If you are interested in fashion and are looking to start a shoe business, opening a shoe store may be your ideal choice. A shoe store is versatile because you can open in a local community or online, where you can serve customers worldwide.
Although this may be a way to make money, opening a shoe store requires planning and a lot of initial investment. You need to know how to unlock your shoe store and see if it’s suitable for you.
Content
2.Skills, Experience, and Education Useful in Staring a Shoe Store
3.What are the Costs Involved in Starting Shoes Business
4.What are the Ongoing Expenses for a Shoe Store
6.Contact Us If You Want to Be Our Middleman
Here are some factors you need to take into consideration when you want to start a shoe store.
1.Target Market
Target market refers to a specific and clearly defined segment of the consumer market in which a firm wishes to sell its products and services and guide its marketing efforts.
Then the shoe store’s target market will depend on the store’s characteristics, the unique brand it sells, and the niche market it is. For example, a sports shoe store would market to athletes or people who love sports, while a luxury shoe store would market to a different audience than a value or discount shoe store.
Some stores sell products to specific groups of people, such as women, men, or children. Most stores have a large stock of styles and sizes that buyers can buy and use on the same day, which means they must have large inventory budgets and significant storage space.
Although the potential market for shoe stores is vast, by being a little more specialized, shoe stores can develop their brands, target more specific audiences, and make advertising and marketing efforts more effective.
Therefore, you need to consider your target market, and then you should master some skills of starting a shoe store.
2.Beneficial Experience And Skills in Staring a Shoe Store
Although you don’t need a business degree to start a shoe store, having some valuable skills and experience can make starting a business more accessible and successful.
Experience in the shoe industry. Some experience in the shoe industry is helpful to start your business. You can go to the shoe factory for an on-the-spot experience, get familiar with the process of shoemaking, and have a comprehensive understanding of shoes. Knowing the styles, manufacturers, and brands, materials, and fit of shoes can help you create memorable shopping experiences for your customers. In this way, customers can come back more and more.
Awareness of fashion trends. Customers require the shoe store to have the latest fashion styles and a wide range of styles. Therefore, shoe store owners need to know the current development trend of shoes so that the shoe store can attract more customers. When customers look for your shoe store, your shoe store will be on the right track. Of course, this also requires the store to maintain sufficient inventory.
Organization skills. The ability to organize a shoe store is essential to its success. Shoe store owners need to be well organized in tracking inventory and maintaining a budget, which is very important in physical stores. A clean and orderly shoe store will make it easier for customers to find what they want and make their shopping experience more enjoyable.
Customer service skills. Besides solid organizational skills, shoe store owners need to have vital customer service and interpersonal skills because creating a positive customer experience can bring valuable repeat customers and positive reviews. Of course, shopkeepers who provide high-quality customer service can also teach these skills to their employees.
Management skills. Almost all shoe stores require multiple employees, which means the shopkeeper needs to have good management skills. These skills are essential for any shoe store owner, from interviewing and recruiting employees to train and supervise them. Therefore, if you want to run a good shoe store, not only do you have excellent professional knowledge, but you also need all aspects of skills.
After you have these skills, you need to think about how much you spend in starting a shoe store.
3. What are the Costs Involved in Starting Shoe Business?
(The picture is from Nike’s Official Website.)
When you are looking to start your shoe business, you need to consider many factors, including the store’s size and type, the volume of inventory, personnel, design, procurement, production, transportation, customer service, publicity, and promotion.
In general, the start-up costs of a shoe store can be high. You need to pay about $10,000 in initial franchising fees. Opening a smaller shoe store is expected to cost more than $60,000. Bigger shoe stores with extensive inventories can cost as much as $150,000 for a start.
A lot of expenses are very high because shoes can cost a lot of money. You should have about $2,500 in insurance start-up costs on hand. At the high end, a shoe store’s total cost can reach $200,000, taking into account utility deposits, professional fees, computer systems, and business licenses.
Here is an excel of costs of start-up a shoe store:
4. What are the Ongoing Expenses for a Shoe Store?
Of course, there also have the costs of keeping the shoe store open, in addition to the initial expenses.
Excluding the cost of setting up a shoe store, it is expected to cost about $2,000 a month in rent and about $300 a month in water and electricity. As the owner of a shoe store, you need to pay employees $8 to $20 an hour, depending on their position. If you hire an IT team, you need to pay $30 per hour for a skilled worker. In addition to those costs, there are other additional costs, including marketing expenses, which amount to about 1% of your annual net sales, and ongoing inventory costs, which can go as high as $75,000 a year.
Here is an excel of ongoing costs for a shoe store:
If the shoe store sells less each year, likely, the income will not make ends meet. Therefore, when you have the idea of opening your shoe shop, you should consider these factors, master specific skills, and be ready for venture capital.
Running a shoe store is a costly business, so if you don’t have a strong family background or investors to support, it isn’t easy to successfully maintain a shoe store. Therefore, generally speaking, with 20 years of shoemaking, our advice to you is that you should directly be a shoe intermediary or middleman instead of starting your own business. On the one hand, it has small investment, low risk, high efficiency, and quick return, and on the other hand, it can accumulate shoe experience and expand your contacts.
5.Being a Middleman
Suppose you are interested in becoming a middleman but are not familiar with it. Don’t worry! I will introduce what a middleman is.
The term “middleman” is an informal term that refers to acting as an intermediary in a distribution or transaction chain, facilitating interaction between the parties involved. Intermediaries specialize in crucial activities in purchasing and selling goods from the producer to the final buyer. They usually don’t produce anything but have extensive market knowledge, so they charge commissions or service fees. In addition to these, the middleman can make money by selling the product at a higher price than the purchase price. This difference is referred to as the “mark up” or the buyer’s final cost.
A middleman is a business done by many people. With the help of these middlemen, shoes produced by the shoe factory will be distributed to others. These people may be wholesalers, retailers, or distributors. The primary purpose of intermediaries is to make profits to get products from China shoe manufacturers at the lowest possible price. Then they will sell the shoes to wholesalers, retailers, or distributors to make a lot of profits.
Features of being a middleman:
- A middleman is an intermediary in a process or transaction.
- In return for providing services to match buyers and sellers, the middleman will receive a fee or commission.
- Many industrial and commercial sectors use intermediaries, ranging from trade and commerce to wholesalers to stockbrokers.
Now, I believe that you should understand what a middleman is. Then what are the advantages of being a middleman? Let’s read on!
Here are some benefits of being a middleman:
There are many advantages to being a independent middleman for those interested in working freely. This type of job allows a person to work in a field they like while controlling their own time.
※ Flexibility
As an independent middleman, you can flexibly have your working hours and be your boss. You can control your career, especially when it comes to scheduling. You can go to work from your living room at the most convenience and arrange meetings with clients at the right time, having to commute to work every day as a regular office worker. This Flexibility makes it easier for you to achieve work-life balance, which is a significant advantage for people interested in working at home, whether they have a family to take care of or they like to stay in their place.
※ Limitless Income Opportunity
There is no limit to the income of a middleman. Because the wholesalers, retailers, and distributors you contact do not have fixed orders. They need more orders, you have more income, so as long as the orders are continuous, you will have more and more money, which is entirely different from ordinary office workers. You don’t need to get a fixed salary every month like an office worker, and you don’t need to have a lot of fixed expenses every month like a boss. Your income is not limited, which is also the benefit of other jobs. Once you get in touch with clients who need shoes, there’s a certain amount of revenue. Because the shoe factory generally has its MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity), you can decide to increase the MOQ for your clients according to the MOQ provided by the shoe factory so that the income can be guaranteed to a certain extent.
※ Self-Employed
A middleman works primarily on yourself but will sign contracts for products or services with companies you want to represent. In this case, you can be your boss and make decisions about your job without having to consult others or face the pressure of running your own business. For example, you want to be a shoe middleman for the shoe factory, but there are many kinds of shoes, such as running shoes, leisure shoes, sneakers, and hiking shoes. You can choose one type or several, and it’s all up to you. Once you’ve made your choice, it’s time to choose the right company, because some companies offer you the product and don’t offer any other help. However, some companies will be friendly and offer you support and guidance beyond the product. So, before choosing to become a middleman for a shoe factory, be sure to review your agency agreement carefully. When you select good companies, discuss the details of cooperation with them and sign an agency contract.
※ Higher Total Profits
Although the rate of profit of being a middleman is relatively low, the total profit will be higher than that of opening a shoe store. If a shoe store is on yourself, it is very slow to make a big turnover. But, as a middleman, if you successfully link a big client, the business will grow rapidly, and the total commission you get will be more than the profit you earn from opening a shoe store. And, with the passage of time, there are going to get bigger orders, and so are profits. In addition, compared with the failure rate of starting a shoe business by oneself, it is lowest of being a middleman and the risk is smallest. The failure rate of starting a business is as high as 95% – 99%, while that of being a middleman is only 3% – 5%. Therefore, it is a good choice to be a middleman.
※ Additional Benefits:
◇All profits are kept to yourself.
◇Being a middleman is not afraid of overstocking the goods.
◇It’s relatively cheaper to buy shoes from the shoe factory in China. And it can be guaranteed of the supply of goods.
◇It is significantly reduced the cost of advertising.
◇You can get at least 5% of the profit by the supply price difference when you offer your franchisee shoes.
(The picture is from Nike’s Official Website.)
Becoming an independent middleman is an excellent career for those who want to work for themselves because it’s not a typical office job. You have the right to choose to work more or less, depending on how much you want to earn.
Of course, if the sales of the middlemen’s products are unreasonable and the sources of products are irregular, it is also a risk of loss. Therefore, this requires that the middleman can not find a Chinese shoe factory to produce shoes at will, and it is also essential for the preparatory work.
Like opening a shoe store, you need to find out the type, grade, and target group of shoes you want to represent. What kind of shoe factory or shoe manufacturer do you want to find? Do you want to find a China shoe factory with a medium and high-quality custom shoe or find private label running shoe manufacturers, private label sneakers manufacturers, private label casual shoes manufacturers, private label hiking shoes manufacturers or find the shoe factory that produces a low quality of cheap shoes? If you want to be a middleman of the shoe factory providing custom shoes or private label shoes, it is an excellent choice to be our middleman.
6.Contact Us If You Want to Be Our Middleman
XIN DE SHENG SHOE FACTORY is one of leading private label shoe manufacturers in China, which has passed the ISO 9001 Quality Management System Certification. The shoe factory is located in Jinjiang City–“the shoe capital of China,” with convenient transportation. We have an export department responsible for international footwear orders.
We are well aware of the compliance and quality requirements of the United States and the European Union. We can meet even the most stringent testing requirements of Germany and Turkey! Our shoe factory has been producing Japanese FILA shoes for a long time, so shoes’ quality can be guaranteed. Choose the shoe factory and become our middleman. There is less worried about the quality of the shoes than other shoe factories.
Our factory strictly controls the quality of shoes. We have three full inspectors on the production line, and every pair of shoes will be inspected. Before shipment, they will be checked by a third-party shoe quality inspection institution. Therefore, the quality of shoes that clients are most concerned about can be controlled.
Our main clients are mainly from the United States, EU countries, such as Tommy Hilfiger, MMK, Le Coq Sportif, Wenger, Japan FILA, LA-GEAR, VICTOR, 4F, and other private label designer brands.
We can provide you with private label shoes, ODM, OEM custom shoes, and wholesale shoes, such as running shoes, casual shoes, sneakers, hiking shoes, LED light shoes, canvas shoes, slippers, children’s shoes, leather shoes, and so on. The shoe factory has an emotional experience in running shoes, sneakers, casual shoes, and hiking shoes. In general, taking into account the average fixed cost, our MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) for private label shoes is 1000 pairs of leather shoes and 1500 pairs of sports shoes, respectively.
Of course, if you want to make other types of shoes, you can contact us via this email: andy.h@topfactoryshoes.com. We will give the most suitable solution as soon as possible.
If you are becoming our middleman, we can give you some suggestions. Firstly, You can contact your local shoe brands, wholesalers, and chain stores, try your best to provide them with shoes, and then ask us to help make shoes. If you want to be a middleman of custom shoes, the MOQ of custom shoes is 1000 pairs in our shoe factory. Although the total amounts are higher, the costs of marketing custom shoes can be costly at the beginning. Indeed, if you have already had sales channels or are a web celebrity, you can choose that means.
So we suggest that you’d better first-order ten pairs or twenty pairs of samples from us (although the sample fee needs to be paid by yourself, it will be much cheaper than the custom shoes.) and then promote these samples to the local shoe brands, wholesalers and chain stores, and strive to reach the cooperation with them and then offer shoes they need or want to sell.
If the transaction is successful, you help us maintain and contact clients. Both of us can sign an agreement, and you will get:
As a middleman, we will give you 3% commission for all the orders you handle.
Xindesheng
Believe us! The shoe factory has a professional team of research and development, production, quality control, marketing, service, and logistics. There are more than 1000 kinds of products for you to choose from as our middleman. If you are interested, you can browse our website for private label shoes that include running shoes, sneakers, casual shoes, and hiking shoes.
In the face of rapid changes in the global manufacturing situation, our shoe factory always has a positive attitude to the market and challenges! We firmly believe that we can grasp the market with innovation and win trust with quality.
7.Final Words
The primary purpose is to let you know that you need to open a shoe store is very expensive, this road is difficult to walk. Instead of opening a shoe store, we suggest you become a middleman for the shoe factory. Of course, we offer you one more choice, and it’s still up to you to decide. We hope this article has been helpful to you.
If you choose to be a middleman for our shoe factory, please contact us at email:andy.h@topfactoryshoes.com! Welcome to be a partner with us!