Online shopping isn’t going anywhere. There’s never been a better time to grow your retail business once you have the basics in place and a reasonably secure corner in your chosen market.
Knowing where to start is trickier than it sounds, though, so we’ve rounded up a few points that might help you get things organised.
Important First Thoughts
Before you rush in and start spending money on expansion, pause a while and dig deep into what’s motivating you to expand. While there are lots of reasons to go ahead when the time’s right, there are also a few reasons to hold your fire and step back.
If possible, talk it over with someone who has business experience and has preferably gone through a business expansion themselves. They’ll be able to tell you the problems they ran into, the thoughts, worries and fears they had, and how they overcame them.
As well as being confident that the business is ripe for expansion, you also need to be sure it’s what you really want. It’s easy to get carried away with the glamour of expansion without looking into how it’s going to affect you personally. You’ll have more work to do, more responsibility and potentially more to lose if things get sticky.
Expansion isn’t right for every business, regardless of what people might tell you or how you might think things work in business. One of the worst things you can do is press ahead if you feel in your heart that you’re not ready.
Once you’re certain, and sure about the how, why, and where, you’re ready to press on.
Sort Out Your Storage
Small business online retailers often start up at home. It’s a good way to minimise the costs and risks, keeping overheads really small while you find your feet and test the market.
The downside to running online retail from home is finding space to store the stock. It can be hard enough at the beginning but can grow into a real problem as the business flourishes.
If you want to expand the business from home, a bit of rejigging for stock storage is probably needed:
Can you commandeer a room in the house and use it exclusively for stock? If you have a spare bedroom that’s only occasionally used for overnight guests, you could repurpose it into your stock room, putting bedroom furnishings into self storage until you change things around again.
An alternative could be to cordon off an area in another room, using room dividers, curtains, or any other way you can devise to separate it from the main function of the room.
If you decide on using the loft, make sure the access is safe and secure, you have good lighting up there and the flooring is solid. Assuming everything is sound, it can be a good place to store things.
Once you have your location, the next step is organising it for efficiency. An expanded business means more orders to process, so make sure you can easily find items. Use lots of labels, have good shelving, and position your best sellers where they’re easy to reach.
Considering Office Space
When home storage is no longer viable (and that time will come), it’s time to investigate more professional options. There are a few to consider:
- Office space – having an actual office can boost your productivity and give you a better work/life balance if you find it hard to achieve all you’d like from home. If traditional offices feel out of budget, take a look at flexible offices. They offer similar professional services but with cost advantages such as no long contracts, no hidden charges or extra fees for VAT or business rates.
- Warehousing – unless you’re retailing thousands of items or stocking really big items, it’s probably not the right expansion method, but it’s good to be aware. Bear in mind you will probably have extra costs on top the rental charge for the space.
- Self storage for business – this can work very well for online retailers, providing somewhere to store stock and pack orders at the same time. The relative low cost of self storage could make this a good expansion route.
Manage Your Risks
The final thing on this short list of expansion pointers is limiting your risk as far as you can. Of course, there are always going to be a few risks because you can’t control everything. Markets can shrink, trends change, or overheads rise unexpectedly, all of which can put pressure where you didn’t expect it.
One of the best ways of minimising risk, aside from carefully considering all the options available, is to make sure your accounts are up to date and that you understand where every penny is coming from and going.
Take all the advice you can from experts. Your local chamber of commerce is a good starting place, and they may even be able to help by pointing you towards grants or loans if you qualify.
Business expansion is a challenging operation, but one that offers huge rewards when you do it right. Take your time, do your research, don’t rush, and a bigger, brighter business future is on your horizon.