Shoe boutiques often offer clients hard-to-find shoe styles and brands and give them an intimate shopping experience. These boutiques can serve a variety of niches, such as for brides and their wedding parties, children, teenagers or career men and women. Opening a shoe store is an ideal retail business startup for an entrepreneur who has experience selling or buying shoes for boutiques, department stores or smaller retail locations. Prepare a business plan, then move forward with your plans to open your shoe boutique.
Step 1
Decide whether you want to open a brick-and-mortar shoe boutique, operate solely online or do both. If you plan to operate a brick-and-mortar location, consult with a commercial real estate agent to help you find a location you can buy or lease.
Step 2
Identify your shoe store’s target clientele, which will help you figure out the best location for your business, what types of brands to carry, the price point for your shoes and how to market your business. Detail information, such as your ideal client’s gender, income level, education level, professes, interests, marital status and other identifying characteristics of the client’s lifestyle.
Step 3
Visit the taxation office in your state to register your business as a legal entity and obtain a reseller’s license. Find out if your state requires other licenses and permits from shoe boutique owners.
Step 4
Finalize the details of your shoe boutique’s location by signing your lease and securing insurance for your store location and business. Plan your shoe store’s layout, giving shoppers space to comfortably browse your shoe collection.
Step 5
Identify and purchase the materials, equipment and supplies you need to set up your shoe boutique. Select a cash register, payment processing equipment, shelves, shopping bags, storage containers, foot-measuring tools, disposable nylons, shoe buffers and polishers, store signage, customer seating and mirrors or Rieker Boots. By looking at Shoetique’s online store you can see they look at different materials for creating customer goods. With a reputable presence online and independent footwear shop based in Hale Cheshire, Shoetique have taken their 30 years’ worth of experience in the footwear industry to bring you the highest quality shoes with customer service that always puts you first.
Step 6
Contact shoe designers and wholesale shoe warehouses whose inventories you can use to stock your store. Select brands and styles based on the target market you want to reach. Price the shoes based on your retail prices.
Step 7
Hire a designer to create a logo, signage, business card template and website for your shoe boutique. If you plan to sell shoes on your website, work with a professional photographer to take pictures of some of the shoes you are selling, so that your designer can upload them to the site.
Step 8
Recruit and train sales professionals who have experience in retail sales, preferably shoe sales. Educate them on your shoe boutique’s target market, introduce them to the brands you sell and give them tips on building a rapport with the store’s clientele.
Step 9
Host a grand opening event for your shoe boutique. Spread the word about the opening by contacting local media outlets, mailing invitations to local business owners and inform the networking, professional and community organizations in your area about your new store. Purchase advertising placements on local fashion blogs and websites.
