How to Choose a Retail Store Space Location

Selecting a retail space is a make-or-break decision for a business owner. The conventional success sutra for retail success is to pay low rent, provide less expensive products, and get maximum customers to buy products from your store. But in reality, it is not as simple as that. Here in this article, we list the important steps to consider before finalizing a retail store location for your business.

There are many factors one needs to look into before finalizing a retail store business. One of the key factors in deciding your location is analyzing the kind of products or services you are selling.

6 Steps to Follow Before Finalizing a Retail Store Location

1. Fix Your Niche

This is the most important aspect to consider while choosing your retail store location. That is why experts suggest thorough market research of the immediate locality before selecting a retail location.

For example, if you are planning to set up a beauty parlor and the local population is largely old-aged, then it would be foolish to select allocation there.

2. What Products Are You Selling?

Another important factor in selecting a retail location is the type of products/ services you will be offering to customers.

A coffee shop will need much less space than a cafe with a bookstore providing hangout facilities to customers. Also, you need to check whether the products you are selling have good local demand.

Broadly customers buy products either impulsively or through a process of careful planning. 

3. Check the Local Competition

If you are dealing with a product that is unique in nature and nobody sells similar items, you don’t need to think much about competition. But mostly that will not be the case in reality.

Avoid places where there is already a retail outlet that is selling similar products unless it is a big shopping mall. It will not be a wise idea to select a retail location where the is an existing shop nearby.

4. Your Retail Store Must be Easily Accessible

Choose a retail location that your target customers can reach easily. Again, it will also depend on the type of products you are catering to.

Say, if you are selling high-end luxury items, chances are more that most customers will come in their own cars. In that case, you need to make sure the retail space has a good frontage with sufficient parking space.

Furthermore, there are some purchases that are made on impulse and other purchases are made after careful planning. Retail for carefully planned shopping will be termed planned retail.

5. Selecting a Retail Space in Impulse Retailing

If the products you are merchandising seek impulse purchases, you should see a prime location. If they are in a shopping center, they’re almost always in an end-cap location.

If they are part of a larger shopping plaza, they typically have the best location within the shopping plaza.  Great visibility and great access are both important.

Even though it will not be easy, you probably need to pay for the very best possible location.

Cafe Coffee Day is a great example of an impulse purchase. You see a CCD location and decide to pull over and have a coffee and perhaps a pastry. Have you noticed how CCD almost always has incredible locations?

6. Selecting a Retail Space in Planned Retailing

In selecting a retail space for planned retail, a prime location is not an absolute necessity. You need to be in the right area but you do not necessarily need the finest location within the shopping center.

Almost all planned retail outlets have a convenient location with good visibility.

While access is a factor for planned retail, it is much less important in comparison to impulse purchase retail. Jewelry Retail outlet like Tanishq is a perfect example of Planned Retail.