DRM5- CHAPTER 4: FASHION RETAILER’S ON-SITE ENVIRONMENT

Author's declaration:

Notes for this chapter are from Entrepeneur's Magazine; How to Start a Clothing Store, A Step-by-step Guide to Success; GUIDE#1817 and Retailing by Dunne and Lusch; Sixth Edition)



4.1 Methods to select retail location.

a. Look at several locations before choosing your store site.

b. Check into any local ordinances and zoning regulations that apply.

c. Determine your store's parking needs.

d. Decide whether the site is worth the rent.

e. define the selling point of your store's location.

f. Determine whether the location is an area of potential growth.

g Define your store's space needs.

h. Define your store's image


4.2 Store location

Store location can be divided into two kinds:

1. Store-based format: store based retailers operate from a fixed store location that requires that customers travel to the store to view and selest merchandise and/or services. Categories of store based retailers; business district, shopping centers/malls, freestanding, nontraditional.



2. Nonstore format: non-store based retailers reach the customer at home, at work or at a place other than a store where they might be open to purchasing. Categories of nonstore retailers; street peddling,mail-order, automated merchandising system, direct selling, internet.

4.3 How to choose the location

4.4 Classification of shopping districts



1. Business Districts

a. Central-business district (CBD): Consists of an unplanned shopping area around the geographic point at which all public trasportation systems converge; it is usually in the center of the city and often where the city originated historically.



Strenghts:

i. Easy access to publis transportation

ii. Wide product assortment

iii. Variety in images, prices and images

iv. Proximity to commercial


Weaknesses:

i. inadequate (and usually expensive) parking

ii. older stores

iii. high rents and taxes

iv. traffic and delivery congestion

v. potentially high crime rate

vi. often-decaying conditions of many inner cities



b. Secondary business district (SBD): is a shopping area that is smaller than the CBD and that revolves around at least one department or variety store at a major street intersection.



c. Neighborhood business district (NBD): is a shopping area that evolves to satisfy the convenience-oriented shopping needs of a neighborhood, generally contains several small stores (with the major retailer being a supermarket or a variety store), and is located on a major artery of a residential area.



2. Shopping Centers/Malls

a. Shopping Center (or mall): is a centrally owned or managed shopping district that is planned, has balanced tenancy (the stores complement each other in merchandise offerings), and is surrounded by parking facilities. Anchor stores in a shopping center that are the most dominant and are expected to draw customers to the shopping center.



Strenghts:

i. heavy traffic resulting from the wide range of product offerings

ii. cooperative planning and sharing of common costs

iii. access to highways and availability of parking

iv. lower crime rate

v. clean, neat environment



Weaknesses:

i. inflexible store hours (the retailers must stay open during mall hours and cannot be open at other ties)

ii. high rents

iii. restrictions as to what merchandise the retailer may sell

iv. inflexible operations and required membership in the center's merchant organization

v. possibility of too much competition and the fact that much of the traffic is not interested in a particular product offering

vi. an anchor tenant's dominance of the smaller stores



3. Freestanding

Freestanding retailer generally locates along major traffic arteries and does not have any adjacent retailers to share traffic.



Strenghts:

i. lack of diect competition

ii. generally lower rents

iii. freedom in operations and hours

iv. facilities that can be adapted to individual needs

v. inexpensive parking



Weaknesses:

i. lack of drawing power of complementary stores

ii. difficulties in attracting customers for the initial visit

iii. higher advertising and promotional costs

iv. operating costs that cannot be shared with others

v. stores that may have to be built rather than rented

vi. zoning laws that may restrict some activities



4. Nontraditional


4.5 Site selection

1.1.5 Analyze occupancy considerations.