How to Open a Children’s Clothing and Toy Store: Budget, Assortment, and Launch Plan

Start with a specific customer, a small assortment, and a cost estimate. Before placing a large order, find out which sizes, toys, and prices your customers need. Register the business and prepare the required cash register before your first paid sale.

This plan covers a store selling children’s clothing and ready-made toys purchased from Ukrainian suppliers. Food, cosmetics, medicines, importing on your own, and manufacturing require separate preparation. Below is a sequence of launch decisions, an illustrative budget, and first-month metrics.

Identify your customer and test demand

Describe your customer segment using four criteria: the child’s age, required sizes, reason for purchase, and budget. For example, an illustrative store might sell everyday clothing for preschoolers and gift toys for that age group. Set a separate price range for each group.

The owner conducts brief interviews with potential customers. Ask about their most recent purchase: what they were looking for, how much they paid, where they bought it, how they chose the size, and what was missing. Answers about actual purchases are more useful for planning orders than general approval of a future store.

Before registration, gauge interest without accepting payments: show a selection of products at planned prices, collect requests for sizes, and note questions about delivery. After registration and preparing to process payments, run a limited sales test. Set its budget, duration, and criteria in advance: number of paid purchases, contribution toward covering costs, and requests for unavailable options.

Choose premises and agree on the lease

Compare several locations at times when your customers are likely to be there. Count passersby, check how visible the entrance is, the route from the nearest stop, and whether visitors can enter with a stroller. Assess the fitting area, aisle space between racks, and access to products. This is a practical check of convenience; any mandatory requirements for the specific premises must be determined separately.

Before paying a deposit, check the documents for the premises and the landlord’s authority to lease them. Specify in the agreement the permitted use, term, full payment amount, utility costs, how price changes are handled, repairs, signage, and return of the security deposit. Also calculate any costs of preparing the premises that the store will bear.

Find out where the nearest accessible shelter is and how to get there. Agree on what to do in an emergency: who stops serving customers, informs visitors, and is responsible for closing the store. Review this procedure with employees before opening.

Build the assortment around sizes and intended use

An assortment matrix is a table of the products the store plans to sell. For clothing, each entry should be a specific combination of model, size, and color. For a toy, record the model, intended age, price, and manufacturer’s warnings.

Do not order for every age group and purpose at once. Set aside a core assortment and a small test portion. For example, an illustrative order of five models in four sizes and two colors already creates 40 distinct options. Even two units of each means 80 units of stock.

Set quantities for each size based on test results and the ability to reorder. Each week, record which options customers asked for but did not buy because they were unavailable. This helps distinguish weak demand for a model from a shortage of the needed size.

Check the supplier and every shipment

Before paying, obtain the supplier’s details, agree on the product list, and confirm the delivery documents. The terms should cover lead times, minimum order, payment, what happens if items are missing, returns of defective goods, and shipping costs. Agree separately on reordering sizes and colors.

The employee receiving the goods compares the delivery note with the actual quantities, models, and options. They check that all components are present, inspect the packaging and labels, verify the information for customers, and look for visible damage. Record discrepancies immediately. Keep delivery notes and correspondence about problem shipments in a way that lets you find them by product and supplier.

What to check on toys

A store selling ready-made toys has distributor obligations under the Technical Regulation on the Safety of Toys. Before selling a toy, check:

• The national mark of conformity to technical regulations on the toy, label, or packaging, as required by the rules for applying it.
• The model, type, batch, or another product identifier.
• The manufacturer’s name and postal contact address and, for an imported toy, the importer’s name and postal contact address as well.
• Required documents, instructions, and safety information in Ukrainian.
• Age limits and other warnings that customers must be able to see before purchase, including online.

If the rules allow the marking to appear on the packaging or in an accompanying document, check it there. Ask the supplier for a declaration of conformity that applies to the specific toy. The required set of documents depends on the conformity assessment procedure: one universal “certificate for all toys” does not replace checking the specific product.

If there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a toy does not meet safety requirements, do not sell it until it has been brought into conformity. If it poses a risk, notify the manufacturer or importer and the relevant state market surveillance authority. If non-compliance is found after the toy has been made available on the market, make sure the necessary corrective measures are taken: bringing it into conformity, withdrawing it from the market, and/or recalling it, depending on the circumstances. If the toy poses a risk, immediately notify the state market surveillance authority about the non-compliance and the measures taken. In response to a reasonable request from that authority, provide information and documentation to demonstrate conformity; at its request, cooperate to eliminate the risks. Keep records that identify the toy’s supplier for ten years after it was supplied to you.

Follow storage and transport conditions that preserve product safety. Arrange the display by intended age. Employees should inspect the integrity of parts and fastenings and remove any questionable product from customer access. For clothing fittings, provide stable furniture and clear space beside the accompanying adult.

Prepare business registration, the cash register, and sales staff

Register the business before a commercial sales test. Work with an accountant to determine business activity types, the tax system, tax payments, and accounting obligations. Prepare a way to accept payments and the documents to provide to customers. Before purchase, provide accessible and accurate information about the product: its name, key properties, price and purchase terms, manufacturer and seller, safe-use and storage instructions, applicable warranty obligations, and service life or shelf life. Decide where customers will find this information: on the price tag, label, accompanying documents, or another accessible visual format. For online sales, include the relevant information in the product description before checkout. If you hire sales staff, formalize their employment and assign responsibility for the cash register, receiving goods, and customer enquiries before work begins.

Before accepting payments, determine whether an RRO or PRRO is required for your retail format and payment method. If required, process transactions through a registered RRO or PRRO and issue a settlement document for the full transaction amount. In cases expressly provided for by Law No. 265/95-VR, settlements are made using registered settlement books. This also applies to relevant online sales. A PRRO is a software cash register that registers receipts through the fiscal server. A bank payment terminal does not perform this function on its own.

Before launch, check the settings for sales, returns, and receipt issuance. Set out what to do if the cash register malfunctions or the connection is lost. If you use an RRO or PRRO, create a fiscal report receipt each day on which settlement transactions were carried out. For online sales, separately document payment, delivery, provision of the receipt, and returns.

The statutory obligation to keep records of stock has exceptions. In particular, paragraph 12 of Article 3 of Law No. 265/95-VR provides an exception for individual entrepreneurs who are single-tax payers without VAT, except for specified product groups. Check whether this applies to your assortment; delivery notes are also needed for working with suppliers and tracing toys.

Explain exchange rules and how to report defects

For a non-food product of proper quality, the general rule is exchange within 14 days, excluding the day of purchase. The product must not have been used; its appearance and properties, seals, labels, and the settlement document—including an electronic one—must be preserved. If an equivalent product is unavailable, the law provides other options, including terminating the contract and refunding the money.

There are exceptions under Resolution No. 172, including underwear and bed linen, hosiery, gloves, soft children’s toys, inflatable rubber children’s toys, and specified goods for infants. Compare the list with your products. Do not promise exchanges for the entire assortment, and do not apply the proper-quality exceptions to complaints about defects.

When a customer reports a defect, record the product, purchase date, description of the defect, and the customer’s request. Article 8 of Law No. 1023-XII distinguishes between defects and significant defects and provides for different remedies: a price reduction, repair, reimbursement of repair costs, and, where the relevant grounds apply, replacement or a refund. A seller’s assertion alone that the product was used incorrectly does not prove the cause of damage.

Calculate the start-up budget and sales needed

Below is an illustrative budget, not market pricing. Replace the amounts with supplier quotes for your location.

Planned initial payments total 290 000 UAH. The 90 000 UAH reserve is for later payments; it is not an opening-day expense. Check whether you have included repairs, delivery, software, and any other work you specifically need.

Illustrative completed and paid sale: receipt total 1 200 UAH, purchase cost of goods sold 720 UAH, variable costs 120 UAH. Contribution toward fixed costs: 1 200 − 720 − 120 = 360 UAH. With fixed costs of 72 000 UAH, you need 72 000 ÷ 360 = 200 receipts per month.

This calculation does not separately include taxes and owner compensation that have not otherwise been accounted for. Add them to the relevant part of the model. Account for returns by reducing revenue, restoring saleable goods to stock, and including actual handling or damage costs, without writing off the cost of restored goods a second time.

Track sizes, colors, and stock in Torgsoft

When receiving goods in Torgsoft, an employee enters the quantity of each size and color. At checkout, they scan the barcode for the specific option. In the “Склад → Стан складу” (“Warehouse → Stock status”) mode, you can view quantity, size, sale price, and cost. This lets the owner check stock for each option.

Returns are processed from the relevant sale: the program records the refund and return of the product to stock. The stock record shows the balance after receipt, sale, and return. An authorized employee decides how to handle the customer’s lawful claim.

To replenish stock, set a minimum quantity and select products using the “Закінчується товар” (“Low stock”) filter. The overall setting is available in the relevant version; separate settings by store require the “Мінімальні та максимальні залишки за складами” (“Minimum and maximum stock by warehouse”) option. Torgsoft-Start does not include supplier orders. The selection criteria are described in the solution for children’s stores; stock management is covered in the “Стан складу” (“Stock status”) instructions.

30-day launch plan

1. Days 1–7: The owner conducts interviews, defines the segment, and compares premises. Outcome: a list of confirmed needs, price ranges, and rent estimate.
2. Days 8–14: The owner and accountant prepare the registration and payment setup; the person responsible for purchasing approves suppliers and the matrix. Outcome: readiness for lawful sales and a first-order budget.
3. Days 15–21: Employees receive the goods, check markings, set up stock records, and run a limited sales test after preparations are complete. Metrics: paid purchases, sales contribution, and requests for unavailable options.
4. Days 22–30: The owner compares results with the plan, reorders needed products, and stops unconfirmed orders. They check funds for upcoming payments, stock levels, and reasons for returns.

Official sources

• Law of Ukraine No. 265/95-VR “On the Use of Registrars of Settlement Transactions in Trade, Catering, and Services” — Articles 2–3, including paragraphs 1–2, 9, 12, and 16 of Article 3.
• Law of Ukraine No. 1023-XII “On Consumer Protection” — Articles 8, 9, and 15.
• Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 172 of 19 March 1994 — Annex 3, list of goods of proper quality that cannot be exchanged or returned.
• Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 151 of 28 February 2018 “On Approval of the Technical Regulation on the Safety of Toys” — paragraphs 9–10, 19, 26–32, 36–38, 41–48, and 51–54.