Back to: Proven New Store Openings That WOW
To ensure your New Store Openings are as successful as possible, here are a few time-tested and proven best practices from around the world.
Hire Sooner
This New Store Guide should be put to use while (or just after) your location has been built-out and while you’re hiring staff. The Pre-Opening and Grand Opening activities require at least the store manager or an assistant to implement.
We know there are a million things going on surrounding your new location from construction to product set-up, hiring and training. Successful New Store events are part of your planning process. In fact, you may want to higher sooner than you normally would, so you have staff available to do many of the pre-opening activities outlined in this guide.
Familiar Face
Pre-Opening activities should be conducted by someone who will be in the store, running it when it opens. You want them to be a face neighbors will recognize when they come to visit.
Be Brand Appropriate
Be sure to uphold the standards of your brand no matter what you decide to do. The best plans, no matter how much potential they seem to have – if not brand appropriate – will ultimately result in hurting sales and the brand.
Only One First Impression
Each store has only one chance to open in the best way possible. Our goal is to have a store meet or exceed its sales goals on the first day it opens. Make your openings the best that they can be. Use this guide and your own best practices to make the next Grand Opening even better than the last.
No Two Locations Are The Same
For those of you working with multi-unit / chain businesses, especially if you are in a high-growth market, it can seem that the next location is the same as the previous. However, no two stores are the same. Even a store opening down the street from another will have a different feel, and will support different customers. Look for those differences and use them to your advantage in your planning.
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Hey, where are the
“sales driving” ideas?
You don’t see the words “drive sales” on LSMGuide, that’s because EVERYthing we recommend is for the purpose of driving sales. Your ultimate GOAL is to drive sales… to drive sales is the desired outcome of the content on this site. Assume everything we talk about – unless otherwise called out as something else – is to drive sales.