Despite the fact that the number of people who love to read paper books is steadily decreasing every year, their number is still so large that the book industry continues to be a large branch of the economy.
Opening a bookstore is an attractive business idea for many entrepreneurs.
Unfortunately, such a business often suffers losses, because entrepreneurs do not take into account the state of the market, do not conduct marketing research, and do not study the demand for certain categories of books. Meanwhile, obtaining preliminary information and drawing up a business plan are always the most important components of the success of a future enterprise.
Starting to implement the bookstore business idea, you need to carefully study the offers of competitors, draw up a portrait of the target buyer for yourself.
Many novice entrepreneurs do not hesitate to place their bets on children’s books, believing that this segment of the book market is always in demand. There is some truth here, but high competition often reduces all efforts to zero.
Another popular mistake entrepreneurs make is opening a large bookstore and trying to cover the entire range of the book market. As a result, the store is quickly overstocked with unclaimed books, and high rents for large areas and overheads lead to the bankruptcy of the enterprise.
In fact, small bookstores in supermarkets or malls are most often successful.
The small area of such book islands, the opportunity for buyers to view each book closely, a small assortment — allow you to quickly recoup your costs and reach profitability. An example of such small bookstores is airport lounges, which, despite their limited stock, often sell much more than large specialist bookstores.
When opening a bookstore, special attention should be paid to finding a suitable location.
The layout of small bookstores in shopping centers is often very successful, but you need to use common sense and choose a suitable location with great care.
It is known that the most advantageous place for placing retail outlets is at the exit from the supermarket, when the buyer rests his eyes directly on the offered product.
But for bookstores, this location is often extremely disadvantageous. It is much better to place bookstores in places where potential buyers are waiting for each other, or moving from one shopping area to another, for example, on stairwells, near cinemas, indoor cafes. It should be borne in mind that the buyer needs some time to select a book, so the need to wait for companions often leads to purchases.
Depending on the target buyer and location, it is possible to form an assortment of book products.
If the main buyers are young people, the basis of the assortment can be action books, fantasy, detective stories. Older people are more interested in classical literature, novels, entertainment books. Often successful are specialized shops selling scientific and computer literature, second-hand bookshops and antique shops.
In almost any bookstore, it makes sense to offer at least a small assortment of stationery and periodicals. A very important detail is the organization of free access for customers to the shelves with books, the opportunity to study the assortment. In small boutiques, it is much easier to organize such access, ensuring the safety of goods, than in large stores.
The cost of opening a bookstore depends on the form of work and its area. To set up a small bookstore in a shopping center, for example, a few hundred thousand dollars is enough, not counting the cost of purchasing goods.
In general, it is quite realistic to meet the costs of 1-1.5 million dollars.
It is much more difficult to ensure the profitability of such a point of sale, since the salaries of sellers and high rents can almost completely eat up all income. Therefore, it is unlikely that it will be possible to create a successful enterprise without economic calculations and a business plan.
You can fill out an application for a good business plan right now on our website. Pay attention also to the convenient service for calculating the profitability and payback points of the project.