Opening a bridal boutique

[KTL]

hi, I am in the initial stages of researching with the idea of opening a bridal boutique.

I am finding it very hard to find out on average how many dresses a week I could be expected to sell. Does anyone have any advice or input on this?

Thanks

 

[WaveJumper]

Not sure if anyone can answer that one unless they are in the business themselves. So assuming you have no prior experience in this field how about working it out backwards. What sort of premises are you going to use, what are your total over heads going to be rent, rates, power, wages, marketing, attending wedding shows etc. etc.

How much can you retail your dress’s for, what is going to be the mark up, how many dress’s would you need to sell a week to cover all your costs and make a profit .5, 10, 20 then maybe you can ask yourself if that’s realistic, what is the local competition like.

Hopefully someone with more knowledge of this area will give you a better steer.

 

[Mr D]

Method I use is work out how much I need to make to cover the costs.
eg - perhaps fixed costs are £10 a day, need to sell enough to cover that £10. May be one item, may be 20 items. Or anything in between.
Different items producing different profits and often enough additional items purchased to go with an item so different profit from a single sale.
I don't think in terms of number of items, the figure is ultimately meaningless to me. Sales total - can compare to yesterday or even last month.
Profit counts. Without it a business is steering towards problems.

 

[fisicx]

I am finding it very hard to find out on average how many dresses a week I could be expected to sell. Does anyone have any advice or input on this?

What size is your catchment area?
How many weddings are held each week in that catchment area?
How many other wedding dress stores are there?

If there are 10 weddings each week and 4 competitors then the most you might sell is 2. But probably less than that.

 

[KTL]

Thanks for the responses!

I know how many I need to sell to cover costs and make a profit it is more finding out if that is realistic.

I would want to sell around 2 a week but want to know if this is reasonable to expect.

Thanks

 

[deniser]

No-one can answer this question. It depends on many factors:

1. which brands will you be selling? Is there demand for that brand? Do you have exclusivity of a wider area for that brand?
2. what is the mark up on that brand?
3. what sort of clientele are you aiming for? Are they likely to be people at work during the week? If so, are you going to open on both Saturday and Sundays?
4. How much space do you have? How many individual rooms? How many customers can you cater for in one day? How many staff can you employ? I am guessing most boutiques operate an appointment system. How long are your appointments? How many can you fit in at the weekend?
5. Are you going to be a one stop shop and offer shoes, accessories and bridesmaid and flower girl dresses as well?
6. How will people find you? Are you good at social media? You will need a big budget to advertise in the wedding magazines?
7. Do you have customer service skills? Do you have sales skills? Do you have admin, marketing and creative skills? Can you sew?

 

[PrettyThings]

What deniser said...

I have experience of a wedding shop... it's very stressful (getting dresses on time), and you may not sell a dress for weeks. Another time you'll get a bride and 8 bridesmaids dresses in a day.

Be prepared that suppliers won't deal with you if they have another stockist locally (and locally can mean 30 miles). My advice would be to get experience in a local shop before making any firm plans if you haven't already.

Good luck

 

[Financial-Modeller]

No direct experience but a friend opened a Bridal Shop.

Despite her being inteligent, capable, well-funded etc, the venture failed.

Three reasons specific to the sector:

• Suppliers (dress designers) seemed to hold more power than retailers and could dictate onerous terms like insisting the retailer buys a run of 20 (very expensive) dresses in all sizes with no or very poor credit terms, leaving her with unsold stock
• Staffing difficulties as many bridal fairs are over weekends - when bridal parties want to visit the shop - and also bridal parties want to visit the shop on a weekday evening rather than taking time out of work during the day
  
• In some cases, people visited the shop, enjoyed a couple of hours of pampering and bubbles trying on dresses etc, then bought online from China at a fraction of the price

 

[WeddingsInWales]

Someone above suggested to go work in a Bridal Shop. Good idea! Not only do you get free training, but you may even get paid a wage. But here's another idea. The above post from Financial-Modeller states: "Staffing difficulties as many bridal fairs are over weekends - when bridal parties want to visit the shop - and also bridal parties want to visit the shop on a weekday evening rather than taking time out of work during the day" and therein lies an opportunity. You could offer Bridal Shops to either attend Bridal Fairs for them in return for a commission (so they do not have to staff it) or to work the evenings and anti-social hours.

Bridal fairs tend to be around the same time of year meaning there are several on at once, not all of which can you attend. January is a popular wedding fair month, also February. We as a venue know this because these are the months when most weddings are booked and so we along with competing venues run bridal fairs in these months more than say the summer (when venues are all too busy with their own wedding season). Herein lies an opportunity to go around Bridal Shops and offer to run their stalls for them, possibly at more than one fair.

You may find an issue with the Bridal shop not wanting to pay for too many stalls (cost can be high in renting stands even at local bridal fairs) but if they want to get in front of more customers, they will need to attend more bridal fairs. You could offer to run the shop for them while they attend the fair, or you attend the fair for them. This way you get experience and see how it all works. The anti-social hours and staffing issues could be your opportunity to get into the trade and learn it from the inside. It is a way of learning the business and you might make more in partnership with Bridal shops than in setting up on your own, particularly if this is your personal passion.

 

[John Halliday]

Hey KTL, Not sure if you've come across it, or indeed if it provides any help/insight, but I spotted some data set in Nomis that feature marriage (same sex and opposite sex), including data by location of occurrence.

I can't put a link in here as i'm new to UKBF, but if you google "Marriages of opposite-sex couples in England and Wales by area of occurrence," and you will see then links to same sex marriage by location of instance.

Anyway, Nomis and NOS websites are where to look.

Hope it helps in your research, as it may give you an idea of demand in your locale.