More and more schools, companies, commercial centers… are springing up, leading to an increase in demand for stationery, opening up opportunities for development as well as competition in the stationery market. There are many of you cherishing ideas open a stationery store but don’t know where to start or how much capital is enough. How to sell stationery effectively? Join Sapo.vn to learn about the experience of opening a stationery store in the article below.
How to open a stationery store?
1. Come up with an idea for a stationery store model
Coming up with an idea for your stationery store is clearly a prerequisite, deciding on business direction, capital or source of goods.
So, make sure you have a clear direction on the business model, the right capital, the target audience so that you can start making a detailed, clear and effective business plan. best.
Let’s start with an idea of the stationery store model that you want and pursue later. It can be a small bookstore, combining the sale of necessary stationery for students and office workers. Or it could be a combination of stationery and essential consumables. Or a little more “adventurous” is a model that combines stationery, consumables and entertainment to attract customers and bring better revenue for your stationery store opening.
Choosing a stationery store model is a prerequisite
2. Planning to open a stationery store
A plan is always the most important factor so that you can start opening a stationery store and maintain your business in the most effective way, minimizing risks in the business process. Try to start with a plan that is as detailed as possible that outlines the most important factors for a successful business start:
- Market research
- Choose a location
- Source of capital to open stationery
- Search, select source of goods
- Formulate pricing policy
- Store manager
- Marketing
3. Market Research
Stationery business is no longer a “rare item” in the current society, but the trend of “growing up” of stationery stores is still increasing. Simply put, the need to study and use stationery cannot be reduced and the opening of a stationery store will always have “land” to perform.
However, you can’t open a store without taking into consideration the needs, demographics, or even your competition in that area. Because in a word, it would be a mistake if you put your “small” store in a busy area right next to the “big guys” full of names in the stationery industry, right? Therefore, always pay attention to the research of the market, the needs of the people or competitors by face-to-face interviews or easy surveys with survey questions.
4. Search and select places
Research the business location carefully. Try to choose places that are easy to find (think carefully with financial ability). Located near schools, supermarkets, commercial centers, companies… is the best. The location of the store is an important factor that greatly affects the development of the store.
However, opening small stationery, you do not have a lot of money to invest for all items such as shelves, location rent. Even importing goods is sometimes not as much as you want.
Choose the right locations when doing market research
A small tip for those of you who want to open a small stationery shop for business is to choose houses at the beginning of the alley, at the beginning of the street, near schools (primary, secondary, university, …). It’s a great place to open a small stationery bookstore.
Especially, if you are a wholesale stationery business model where the main customers are agencies and schools instead of retail customers, the beautiful facade location seems to be a problem that does not need to be cared for too much. Because you only need a warehouse and a transaction office to meet your customers and can be contacted through online channels.
Therefore, the location of the premises does not need to be beautiful to reduce costs, just a large area because stationery goods are many and bulky. Specifically: books, photo paper, printing paper, cover, file, office plastic shelves, necessities, … with an area of about 70-100m2.
5. Prepare capital and expenses
How much capital does it take to open stationery? Initial investment capital when opening a small stationery store is from 70 to 100 million VND for a store model of 20m2 – 40m2, used for the following expenses:
- Rent
- Repair and decorate the shop
- Equipped with tables and chairs, cabinets
- Equipment, tools, tools
- Import goods
- Store management costs
- …..
Depending on the business model, the size of the store, the capital you need to spend is different. At the beginning when opening a stationery bookstore, business people may be more interested in fixed costs such as renting space, importing goods or selling tools.
With a not so large amount of capital as above, you can already open a small office shop. Remember to have backup capital for at least the first 3 months of your business. If there is space, it can be combined with other accompanying services.
Always prepare all necessary expenses for opening a stationery store
6. Sourcing stationery products
To find a suitable source, try to answer the question: “What does it take to open a stationery store?” and start making a list of stationery to buy to be able to choose the best source.
Currently, on the market, there are many famous brands and popular goods in the market such as: Casio calculators, Dong A, GSTAR Stationery, UNI pens, Deli stationery, Future notebooks. Future Book), Hai Tien notebooks, etc. Thien Long Pen, Flexoffice file cover of Thien Long Group.
Rest assured that the market staff of the major brands are always ready to serve their outlet stores. In addition, young people also prefer beautiful and cute books, notebooks, etc. You can find this product on Hang Ma or Korean stationery.
Along with that, business owners can refer to stationery products from major brands to ensure product quality and import policies at wholesale prices, helping to minimize import costs. Depending on your business model, you can choose suitable import addresses. Especially with some stationery stores that combine gifts and accessories, business owners can buy stationery online or buy directly at other accessory stores at wholesale prices.
* Formula when importing stationery goods that shop owners can refer to:
- Textbooks, reference books…: 50%
- Pens, school supplies: 7%
- Cover files and office supplies: 8%
- Souvenirs: 20%
- Children’s toys and other souvenirs: 15%
7. Store decoration
If it is a small stationery store, the product layout will be very necessary and important. You need to design appropriate cabinets for display, ensuring that the target is easy to find, easy to see, easy to get, easy to buy.
For a small stationery store, the stationery store layout can start with 2 shelves running along the side of the wall, one at the back, and one in the middle of the house, depending on the area, you can You can put it into many racks, but each rack you go up to about 1.5m-2m for convenience in moving or changing later.
Glass cabinets for stationery can be left in the middle of the house or in front of the door. Take advantage of the layout space to help customers feel comfortable while still meeting the needs of finding products.
Always arrange and manage products scientifically and reasonably
Separate areas for books and school supplies and stationery. As for books, please classify them clearly by category and type of book to ensure that your customers can easily find and stimulate demand in the best way.
Similarly, the area of school supplies and stationery also needs to be clearly divided. This not only helps customers reduce selection time, but also helps store owners easily manage products for sale as well as inventory more accurately, minimizing losses and misalignment in the business process.
If you are trading in stationery combined with selling souvenirs, amusement parks or necessities, pay attention to the arrangement to ensure that customers can be proactive in their selection. No need to be too picky like many other business models. With stationery store opening, try to ensure the best convenience for your customers.
8. Stationery store manager
Care about customer experience: One thing to note is, when opening a small stationery store, you should still pay attention to the parking location and parking for customers. Customers who buy books and stationery are usually students or parents who take their children to shop. Therefore, try to choose locations that are centrally located, close to schools and offices.
Always arrange and manage stationery scientifically: The logical and scientific arrangement of stationery not only helps customers find and buy products more convenient, but also provides the ability to stimulate demand as well as control goods in the best way.
Inventory control, import and export: Always control the items in stock, sales and import and export with professional tools to ensure that there are no unnecessary loss problems.
When dealing in stationery, for more convenience in sales and goods management, a stationery store management software can help you manage sales, inventory as well as import and export efficiently. , accurate and minimize effort, time and loss.
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9. Personnel management
With the opening of a small-scale, household stationery store, you only need to recruit 1-2 employees in shifts, later you can recruit more employees depending on the development of the store. It is necessary to have professional, conscious and thoughtful people to worry about your store: always happy with customers, know how to care, clean goods, listen …
If you don’t want to spend money on personnel costs, you can ask for support. Instead of using human resources, take advantage of remote store management software, support payment and export – import goods when needed.
Always train and manage personnel professionally
Small stationery store management software will manage work at your store, make sales easier, month-end reports are integrated with just a click. You will evaluate the performance of your employees and track your regular customers through a very convenient and easy-to-follow system. Thereby, you will be proactive in planning for the next time.
Stationery items are very diverse in types, designs and colors, so for easy management, you may need a solution to manage your store more efficiently and professionally. , it doesn’t take much time in adding up the books (sometimes inaccurate), it takes time in inventorying when opening a stationery store.
One management software lsales intention Professional will help capture information about quantity inventorytrack revenue, accurate profit and loss, fast payment to customers to free up payment queues, accurate sales prices – no price confusion, remote staff management when not at the store , enhance the brand image of the store…
You can register FREE 7 DAY TRIAL Join us today for the best experience in your business.
