How to Start a Retail Women's Shoes Store

Starting a retail women's shoes store can seem daunting. It's a competitive industry, but it is a fairly simple business to start---in that there are no strict government guidelines for starting this kind of business. If you have a passion for shoes, accessories, and their trends, as well as a flair for business, you could own a successful retail women's shoes store.

Instructions

1. Choose your retail women's shoes store location carefully. Depending on how small or large you want to start out, your location needs to reflect that. You need room for storage, retail, accessories, walking space, restrooms, parking, and of course, shoes. Choose a location that is well lit and can be easily reached by car or foot. Your location should be large enough for your business and be in a location where people can easily see it and get to it.

2. Figure out what kind of shoes you want to sell in your retail women's shoe store. Create a line of shoes you want to sell according to your target market. If you are starting your store in a rich area you should be selling Guccis, Manolos, Louis Vuitton, and Chanel brand shoes. If you are not starting your business in a rich area you might want to stick to more affordable shoes. Choosing startup shoe designers might be the best thing for you. It all depends on what kind of customers will be frequenting your store.

3. Purchase shoes to sell in your store from wholesale sources. In the resource box there is a link to Wholesale Central where they list wholesale shoe stores. Some shoes you will have to choose from are casual, dress, athletic, boots, sling, heels, career, and wedding. You will need shoes from each category to please the largest number of potential customers coming in to your retail women's shoes store. The weather, fashion trends and your customer's preferences will also affect what they want.

4. Keep inventory. Keep track of the stock you buy, where you buy it from, when you buy it, how much you paid for it, how much you sell it for, and how much you buy. You will need to do this to determine what is selling well and bringing you profit, and what is gathering dust and costing you money. Keeping inventory properly will help you make a larger profit for your retail women's shoes store.

Tips & Warnings

• Use your tracking system for inventory to stay on top of what is selling and what is not. Ask customers to fill out recommendation cards so you can research what they want.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Wholesale Central
• National Retailer's Association