Then within the brands you mix in some everyday value from whoelsalers - mostly UK based with the higher end in east London and the lower end in leicester.

Then, you get your staff and you need to train them into having the patience of saints and to understand fitting and issues people have with feet - corns, dropped arches, turned toes, cracked heels etc etc. Do it right and treat them well and you could have a customer for life aka byron, fitzpatricks, cripps in terenure and the many many long term shoe shops around the country.

So its not as easy as it seems - that's why you don't see many shoe shops opening, but alos why you don't see many of the old guard closing even through the recession. I worked as a rep in the Irish shoe trade about 25 years ago as my first job and its great to see so many of the same names still about, but not too many new names. - that should tell you a lot about the trade.

bob5666

sandin wrote: »

Either you are genuine, but at wits end as to what to do with a premises you have or you are just trolling.

Benefit of the doubt, I'll say its the former.

I worked at a senior level in the shoe trade in UK and France - both retail and distribution.

It sounds easy - buy shoes at x price, then sell them at y price. But if it was that simple, there'd be shoe shops in every village.

You need to know your local market and what part of that market you are going for. Paul Byron is a great local town shoe shop whereas Fitzpatrick's in Dublin are a great city fashion store.

Once you understand your customer, you source the brands/styles that customer wants. e.g. older more mature lady would be looking at Ecco, Elmdale, Vandal, Hotter, Rohde etc (not sure if all these brands still exist), whereas high city fashion would be designer names along with the likes of marco moreo, UGG, sebago, timberland.

Then within the brands you mix in some everyday value from whoelsalers - mostly UK based with the higher end in east London and the lower end in leicester.

Then, you get your staff and you need to train them into having the patience of saints and to understand fitting and issues people have with feet - corns, dropped arches, turned toes, cracked heels etc etc. Do it right and treat them well and you could have a customer for life aka byron, fitzpatricks, cripps in terenure and the many many long term shoe shops around the country.

So its not as easy as it seems - that's why you don't see many shoe shops opening, but alos why you don't see many of the old guard closing even through the recession. I worked as a rep in the Irish shoe trade about 25 years ago as my first job and its great to see so many of the same names still about, but not too many new names. - that should tell you a lot about the trade.

Finally a man talking sense you have me sumed up just a commercial premises looking to open a business
Id say you are not far wrong it would be hard to open a new shoe shop and make it work but not impossible might go back to plan a open a chipper which i have experience just there wud b a lot more start up costs with it

ImDave

bob5666 wrote: »

Its hardly a business plan a few simply questions get real

Thats why I said essentially devise a business plan.

bob5666

ImDave wrote: »

Thats why I said essentially devise a business plan.

Its the way you said it and its be a very poor essentially business plan too 4 questions answered lol

magic_murph

I smell a rat - I have a feeling this bob5666 is simply bored at work and has zero intentions of going into the shoe selling / fixing business.

Bring on the next dreamer please.

bob5666

magic_murph wrote: »

I smell a rat - I have a feeling this bob5666 is simply bored at work and has zero intentions of going into the shoe selling / fixing business.

Bring on the next dreamer please.

You just watch me then

ImDave

bob5666 wrote: »

You just watch me then

Bob - I don't think you have answered this question already. Why a shoe shop? What is your rationale for wanting to open a shoe shop? Did you wake up some morning having experienced a dream about selling shoes?

Why not a book shop, homeware store, coffee shop or sex shop?

Graham

ImDave wrote: »

Bob - I don't think you have answered this question already. Why a shoe shop? What is your rationale for wanting to open a shoe shop? Did you wake up some morning having experienced a dream about selling shoes?

Why not a book shop, homeware store, coffee shop or sex shop?

I'll pre-empt the next set of questions:

What's the margin on books, where can I get them wholesale?
What's the margin on homeware, where can I get them wholesale?
What's the margin on coffee, where can I get coffee wholesale?
What's the margin on sex, where can I get it?

La Haine

I've the inside track on some magic beans if you're interested Bob?

bob5666

ImDave wrote: »

Bob - I don't think you have answered this question already. Why a shoe shop? What is your rationale for wanting to open a shoe shop? Did you wake up some morning having experienced a dream about selling shoes?

Why not a book shop, homeware store, coffee shop or sex shop?

Shoe shop i can see demand everyone needs them and i can see myself compeat with other shops in my town there all shops one off shops no big retailer
Why not a sex shop its right in town centre not grest position for shop like that also town is too small for that
Why coffee shop or homeware thery are too many to count in my town also my primise is about 500 square foot on ground floor too small for coffee shop and a bit tight for homeware

ImDave

bob5666 wrote: »

all shops one off shops no big retailer

Is that not exactly what you are going to be also - you are not opening a chain or franchise, and in a 500 sq. ft. unit you aren't going to be a big retailer either.

Look I'll give you one piece of advice from my only knowledge of the shoe business. A friend of mine is in the golf business and wanted to become a specialist in Ecco shoes, both golf and casual/formal wear shoes. He was looking at 15k-20k outlay just to get stocked. You then have to compete with people window shopping and trying on stock in your store, then ordering online when they know what style and size they want.

Overall my final input is - don't do it. Go back to the drawing board and put some real work into market research. Or if you have won the lotto as you claimed earlier, approach a reputable market research firm that will compile a report based on facts and science, as opposed to asking vague questions on a forum. Best of luck.

sandin

magic_murph wrote: »

I smell a rat - I have a feeling this bob5666 is simply bored at work and has zero intentions of going into the shoe selling / fixing business.

Bring on the next dreamer please.

Why do you say that - have you ever gone the route of thinking what to do next? I did & I can assure you that my move from the shoe business in the eighties & nineties into what I did in the late nineties & noughties was completely different. - So different that many thought I was mad - but my "skill" is identifying new trends and I did very well out of it and changed again 4 years ago back into retail again in a totally different field and can already claim leadership in the particular area.

From what I see, he's got a premises, he has drive, he has a bit of cash, the shoe idea came from his father being a cobbler, the fast food idea came from a previous use in the building - so its a thought process which a few here have decided to deride him for!

I say, continue with the thought process until you hit an idea that could really work in the premises - it may end up being a subway franchise (right size) or specialist shoe shop. Or maybe a Zipyard franchise for shoe repair and alterations - again right size, family history in the trade, low start-up costs. (see how different ideas can come flowing!!)

Good size for a traditional sweet shop, but that is on the wane, so scratch that. Maybe a barbers? - get a Boston Barber franchise, employ a good barber or two and manage the business?

Any one of the above retail ideas could be operated by anyone with a retail brain as in my book, retail is about brilliant service - I don't believe you can learn that, but you can learn virtually everything else about a retail business no matter what sector its in.

Bob5666 - if you pm me your location, i'll throw a couple of suitable ideas at you.

bob5666

sandin wrote: »

Why do you say that - have you ever gone the route of thinking what to do next? I did & I can assure you that my move from the shoe business in the eighties & nineties into what I did in the late nineties & noughties was completely different. - So different that many thought I was mad - but my "skill" is identifying new trends and I did very well out of it and changed again 4 years ago back into retail again oin a totally different field and can already claim leadership in the particular area.

From what I see, he's got a premises, he has drive, he has a bit of cash, the shoe idea came from his father being a cobbler, the fast food idea came from a previous use in the building - so its a thought process which a few here have decided to deride him for!

I say, continue with the thought process until you hit an idea that could really work in the premises - it may end up being a subway franchise (right size) or specialist shoe shop. Or maybe a Zipyard franchise for shoe repair and alterations - again right size, family history in the trade, low start-up costs. (see how different ideas can come flowing!!)

Good size for a traditional sweet shop, but that is on the wane, so scratch that. Maybe a barbers? - get a Boston Barber franchise, employ a good barber or two and manage the business?

Any one of the above retail ideas could be operated by anyone with a retail brain as in my book, retail is about brilliant service - I don't believe you can learn that, but you can learn virtually everything else about a retail business no matter what sector its in.

Bob5666 - if you pm me your location, i'll throw a couple of suitable ideas at you.

I think you have me sumed well there i am going to do something just not sure what yet on here to look for a bit of advise from a few people to get different peoples mind sets on things and way to go about it

magic_murph

My comment was simply based on the language used in his lack of questioning. Early on people were giving honest feedback but the OP continued with 'Well yeah, give me information one shoe's'

The comments lacked any engagement with the posters and their feedback.

I am 100% behind anybody wanting to trying something new, diversify and break away from the norm - in think case my initial impression was trolling.

Either way I am a size 11 so let me know what you have in stock.

sandin

magic_murph wrote: »

My comment was simply based on the language used in his lack of questioning. Early on people were giving honest feedback but the OP continued with 'Well yeah, give me information one shoe's'

The comments lacked any engagement with the posters and their feedback.

I am 100% behind anybody wanting to trying something new, diversify and break away from the norm - in think case my initial impression was trolling.

Either way I am a size 11 so let me know what you have in stock.

tough - I've bagged all the size11's!

Anyway - got info. It won't suit a shoe shop, but knowing the location, I can see where he was coming from, but too many good retailers in the main "shopping towns" that are less than 30 minutes easy drive away.

No good either for fast food - would have been a great location many years ago - but emigration and recession has hit the area hard.

I've given my recommendation and I reckon it will work. - right size too.

Peterdalkey

Hats off to you Sandin!! You saw where we were blind! or was it blinded?