How to open a pet store in Ukraine?
16.11.2022 19:06
According to Torgsoft estimates, Ukrainians are ready to spend from 5,000 to 20,000 UAH per year on their pets, despite the war and other cataclysms. Given the stable desire of people to have a pet at home and the growing demand for pet products, opening a pet store can be an interesting and promising business idea.
What do you need to open a pet shop? What range of goods do you need in a pet shop? How to properly advertise and design a pet shop?
Formats of a pet shop
Kiosks and pet shops of small size, mostly 10 sq. m., where goods for animals of mass demand are sold;
Pet shops with a wide assortment, which occupy from 20 to 70 square meters. They sell specific products for animals, veterinary products, premium feed;
Narrowly focused pet shops, large retail chains focused on a specific type of animal (for example, amphibians and reptiles). They sell rare types of feed and pet products.
The best option is a mini-shop of up to 15 sq. m. Fill the store moderately so that customers can see the entire range.
How much does it cost to open a pet shop?
- Rent of commercial premises - from 10-15 $/m2
- Utilities - approximately $250
- Purchase of basic assortment and equipment - from $5000 - $7000
- Primary household needs: local network, Internet, network equipment, computer, automation, trade equipment - from 1000 $
- Salary of the seller - $300 - $400
Location of the pet store
The next step is to choose the location of the store. To do this, analyze the number of competitors in your city - usually there are the most of them in the center, the least - in residential areas, the proximity of the future point to crowded routes, its permeability, etc.
As for the place, it is best to locate the store in a separate building or in a residential building (on the ground floor or basement), or in a shopping mall.
The cost of rent depends on the region, location, area, room conditions, traffic, etc. However, it is more difficult to maintain rented shops. It is more expedient to purchase the premises.
Official registration of a pet shop: nuances
Most often, pet shops are registered as individual entrepreneurs, since the gross income per year does not exceed the requirements of the law. Maintaining a sole proprietorship is easier in taxation and accounting. In the future, you can register a legal entity and become a VAT payer - if the business goes up and there is a need to work with large suppliers. The procedure for opening a sole proprietorship is not complicated.
It is worth noting that in order to open a pet shop in Ukraine, you need to obtain permission from the Sanitary and Epidemiological Station and fire supervision. In addition, to sell medicines, you will need a veterinary license. To obtain it, the staff must have a veterinarian with secondary or higher veterinary education.
Keep in mind that antiparasitic shampoos for animals, drugs against fleas, worms in tablets also fall under pharmaceutical activities. Given the need to obtain a license, pet shop owners are registered as LLCs.
Search for sellers
The number of employees depends on the area of the store and its attendance. The norm of sales area served by one seller is 20 m².
The choice of a pet specialist is an important step, because only an experienced person can tell customers which food to prefer, which medicines to choose. Most often, the duties of sales assistants in small pet stores are wide: they are engaged in the layout of goods, work with the cash register, advise customers and keep order.
It is clear that many pet stores operate without a license, selling goods from under the counter, - says Maksym Novikov, project manager of the pet store chain ZOOlogy, - The problem of newcomers is that they start their business as a hobby. They think they know everything about animals because they have a favorite dog and open a pet store. Then it turns out that, in addition to dogs, there are many other pets whose needs are unknown to them. In this area of business, a beginner needs to know so much that it is easier to open a grocery store.
One of the owners of a shop for fishermen told about the establishment of trade:
I determined for myself that most of the seller's time in my store is spent on customer consultation and did everything to make this process flawless. Namely, I hired a veterinarian, arranged the goods as conveniently as possible so that you can read the necessary information from the labels, took care of sufficient lighting, and I also pack all the weight goods (including feed) in advance. So it's easier for everyone - buyers believe more in the correctness of the weight of the packaged goods, and bags of feed do not suddenly tear in their bags - that's once. I installed the program for accounting of trade in a pet store - that's two. Sellers do not waste time on records and weighing, all attention to the buyer - this is three.
Assortment of the pet shop
The most effective layout scheme for a small store is to group products by type of pet or product category. For example, in one part of the room to place running goods - feed, fillers, in the other - medicines, veterinary products, accessories, toys.
The buyer should be able to easily take the goods from the shelf so that those commodity units standing next to each other do not fall to the floor due to excess. Put a moderate amount of goods on the shelves and let the sellers control its regular replenishment.
To choose the range of products for a pet store, carefully study the filling of pet stores that are successful in their niche. However, usually product groups remain unchanged.
The largest turnover - about 65% - is brought by pet food, which is needed every day. This is followed by accessories and care products - shampoos, cat litter, scratching posts, combs, leashes, collars, toys - 15% of sales. Approximately 10% of the turnover is medicines and remedies for parasites and ticks. Also in the pet store can be presented literature with recommendations for the care of animals.
Since the margin on the first two categories of pet products is small, the optimal ratio between feed and accessories in the assortment of the outlet is 50% to 50%, or 60% to 40%.
In the first three months of work, you can adjust the assortment according to the region and the most popular type of pets. The assortment range also depends on the purchasing power of your customers.
A promising direction may be the opening of specialized pet stores. However, it is risky to start with a specialized store, as sales in them are not regular. Therefore, to increase sales and expand services, you can simultaneously open an online store.
In particular, through the online store you can deliver goods to the house. In this way, feed in batches and large packages of 12-50 kg, or cat litter are well sold.
If you are interested in the question of how to open an online pet store, you need to think through many issues of development, promotion of the site and lay a certain "cost plug" for this line of sales. On the Internet, it is easier to track the competitive environment and monitor prices. Opening an online pet shop is especially relevant now that people are less mobile and more orders are made online.
Advertising a pet store
how to advertise a pet store
A successful start depends on the location of the store. The criteria for choosing a place are obvious: a crowded neighborhood with good transport interchange, a residential area with parks or dog walking areas. These factors will directly affect the popularity of the point and sales.
It is important that shop signs are bright and attract the attention of customers. After all, a person tired of work may not notice the appearance of another "gray" kiosk. Over time, most of the customers will become regular.
You can inform about yourself at specialized exhibitions by organizing your own advertising stand. If there is a veterinary hospital nearby - place information about the store there.
However, today online advertising works best. Knowing the features of business promotion in social networks and creating bright advertising campaigns, in a few months you will be able to form a customer base and have the first sales from the Internet.
Do not forget to encourage owners who buy products for kittens or puppies - with a good impression of your store, they will become loyal customers for a long time.
Inform customers about new products in your range - from new toys to clothing for insulation. This can be done by sending email or SMS messages. And collecting information about customers is best done by introducing discount cards that will give discounts on subsequent purchases. Both customers get a bonus, and you get the key to customers.
In addition, partnership recommendations between stores work well - it is worth placing business cards or booklets of the pet store in neighboring outlets that do not compete with each other.
What is needed to automate a pet shop?
- Accounting program for a pet store Torgsoft: Start license - for a small store, Ultra - for a store with several cash desks and a marketing program, Terminal - for a chain of stores.
- Trade equipment for a pet store:
- Barcode scanner for fast sales.
- Check printer for issuing fiscal and non-fiscal checks to customers.
- Label printer for posting and labeling of goods.
- Scales for weighing feed.
- Additional Torgsoft options that may be needed in a pet store:
- Software cash register for the sale of fiscal goods.
- Connection of a bank terminal for fast and error-free cashless payments.
- Synchronization with the online store.
- Packing of weight goods and marking it with a barcode.
- Mass mailing of Viber, SMS and e-mail for regular work with the client base and reminders about yourself.
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