Business Plan Analysis

Assignment 1: Business Plan Analysis

Students are tasked to identify and analyse different type of business plan process. Analysing how start-up companies starts their business in the early stage and successful strategies use in the business.

• Students create analysis of different type of business plan process

• Students list down fashion entrepreneur traits and pitfalls

• Student to provide feedback on current fashion industry

• Student to conduct analysis on types of business platforms

Start-up Business Plan

What is a start-up business plan?

A startup business plan is a written document that describes your concepts and plans for beginning, running, and ultimately closing out your new firm.

Any entrepreneurial activity may benefit greatly from having a strong business strategy.

Before writing anything down on paper officially, make an overview of the key points you want comments on.

These are some of the questions you should be asking yourself:

    ●Who am I?

    ●What do I want?

    ●Why does my company exist?

    ●How will I make money?

    ●What are my long-term goals?

A detailed business plan helps you set milestones for measuring success. You can share the plan with investors who may want some reassurance on the viability of their investment in your company.

The ideal method to write a good startup business plan is to put everything in one well-organized, simple-to-read document, such as marketing plans, budget estimates, team biographies, timetables, and other information.

Internal Business Plan

What is internal business plan?

An internal business plan helps you manage your company more effectively by keeping your staff informed of your business strategy, setting financial objectives and budgets, and tracking business success. It is a document that is simple to share through a variety of communication methods, promotes employee involvement, and focuses on revealing problems and competitive advantages for your company.

What is the internal purpose of a business plan?

An internal business plan is utilized within your company to establish your business strategy, identify your ideal clients, lay out a more thorough marketing strategy, and establish your revenue targets and spending budgets.

Business plan:

    ●Define your business strategy

Opportunities are always presenting themselves and as a business owner, you need to know what your strategy is and determine if an opportunity fits with your strategy or not. 

With a defined business strategy, you’ll have the guidance you need to steer your business in the right direction.

    ●Bring everyone up to speed

Especially as your team grows, it’s important that everyone works towards the same goal.  A good internal business plan keeps everyone aligned and can encourage more consistent and valuable employee communication. In many ways, it should be the document that helps define your internal communications strategy and even your company culture.

    ●Focus on forecasts and performance

 An internal business plan should always include a forecast that sets revenue goals for your business as well as budgets to guide spending. These forecasts and budgets should be reviewed on a regular basis, at least monthly, and refined as you go based on how your business is performing.

Strategic Business Plans

What is the strategic business plan?

Organizations create plans using the strategic planning process to accomplish broad, long-term objectives.

In contrast to strategy mapping, which enables you to identify your purpose, vision, and goals, and project planning, which is used to design and allocate responsibilities for specific projects, this approach enables you to set your objectives.

The strategic planning process is broad; it helps in the creation of a roadmap for which strategic goals you should work to accomplish and which projects would be less beneficial to the company.

Strategic planning process:

• Choose your strategic stance.

The basis for all subsequent work is laid during this preparatory stage. To decide where you need to go and how you will get there, you must first know where you are.

To begin, identify the problems that need to be solved using market and industry data, consumer insights, and present and future demand.

Record the internal and external opportunities (the ways your business may expand to meet demands that the market is not currently meeting) and risks for your organization (your competition).

Use a SWOT diagram as a foundation for your preliminary analysis. You may easily classify your results as Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) to define your present position with input from executives, customers, and external market data.

Prioritize your objectives by asking important questions such as:

    ●Which of these initiatives will have the greatest impact on achieving our company mission/vision and improving our position in the market?

    ●What types of impact are most important (e.g. customer acquisition vs. revenue)?

    ●How will the competition react?

    ●Which initiatives are most urgent?

    ●What will we need to do to accomplish our goals?

    ●How will we measure our progress and determine whether we achieved our goals?

To assist you in achieving the long-term strategic goals and actions listed in step one, objectives should be clear and quantifiable. Updates to website content, increased email open rates, and the production of fresh leads are all examples of potential goals.

• Develop a plan

This phase includes choosing the strategies required to achieve your goals, setting a deadline, and outlining roles and duties.

An efficient approach for visualizing your complete plan is strategy mapping. Strategy maps make it straightforward to monitor corporate processes and spot areas for improvement since they operate top-down.

• Execute and manage the plan

Turn your broader strategy into a concrete plan by mapping your processes. 

Use key performance indicator (KPI) dashboards to communicate team responsibilities clearly. This granular approach illustrates the completion process and ownership for each step of the way. 

Set up regular reviews with individual contributors and their managers and determine check-in points to ensure you’re on track.

    ●Review and revise the plan

The final stage of the plan—to review and revise—gives you an opportunity to reevaluate your priorities and course-correct based on past successes or failures.

On a quarterly basis, determine which KPIs your team has met and how you can continue to meet them, adapting your plan as necessary. On an annual basis, it’s important to reevaluate your priorities and strategic position to ensure that you stay on track for success in the long run.

Track your progress using balanced scorecards to comprehensively understand of your business's performance and execute strategic goals. 

Feasibility Business Plan

A feasibility study is a formal document that assists in the identification and investigation of a proposed project. With the use of a feasibility study report, we can pinpoint the project's faults and strengths, saving us time and effort. We can predict if the proposed concept will be successful and workable in the future.

It is crucial to determine if a project will be profitable in the long run before investing. The organization also needs cost estimates for the project. A feasibility study ultimately tells the business whether to invest or keep forward with the project.

Business Plan

A business plan is a formal document that outlines the goals and objectives of the company, as well as the timeframe by which they will be achieved and potential tactics.

Every new company must have a business plan in place before it can start doing business. Before considering providing finance to new businesses, banks and venture capital firms often require the creation of a solid business plan.

Operating without a business strategy is a bad idea. In fact, very few organisations can last for an extended period of time without one. 

The capacity to think through ideas without overspending and ultimately losing money is just one benefit of creating and adhering to a solid business strategy, among many others. 

Start-ups employ business strategies to gain traction and draw in outside investors.

Similarities between a Feasibility study and a business plan

Time: Before the business starts, both reports are finished, and they can be repeated later to determine the next steps for fresh concepts.

Input: A variety of people or departments with a variety of skills contributed to both the feasibility report and the business plan.

Format: Both report types include additional materials that were gathered to produce the report.

Components: Topics studied include the target market, the market environment, and financial costs.

Use: Both might be shown to potential investors and could help the management of the company make decisions.

Business plans and feasibility studies are used by organisations as planning and decision-making tools.

Although the three tools can be used, each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and it seems that they are intended to target and treat distinct processes.

The difference between feasibility report and a business report

FEASIBILITY 

Before investing any money in a new company venture, a feasibility study is carried out to determine whether it will be worthwhile to invest the necessary time, energy, and resources.

On the other hand, a business plan is only created when it is determined that a business opportunity exists and that the endeavour is about to begin.

BUSINESS PLANS 

A business plan does not detail the sales strategies employed, including distribution agreements, strategic alliances, the level of partner involvement, payment conditions, warranties, and other forms of customer support.

However, a feasibility analysis covers every aspect of sales, from alliances to payment and customer support.

Operational  Business Plan

What is operational planning?

Operational planning is in-depth planning that demonstrates how a company will translate strategic objectives into practical ones. 

This concept of operational planning is included in a business plan to demonstrate how organisational teams and departments choose various methods to achieve their goals and objectives. 

A firm often decides how many people, how much time, how many tasks, and how much it will cost to do certain activities. Information on these choices can be found in a business planning operational plan. It is the most fundamental and detailed level of business planning.

Strategic planning  means developing strategies that enable companies to concentrate on shared objectives over a specific time frame, often one to four years.

Operational planning is concerned with achieving strategic goals within a year. 

Tactical planning is done by mid-level management to divide broad strategies into more detailed tasks and concepts. 

Typically, a corporation creates long-term objectives to describe its vision. 

To achieve these long-term goals, it is crucial to set short-term objectives. Unlike strategic planning, tactical planning is concerned with figuring out what must be done to achieve the objectives.

Operational Plan Example

• Strategy: Cost reduction
• Action: Renegotiate with suppliers and reliance on solar power
• Goal: Reduction of unit production cost by $600
• Resources: Solar panels and labor
• Date: First-quarter

The importance of the operational plans:

Operational plans are required by businesses to get ready for projects. An operational plan allows staff to incorporate specific information on particular operations and is detail-oriented. With this knowledge, it is feasible to carry out important duties that are required to finish a project.

Operational strategies provide you the chance to use resources wisely. The resources necessary for a project are decided by the project manager. When the resources are purchased, they are wisely allocated to prevent waste. A company can pursue long-term objectives in this manner.

An operational plan is used by a firm to lessen risks related to long-term objectives. A business can alter course and concentrate on different objectives if the plans do not turn out as anticipated.

An operational plan outlines the duties and responsibilities of each employee. A business needs to understand who is in charge of each job. An operational strategy is essential because it ensures that duties are assigned correctly.

Operational Plan Definition for a Business

A plan created by a part of an organisation that specifically outlines the actions it will take to support the strategic goals and plans of higher management is referred to as an operational plan. However, we must first examine the whole planning procedure used by a firm in order to completely comprehend operational plans.

Operational plans can be subdivided into two categories:

• Single-use plans address only the current period or a specific problem.
  • An example would be a plan to cut costs during the next year.
• Ongoing plans carry forward to future periods and are changed as necessary.
  • An example would be a long-term plan to retain workers instead of layoffs.

Business growth planning

Growth planning is similar to business planning. However, it focuses mainly on revenue generation or expansion, and the actions needed to achieve it.

What is a growth plan?

A growth plan is a detailed, organised list of goals for the future of your company. It outlines your company's objectives, as well as specific plans and methods for achieving them.

A growth plan considers:

The present condition of your firm, including its advantages, disadvantages, and possibilities; the future state you want for your company; and an action plan and schedule to help you get there.

• the current state of your business - including strengths, weaknesses and opportunities
• where you want your business to be in the future
• an action plan and schedule to achieve your vision

Creating a strategic plan is a key part of planning for growth.

What to include in a growth plan?

• Your marketing goals and objectives, such as how many new clients you hope to acquire and the size of your customer base you expect it to be at the conclusion of the operating term.

• Operational details like the location of your company, the names of your suppliers, and the facilities and equipment required.

• Financial data, such as projected earnings, cash flow, sales, and audited financial statements.

• A summary of the corporate goals, with targets and deadlines.

Why is growth plan important?

There are many reasons why a company may need to create a growth plan for their business. For example, you may have experienced:

• low sales
• loss of customers
• increased competition

Having a growth plan can help a company to prioritise their resources and take corrective action to address one of these problems. 

For example, a small business may pursue strategies to increase sales revenue, such as selling more to existing customers. A more established business may decide to sell into new markets instead or offer new products or services.

Fashion Entrepreneurs traits and pitfails

1. Not knowing their target audience

The desire to attract as many customers as possible could lead to spreading the company thin and failing to offer a high-quality product. Before creating the first product, a brand need to do consumer research and identify their buyer persona. 

2. Not following a proper plan for their fashion business

It's impossible to keep up with everything that has to be done when running a fashion firm. Without a clear strategy, you run the danger of making cheap but costly errors.

3. Mixing personal and business finance

The inability to get a comprehensive picture of your startup's financial situation is another drawback of combining the two. Their goals for expanding or increasing their company may be hampered by this.

Finally, combining personal and corporate finances could be seen as unprofessional. Writing a personal check to a supplier, for instance, can suggest that  the company is not a serious one.

4.When one person does everything

Many business owners make the error of running a one-man show. Without assistance, they market their brand, handle their money, bargain with suppliers, etc. This plan might be effective for a while, but when the market for your items expands, it might end up harming your company.

5.Failing to promote their products ASAP

All of the biggest fashion brands are successful because of marketing. The majority of marketing strategies start producing effects after several weeks or even months. Before launching the first product, make sure to jump into the marketing pool.

6. Lack of Industry knowledge

Companies must have extensive understanding of the product they are selling, be familiar with marketing terms, and understand the fundamentals of running a business before they can sell it.

On the other hand, having a product idea with zero competitors isn't necessarily a good thing and may indicate that there isn't any market for it. Prior to ordering prototype production, it is essential to conduct in-depth market research.

7. Pricing doesn't make sense

Prior to quality and style, shoppers must think about the pricing as one of their top priorities. Customers won't want to make a purchase if the price isn't fair or makes sense, let alone come back to check out the other items in the line.

8. Inability to Utilize New Media to Reach Customers

Brands must make use of new media platforms such as social media to build an online presence and a following for their name. Brands who choose to only employ traditional media, like print or TV, will not only fail to thrive but also miss the chance to reach their intended audience.

9. Poor Leadership and Management

It is the duty of the company owner to make sure that their management and leadership abilities will guide their team to success, especially in the early phases of a brand's lifespan when uncertainty may still exist.

10.Expansion with insufficient resources

Brand owners try to grow their retail businesses too quickly and frequently with insufficient resources after they get off the ground and begin to succeed. This is a crucial blunder to make since it could cause the brand to collapse under pressure if it is unprepared and lacks the capital, resources, or capacity to address all logistical obstacles, supply chain management issues, and financial issues.

One of the top Startups (2022 Edition)

Lyst

Introduction

Users of the online fashion search engine Lyst can follow their preferred retailers and brands.

After serving as an investor at Benchmark Capital and Balderton Capital, Chris Morton founded the business.

Lyst reported in January 2014 that it has secured $14 million (£9 million) in funding from a number of investors, including Balderton Capital and Accel Partners.

You may search through 5 million products from 12,000 brands and shops in thousands of online fashion stores at once.

Overview

With 24 reviews and a consumer rating of 3.13 stars, Lyst shows that most users are typically happy with their purchases. Lyst is ranked 373rd among websites for women's clothing.

Review

Lyst is a really interesting website to shop from because it offers the newest fashions in clothing and accessories, making it simple for consumers to buy items worn by celebrities at a lower cost.

More than 12,000 brands and stores are available to consumers in one location. Additionally, customers can use personal recommendations and robust search to locate exactly what they're looking for.

By looking at the trending panels on the website homepage to see what's fresh and what's popular. Customers can also click the heart to be notified of the newest product releases from their favourite brands.

Customers can compare shipping costs and prices from thousands of retailers. A customer with a Lyst member would be notified when an item goes on sale.

Overall, I believe Lyst to be a highly user-friendly shopping platform. Customers may not only buy the newest fashion trends with ease, but nearly anything they want can be found at a really reasonable price.

Types of Retail Outlets

Chain of stores

A retail business with multiple locations is known as a chain store. In contrast to franchises, where the firm provides a licence for a person to use their business name and model based on a franchise agreement, branch stores are normally owned by the corporation. It makes no difference if the chain has two stores or a thousand. A chain store might be found in a single city, state, nation, or all over the world. From big-box retailers to niche shops, from supermarkets to restaurant chains, there are many different types of chains. Wal-Mart, Target, Macy's, Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond, and The Body Shop are a few examples of well-known chains.

Characteristics of Chain Stores or Multiple Shops

• Large Scale Retailing.

In essence, it is a system of extensive retailing. These shops sell products for everyday usage. They are branded, quick to turn out, and of average quality. It gets rid of intermediaries.

• Convenience Goods.

Products from chain stores belong under the convenience products category, which are needed by practically everyone.

• Standardization.

Chain stores only sell a small selection of goods. They develop a niche market for themselves.

• Uniformity.

Chain stores share the same identity and shop homogeneity. The design, colour, counter configurations, product placement, product racks, advertising materials, and retail layout all share the same characteristics. Customers can thus distinguish the shops with ease.

• Centralized Buying.

The chain store's central office purchases the goods and distributes them to each location. The management of the many establishments are unrelated to the purchasing of the goods they sell.

• Decentralized Selling.

To sell the products, chain store stores are developed in numerous cities and in various parts of large cities. The selling process is distributed.

• Uniform Prices.

Prices across different stores stay consistent. The item is sent to branches with the selling price stamped on it. The products are offered for sale at market value. All of the stores have a fixed price policy.

• Cash Dealing.

Chain stores don't accept credit and operate under the "cash and carry" philosophy.

The products are delivered to the shop itself and sold on a cash-only basis. There is no home delivery service.

Franchise

A franchise is a kind of licence that enables a franchisee to use the franchisor's brand name to sell goods and services by having access to the franchisor's secret business techniques, procedures, and trademarks. The franchisee typically pays the franchisor an initial start-up cost and yearly licencing fees in exchange for obtaining a franchise.

How does a franchise work?

Let's begin by outlining the operation of franchise systems. There are two key stakeholders involved in opening a new franchise location:

• Entrepreneurs like you interested in owning a franchise location are franchise owners (also known as franchisees).

• Corporate brands (also known as franchisors) are businesses that permit business owners to control and run one or more of their locations.

In franchising, a corporate brand teams up with a franchise owner to launch a business under the brand's wing. Using the franchisor's name, logo, goods, services, and other assets, the franchisee owns and manages that location.

How to buy a franchise?

Franchisees often need to go through an application process and receive funds before making an investment in a franchise site. As with the amount of money franchisees must put up individually, the cost of launching a franchise firm varies considerably amongst companies. If you decide to start a franchise, be careful to discuss pricing and financing possibilities with the franchisor's development team.

The two parties collaborate to open the site once the brand has given the franchise owner approval. The franchisee pays the franchisor a start-up fee at the outset of the business relationship to assist defray the startup expenses. In return, the corporate brand assists the franchisee with location selection, lease negotiations, business operations training, and startup assistance.

Speciality Store 

As opposed to merchants who sell a variety of consumer goods categories, speciality retailers concentrate on a small number of product categories. Instead of thinking of Walmart, which is a big-box, all-in-one retailer, think of a boutique yoga-wear retailer like Lululemon.

Let's be clear, though: niche retailers can also be those with a lot of SKUs in stock that want a powerful retail solution to assist them manage it. However, all of their SKUs will fall within one or two product categories. The distinction is between yoga trousers and yoga mats and yoga pants and tortilla chips, going back to our earlier comparison.

Personalized shopping experience

It can be presumed that when a customer enters a specialised retailer, they are looking for anything from that merchant's category. This merchant would be regarded as a product expert because they have chosen to concentrate on one or two categories. As a customer, I put more faith in their advice than I would in the advice of a sales clerk at a store with multiple categories.

A focus on the customer

The in-store experience is a significant distinction between speciality and multi-category retail. Specialty stores place a premium on creating a welcoming environment for customers. Convenience is a top priority for multi-category merchants, who make sure consumers can locate all the things they require as fast and easily as possible — a customer is left to their own devices.

A speciality shop will also put emphasis on a simple store layout, but will also make sure to welcome customers, attend to their requirements, and perhaps even offer advice based on previous purchases. Additionally, niche stores are able to provide value-added products and programmes that a box chain cannot. You can get in-store tailoring if you purchase a pair of yoga pants from Lululemon.

Other speciality shops, like Starbucks, have loyalty schemes to entice repeat business. Although these establishments have fewer products and may not offer a lightning-fast shopping experience, their superior service that is tailored to the customer's needs ensures recurring business.

Departmental Store

A departmental shop is a sizable establishment that offers a wide variety of products from many categories. Essentially, it is a store that sells a wide range of consumer goods from different product categories.

These types of stores typically have numerous subsites that contain a large variety of product categories. Under one roof, department shops may offer a variety of things including jewellery, apparel, electronics, home appliances, tools, sporting goods, stationery, and much more. All of these consumer goods are located in various departments of the same store and are divided into several parts.

The department store was established with the fundamental idea of giving clients a one-stop shop to buy products from numerous categories.

Examples of department stores:

Super Market

These kinds of stores frequently have a huge number of subsites with a wide range of product categories. Department stores may sell a wide range of products under one roof, including jewellery, clothing, electronics, household appliances, tools, sporting goods, stationery, and much more. These consumer products are all spread out over numerous departments of the same store in separate sections.

The department store was founded with the basic premise of providing customers with a one-stop shop to purchase goods from a variety of categories.

Supermarkets often have a lot of floor space and are one storey buildings. They are also located close to residential areas or busy urban areas in order to be convenient to the customers. While some supermarkets are open 24 hours a day, the majority have lengthy shopping hours.

Typically, supermarkets are a part of large business chains that operate other locations across the country. Popular supermarkets around the world include Wal-Mart, Tesco, Costco Wholesale, Kroger, and Carrefour.

Examples of supermarkets:

The Difference between Departmental stores and supermarket:

Departmental Store: A department store is a large retail store offering a variety of merchandise and services and organized in separate departments.

Supermarket: Supermarket is a large self-service retail market that sells food and household goods.

Size

Departmental Store: Departmental stores are larger than supermarkets.

Supermarket: Although supermarkets are large stores, they are typically smaller than departmental stores.

Floors

Departmental Store: Departmental stores have many floors.

Supermarket: Supermarkets usually have only one floor.

Products

Departmental Store: Departmental stores stock a variety of products.

Supermarket: Supermarkets do not usually stock clothing, jewelry, and hardware.

Fresh products

Departmental Store: Departmental stores do not usually stock fresh produce or meat.

Supermarket: Supermarkets stock fresh produce, dairy, and meat.

Ownership

Departmental Store: Departmental stores are not typically owned by corporate chains.

Supermarket: Supermarkets are owned by corporate chains.

Hypermarket

Introduction

A big-box store with a supermarket and a department store merged is referred to as a "hypermarket," also known as a "supercentre" or "superstore." The end result is a sizable shopping centre that houses a wide range of goods, including complete supermarket lines and general merchandising.

Understanding Hypermarket

Similar to many big-box retailers, hypermarkets typically rely on high volume, low margin sales for their business strategies. They often have more than 200,000 different product brands accessible at any given time and typically occupy a space of 5,000 to 15,000 square metres (54,000 to 161,000 square feet).

Due to their large footprints, many hypermarkets favour suburban or out-of-town locations that are easily accessible by car. Shoppers can purchase anything they need at a hypermarket.

The idea behind this enormous box store is to offer clients everything they require under one roof. The Super Kmart, Fred Meyer, and the Wal-Mart Supercenter are a few of the well-known hypermarkets. Hypermarkets that sell goods in cheap or specialty stores as well as warehouse-like stores.

Examples of hypermarkets:

Difference Between Hyper market and Super market [2022]

Size of Hyper market and Super market

They are larger than supermarkets when it comes to hypermarkets. Hypermarkets have department stores that carry several things, despite having shelves with various variations of a single item.

On the other hand, supermarkets are thought of as bigger retail locations offering a variety of products under one roof. The quantity of things that supermarkets offer to their customers determines how big they are.

Prices, discounts, and deals at Hypermarkets and Supermarkets

Numerous consumers are encouraged to shop at hypermarkets because of the products' moderately decreased prices. Compared to other retailers in the same sector, they provide products at lower pricing.

In contrast, supermarkets suggestively charge more for their goods than nearby stores and other retail establishments.

Shopping Malls

Introduction

A building or collection of buildings that houses retail stores, with interconnecting walkways allowing customers to conveniently walk from store to store, is known as a shopping mall (or simply mall), shopping centre, or shopping arcade. The pathways could have a covering. Shopping centres or, occasionally, "shopping arcades" are more commonly used names for "shopping malls" in the British Isles and Australia. Shopping centres or shopping plazas are open-air retail complexes in North America, whereas "shopping mall" is typically used to describe enclosed retail buildings.

What is in it?

A shopping centre is a grouping of independent retail establishments, services, and a parking lot that is designed, built, and managed as a whole by a management company. Restaurants, banks, theatres, offices, professional offices, gas stations, and other businesses may be found in shopping centres.

The importance of a mall

A shopping mall is significant because it encourages individuals to leave the house and engage in enjoyable activities for a while. The best shopping experiences, including social gatherings, entertainment, performances, product launches, promotions, and festivals, can be found in shopping malls. The selection of events at shopping centres is endless and may keep any individual amused for a number of hours.

Shopping centres are frequently a top destination for tourists. Instead of having to go far distances merely to purchase various goods for their individual needs, the mall may be more handy for tourists who want to accomplish all of their shopping in one place.

Speciality Store

What is it?

A company that specialises in selling a single item or a small selection of items is known as a speciality retailer. Specialty stores are frequently retail establishments that concentrate on specific product categories. Small quantities of goods are sold in retail establishments for immediate consumption rather than for future resale. Although they focus on one particular area of items, specialty shops can also sell a wide range of products. Small retail shops, large national chains, or locally owned businesses can all be specialty retailers.

What is retail specialty?

The most typical kind of specialised store is a specialist retail store. These companies buy products in large quantities from wholesalers or other suppliers with the intention of reselling them for a profit. Some speciality retailers are only permitted to carry goods with their own brand. The retail brand will therefore be unique to individual stores. Retail establishments can sell a variety of product brands, but the product category is constrained to one central subject.

Speciality stores examples:

There are numerous business kinds that can operate specialty retail outlets. Here are some illustrations of several types of speciality shops:

• Furniture stores
• Bookstores
• Florists
• Health foods
• Video games
• Outdoors store
• Coffee shop
• Jewelry store

Another illustration of a speciality retailer is a large, nationwide network of businesses:

• Home Depot sells mostly construction material and home remodeling supplies.
• Staples sells mostly office supplies and office equipment.
• Victoria's Secret sells mostly women's intimates. Victoria Secret stores can be found as standalone buildings or inside malls and outlets.
• Starbucks sells mostly coffee or tea along with some breakfast items and coffee products such as mugs, bags of coffee, etc. Starbucks is also located inside other stores, businesses, malls, and other organizations.
• Footlocker sells mostly shoes but does also offer some athletic wear and other accessories.

Factory Outlet

Only products made by one factory or one brand are offered in a factory outlet. For instance, department stores carry Jockey brand products among numerous other brands, whereas Jockey factory outlet stores solely sell undergarments under the Jockey brand. Another illustration: While Nike sneakers can be bought alongside Adidas, Reebok, and other sneaker brands at department and shoe stores, Nike is the only brand offered at Nike factory outlets.

Examples of factory outlet stores

Factory outlets were previously retail spaces connected to factories that produced the commodities offered there. They were close by when they weren't connected to the factories. These shops offered steep discounts on the factory's damaged and extra products, sometimes just to the firm's employees and other times to the general public. Several well-known manufacturing outlets that use this model include:

• L.L. Bean Outlet
• REI Outlets
• Bose Outlets

Therefore, a store that sells products from a factory that cannot be sold in the brand's typical retail stores is what is meant by a traditional factory outlet. These shops were situated far away from urban areas for a number of reasons, including:

• Taking advantage of cheaper land and retail space in sparsely populated areas.
• Preventing competition between the outlet and retail locations.
• Factories are typically far outside urban cores, and outlets needed to be near their factories.

Many businesses run discount retail outlets, including Nordstrom. In the case of Nordstrom, cheap stores go by the name Nordstrom Rack. Customers can find a wide range of goods in shops like these. These consist of:

• Clearance items from the brand’s full-price retail locations.
• Items that have been altered or refurbished for discount sale.
• Items that have been manufactured specifically for the discount retail location.

Convenience Stores

A convenience shop is a type of business where a small selection of prepared and ready-to-eat foods, bottled and fountain drinks, everyday essentials, tobacco products, and periodicals are sold. Convenience stores often have a limited physical footprint, stay open late, and employ a small number of managers, stockers, and cashiers.

Convenience stores are stocked, situated, and built for consumers who are on the go and need to pick up a few products, despite the fact that there can be major variations between particular convenience stores. Many individuals rely on convenience stores to make last-minute emergency purchases of items like ice, milk, eggs, or over-the-counter medications when normal supermarkets are closed because they are frequently open late at night, early in the morning, and on holidays.

Differences Between Convenience and Grocery Stores

Convenience stores and grocery stores serve different purposes. Customers who need to buy food and household goods for both regular use and special occasions go to grocery stores. Customers may browse for the supplies that their home may require for a sizable amount of time thanks to the vast selection of goods and brands, high inventory levels, etc. The expectation is that customers will load up the large, wheeled carts at the store entry with enough food to serve a family a week or more.

Contrarily, convenience stores cater to customers who only need one or two items right away. For instance, the absence of shopping carts says a lot about how convenience stores run: Since most customers only purchase a small number of things, they may easily bring them up to the cash register without the use of a cart.

Store Size:

Convenience stores typically have what the retail sector refers to as a "small footprint." The average size of a convenience store in the United States is about 2400 square feet, but the average size of a grocery store is about 45,000 square feet. It should be emphasised that shop sizes vary, and there is some evidence to suggest that grocery stores in the United States may be getting smaller.

Store hours:

The majority of convenience stores are open every day of the week, but some do close in the late night and early morning. Nevertheless, it is common for these establishments to open very early in the morning and close very late at night. Convenience stores are typically open on holidays as well.

While many supermarkets and big-box retailers operate around-the-clock, many others stick to more conventional retail hours like opening at 8 or 9 a.m. and closing at 9 or 10 p.m. On holidays, traditional grocery stores are also more likely to close early or operate on a different schedule.

Store staffing:

Typically, grocery shops have a huge staff that includes managers of the store and its departments, staff members of speciality areas like the deli or meat counter, cashiers, and stockroom employees, as well as numerous checkout lanes and registers.

Convenience stores typically feature minimal staffs with only one or two workers on duty at any given time. Many establishments only require one register because consumers often only buy one or two things, even though some stores may have multiple registers at a single checkout counter.

Pricing:

Prices at convenience stores are typically more expensive than what shoppers would spend at a regular food store. Although grocery stores retain more customer loyalty from return and big volume consumers due to their more competitive price points, the premium pricing reflects the added value of being able to purchase something immediately.

Brand and size diversity:

Traditional grocery stores frequently carry a number of brands within a fairly small product area. For instance, there are usually several distinct types of peanut butter on the shelves of grocery stores. There could be different varieties of peanut butter available under each brand, including creamy, crunchy, and sugar-free varieties. There may be many sizes of these brand variants.

A convenience store, on the other hand, is more likely to stock just one brand of creamy peanut butter. The same may be said for other goods like dish soap, shampoo, and diapers.

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