retail counter business plan

Retail | Ultimate Guide

9 Retail Store Layouts & Tips for Designing Your Floor Plan

Published May 15, 2024

WRITTEN BY: Meaghan Brophy

This article is part of a larger series on Retail Management .

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Grid Floor Plan
Loop Floor Plan
Forced-path Floor Plan
Angular Floor Plan
Spine Floor Plan
Herringbone Floor Plan
Free-flow Floor Plan
Boutique Floor Plan

Store Layout Design Tips

Next steps: product placement, bottom line.

A deliberate retail store layout is vital for maximizing revenue for brick-and-mortar stores. By crafting an effective layout plan, retailers can strategically direct shoppers to high-priority products, drive impulse sales, manage customer flow, stay organized, and create a positive customer experience.

Continue reading to learn how to create a sales-driving retail store layout, or download our store layout guide to read later:

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Large or small, most retail stores use one of nine basic types of retail store layouts: grid, loop, spine, boutique, herringbone, diagonal, forced-path, angular, or free-flow. The type of layout you use depends on your space, the shopping experience you are trying to create, and the products you sell.

For example, grocery stores usually use grid layouts because they are predictable and efficient to navigate. On the other hand, boutiques typically use more creative layouts that allow businesses to highlight different products.

Choose a floor plan that works for your business and helps you maximize your profits and create a positive customer experience.

Remember, your retail store layout guides product placement, directs customer flow, and defines the overall look and feel of your store, so it deserves plenty of thought. Many factors will affect your floor plan choice, including the size and shape of your sales floor, the types of products you sell, and even the customers you hope to attract.

Consider these factors as we explore each floor plan option in detail.

1. Grid Floor Plan

A grid floor plan —also called a straight layout—uses a grid-like arrangement to create a series of parallel aisles and displays. It is great if you have a lot of merchandise, as it maximizes every inch of available floor space, including the corners.

Grid plans are easy for customers to navigate and store owners to categorize. Plus, these layouts offer plenty of endcaps and feature wall exposure for promotional items and seasonal products.

Commonly found in: Grocery, big box, and convenience stores, retailers requiring a lot of shelf-stocking space
Best for: Shelf-stocked goods such as books, toys, specialty foods, hardware, and homewares
Pros: Easy to navigate, can accommodate high foot traffic, established merchandising techniques, encourages browsing, maximizes product space, fosters customer familiarity
Cons: Unimaginative, moving things around can lead to frustrated customers, difficult to feature new products, can stimulate rushed shopping behaviors

2. Loop Floor Plan

A loop floor plan , sometimes called a racetrack layout, creates a guided shopping experience. It features a defined pathway throughout the store, exposing customers to every item on display.

This floor plan is highly customizable and provides an excellent base for combining layouts. In the loop layout, the central part of the store can utilize a grid or free-flow layout, or even a mix of the two.

Loop layouts work well for most small retail stores, such as apparel and accessories, toys, homewares, kitchenware, personal care, and specialty products.

Commonly found in: Apparel and accessories stores, toy stores, homewares, kitchenware, personal care, specialty stores
Best for: Maximizing wall space and leading shoppers along a set pathway
Pros: Engaging shopping experience, guided shopping path, high product exposure, customizable
Cons: Difficult to update displays, can lead to browsing rather than buying, does not maximize floor space, frustrating for customers in search of something specific

3. Diagonal Floor Plan

Diagonal floor plans are a variation of the grid layout, using aisles placed at angles to increase customer sightlines and expose new merchandise. They feel more open than grid layouts, which improves visibility and promotes more browsing.

A diagonal store design is ideal in electronic or technology stores, beauty and cosmetics retailers, specialty food stores, and any shop that encourages shoppers to test or sample products.

It lets customers move easily between aisles while providing store employees with good angles to view shoppers. Like free-flow store plans, diagonal layouts create open sightlines throughout the store, and this visibility is excellent for pointing customers toward a central sampling or demonstration area.

Commonly found in: Self-serve kiosks, tech and electronic stores, and beauty and cosmetic retailers
Best for: Maximizing employee visibility in retail stores with lots of product testing or self-service options
Pros: Easy to navigate, high visibility for both employees and customers, maximizes display space, easy to implement theft protection measures
Cons: Prone to narrow aisles, less room for creativity, difficult to change

4. Forced-path Floor Plan

Forced-path or guided floor plans are store layouts with one pathway that guides customers throughout the store, ultimately dropping them off at the checkout area.

Forced-path or guided retail store layout

These layouts are often found in large spaces, like warehouses, and operate similarly to a guided tour or museum. IKEA is a great example of a forced path floor plan. The Swedish retailer uses arrows on its pathways to guide customers through its expansive showrooms and avoid traffic issues along the way.

Forced-path floor plans are ideal for retailers that want to create a specific, memorable shopping experience and are a good choice for showcasing many different product departments or design displays in large spaces. These floor plans do, however, require a lot of effort to keep shoppers interested throughout their journey. Demonstrations, different types of displays, and signage are all great tools that retailers can use to keep the forced path engaging.

Commonly found in: Warehouses, large showrooms, experimental stores
Best for: Guiding customers through a predetermined path and exposing them to every product
Pros: Ample opportunity promoting impulse buys, immersive experience, lots of control over customer experience, promotes exposure to every product
Cons: Can be frustrating when shopping for a specific item, risk of boring customers, difficult to design, can cause traffic jams if not well-regulated

5. Angular Floor Plan

Angular floor plans use many smaller displays in the center of the store to create a dynamic shopping experience that highlights a smaller number of products. Table displays automatically draw customer attention, which makes this layout highly engaging and promotes interaction with all the products on the floor.

However, angular plans typically have limited display space. As a result, you mostly find angular plans in showrooms, high-end boutiques, and designer stores with highly edited or curated collections.

Stores with angular floor plans need substantial inventory storage space for restocking items and holding additional sizes.

Commonly found in: Stores with small or curated merchandise that also have large inventory storage spaces
Best for: Showcasing a small number of products that you want customers to engage with
Pros: Perception of higher value, draws attention to merchandise, promotes engagement, easily updated and changed
Cons: Limited display space, difficult to manage traffic flows, not suited for a high volume of customers

6. Spine Floor Plan

A spine or straight store layout uses one large, wide aisle that runs from the front to the back of the store, with smaller aisles branching off of it. This style is popular in large stores like department stores because it can accommodate large volumes of shoppers, makes it easy to wayfind between departments and multiple floors, and is effective.

Overall, the spine layout encourages shoppers to walk the full length of the store. While most commonly found in department stores and mall anchor stores, this design also works for marketplaces, markets, and stores with lots of different departments or product categories.

Department store with one bug center aisle

This Macy’s has one big center aisle leading shoppers through the store, with smaller product aisles on each side. (Source: WSJ )

Commonly found in: Department stores
Best for: Guiding shoppers through the entirety of the space
Pros: Easy to design, efficient, shoppers typically make it to the back of the store
Cons: Not conducive to product discovery, products not on the main aisle might go unnoticed

7. Herringbone Floor Plan

A herringbone layout is essentially a variant of the grid layout, just a compact version for smaller spaces, as the herringbone layout only has one center aisle. In that way, it is also similar to the spine layout.

The herringbone layout is typically found in smaller stores, particularly those with a narrow floor space. It is also common in stores that are packed with product.

Ikea warehouse with one large center aisle

While IKEA’s showroom follows a forced-path floor plan, its actual shopping area is a warehouse-style herringbone floor plan. (Source: Cheapism )

Commonly found in: Small bookstores, warehouses, hardware stores, toy stores
Best for: Fitting in lots of product
Pros: Easy to create, simple to navigate, allows for lots of display space
Cons: Can feel cramped, limited visibility—difficult for customers to see products and difficult for employees to keep an eye on customers.

8. Free-flow Floor Plan

A free-flow or mixed retail store layout uses different display types throughout the store—there is no set path, allowing customers to shop freely. This layout is the favorite among specialty retailers because it enables maximum creativity, is easily changed and updated, and fosters an exploratory shopping experience.

Free-flow plans create open sightlines throughout the store, making your wall space highly visible and poised for display features. The open sightlines also make it easy to funnel customers toward specific merchandise zones using eye-catching accent colors and product groupings.

The open look of a free-flow layout is ideal for all types of boutiques and upscale stores. It also works well for stores with smaller inventories since it highlights product groupings.

Commonly found in: Gift shops, specialty stores, boutiques, retailers with limited inventory
Best for: Creating customizable displays and promoting shopper exploration
Pros: Uses different displays for different products, promotes exploration and product discovery, open sightlines, good for wall displays, works well in irregular spaces, easy to update
Cons: Easily cluttered, can be difficult to navigate, customers won’t see the same things, encourages loitering, can be difficult to maintain

9. Boutique Floor Plan

The boutique layout is a type of free-flow floor plan. In fact, the two names are often used interchangeably. The boutique floor plan is similar to the free-flow plan in that it uses a mix of layouts and allows customers to roam the store freely and discover products.

The main difference, however, is that the boutique layout has pop-in or shop-in-shop features, creating the feeling of multiple shops or sections within a store.

This style of floor plan works well for retailers with many different product categories, a diverse customer base, multiple brands, or a large store space to work with. This floor plan is also ideal for stores where shoppers want to browse and discover products, as it allows for lots of creativity and cross merchandising .

While Target has a grid floor plan, you can think of all of its private label pop-ups within its larger departments—like apparel, beauty, and home goods—as examples of a boutique layout. Another example is Disney stores that have dedicated areas for each story or character group.

A cinderella-themed display within a Disney store.

Disney stores typically have layouts organized by movie or character, so each area has a distinct feel. (Source: iloveny )

Commonly found in: Boutiques, specialty shops, stores with a larger footprint
Best for: Encouraging product discovery, highlighting multiple brands, making use of a large floor space
Pros: Allows for browsing, sparks creativity and curiosity, can appeal to a wide range of shoppers
Cons: Can be confusing to navigate, prioritizes visual appeal over fitting in a lot of product or creating a streamlined shopping experience

Choosing the style of floor plan you want is just the beginning. Next is actually putting the design in place and customizing it to fit your space and store needs. When finalizing the details, keep these tips in mind:

Consider Traffic Flow & Customer Behavior

Customer flow is one of the biggest things your store layout will impact. Your store layout should work with the natural ways shoppers flow through your space to avoid creating discomfort and evoke a positive customer experience. A layout that works with your customers’ natural shopping habits will help you create a layout that is both comfortable and natural and drives your sales.

The main customer behaviors you should understand and accommodate in your floor plan include:

Decompress Upon Entry

To ensure your customers are not overwhelmed at entry, create a decompression zone in the first five to 15 feet of your entrance. Decompression is vital as it allows customers to enter your business with a clear head, ready to shop. Avoid overwhelming customers and allow sightlines throughout your space by sparsely decorating your decompression zone.

Decompression Zone

The space at the entrance of your store where your customer makes a mental shift from the outside world to your store environment. Upon entry, they take stock of your store, develop an opinion of your brand, and even make subconscious judgments about the pieces and prices they expect to find

The Right Turn

Most shoppers in the US will automatically turn right when they enter a store. To avoid disrupting shoppers’ natural movement, you should:

Highlight the right-hand side of your store: The right side of your store, especially the area just beyond the decompression zone, is best for promotional displays since this is where customers will look and shop first.
Direct traffic counterclockwise: As customers will naturally drift to the right upon entry, you should arrange your store so that traffic flows based on this right-to-left pattern.
Place checkouts at the end of the path: Checkouts and registers should be located to the left of the entrance so you can maximize the right side of your store for product exposure. The leftward placement will also make the counter fall along the natural exit path.

Personal Space

Customers do not like to feel cramped when shopping, so you should allow ample space for movement. Aisles must be wide enough to invite customers to browse, not bump into other shoppers, and—most importantly—pick up and carry items for purchase.

Spacious pathways are a key aspect of good store planning. Aisle widths of 3.5 feet or more ensure strollers and wheelchairs can fit comfortably and customers can browse on both sides without feeling cramped.

You should also consider whether your customers will be using a cart or shopping baskets, so you can make extra space for traffic to pass both ways. Wide aisles also prevent the dreaded butt brush effect.

Butt Brush Effect

This occurs when customers on opposite sides of an aisle brush up against one another with their backs turned due to a lack of aisle space. If customers see narrow aisles, they will often avoid them to dodge this uncomfortable encounter.

Place Your Checkout Strategically

A cash wrap, also known as a cash well or checkout counter, is the area that houses your point-of-sale (POS) system or cash register and where customers pay for their merchandise.

The Front Left

In general, the front left of a retail store is a good location for the checkout counter. Shoppers naturally drift to the right when they enter a store, loop around, and then leave on the left side.

A checkout counter at the front left of your store puts the last step of the shopping experience on your customers’ natural exit path. Plus, this placement doesn’t distract people from shopping or take up prime product display space.

The Rear of the Store

While the front left placement is best for most businesses, for some stores it makes sense to place your cash wrap at the rear of the store.

This is great for larger retailers that have many in-store associates at a time as it frees up product space in the front of your store. However, placement in the back is not practical for small retailers with limited staff since this positioning can leave the front of the store unattended.

Choose Fixtures & Displays that Complement

Once you have an idea of your general store design and product mapping plan, it’s time to consider your store fixtures and displays.

Fixtures: Permanent—fixed—parts of your store such as lighting, counters, fixed shelving units, wall-mounted racks, and dressing rooms
Displays: Pieces that hold product and tend to be mobile, versatile, and customizable—modular units, tables, slatwall, and free-standing clothing racks

When it comes to outfitting your store with fixtures and displays, start by investing in quality fixtures, then add flexible displays that can be repurposed, and finally seek out affordable temporary displays from your product suppliers.

Invest in Fixtures That Define Your Brand

Your store’s walls, floors, fixtures, and displays should create a coordinated backdrop that defines your brand but lets your products pop. The ultimate purpose of fixtures and display units is to put your products front and center. At the same time, however, the overall look, styling, and finish of your fixtures and displays are your biggest branding opportunity.

Choose cohesive fixtures and display pieces that speak to your branding and coordinate with your product collections but don’t overpower them, like the successful looks below.

Invest in fixtures and display pieces that are in line with your brand and aesthetic. (Source: Pinterest)

Your displays and fixtures play a large role in crafting your store’s entire look. (Source: Decorist)

Your displays should be versatile and speak to your brand. (Source: Sonoma Magazine)

Use Displays That Enhance Your Unique Products

In addition to choosing displays and fixtures that enhance your brand, you should also select ones that enhance your products. Different products are better suited for different kinds of display strategies. For example, a clothing store will likely want to have hanging space, whereas a pottery store will likely want to stick with shelving and tables.

Use adjustable display options such as slatwall, gridwall, apparel racks, shelves, and tables so you can use them for many different products.

Additionally, your fixtures and displays must be able to handle products’ weights and sizes. Harder and heavier items should have sturdy and tough shelves, whereas lighter products can use floating shelves or furniture pieces.

These chic racks are not distracting and allow the pieces within them to stand out. (Source: Pinterest)

Tables and hanging displays are easy to update and do not take away from the store’s goods. (Source: Cherry Creek North)

A versatile display wall makes it easy to show off tools and swap in new items as they arrive. (Source: Blue Prop)

Save Money on Specialty Displays

Many manufacturers offer retailers low-cost or free specialty display fixtures designed to highlight their branded lines, like the one pictured below. These make great speed bumps or outpost display units for those on a tight budget. Your product line reps can tell you if they’re available, plus provide merchandising and display advice.

While you’ll likely want to splurge on your permanent fixtures and displays, you can opt for these free or low-cost displays for seasonal, temporary, and new products and point-of-purchase (POP) impulse displays.

Talk to your suppliers to see if they offer free POP displays. (Source: THIMM)

Use Displays & Fixtures to Create Speed Bumps & Control Customer Flow

While your store layout should accommodate shoppers’ natural behaviors, you can also use your layout to control customer flow and create certain behaviors. Speed bumps are a great way to slow your shoppers down, get them to engage with your products, and drive your sales.

Speed bumps:

Displays or fixtures designed to make your customers pause, so they engage with your products and slow down their shopping.

They help draw attention to surrounding products and create more customer interest. For example, at clothing stores, a cluster of mannequins by a table display will make customers more inclined to stop and look at the mannequins and subsequently explore the offerings on the table. Or a paper store might place a table of cards in the middle of the store, where shoppers will stop and look at all the options.

Speed bumps can look like anything from table displays to focal points to temporary POP displays. The thing that makes a design feature a speed bump is whether it causes people to slow down and engage.

This mannequin creates a speed bump where customers will stop and explore. (Source: Business Insider)

Your speed bumps should go in areas where there are not a lot of other displays; thus, there is low engagement. They are not typically fixed and can move when you better understand your customer flow and where those low engagement points are in your space. Play with different positioning and use an integrated POS system to track the effectiveness of your speedbumps.

Don’t forget comfort zones and amenities

In addition to controlling customer flow, creating effective displays, and driving your sales, your retail floor plan is about welcoming your customers in, making them feel at home, and providing an experience that makes them want to return.

Thoughtful amenities like seating, dressing rooms, and customer service areas will make the shopping experience memorable for customers and encourage them to continue to engage with your business. Incorporate elements that provide customer comfort as you are creating your store layout.

See more guidance on setting your fixtures:

How to Select & Design Retail Lighting
Fitting Room Design Tips
Set Up Your Cash Wrap to Drive Sales

Ensure Your Layout is Accessible & ADA-compliant

To ensure your space is accessible to all and to avoid any costly fines, follow the guidelines set forth by the Americans with Disabilities Act. There are rules that retailers have to follow to ensure that spaces are navigable and comfortable for Americans facing disabilities.

The main things that you need to account for in your retail store layout include:

Parking & Entry

Keep parking areas clean and unobstructed and ensure that handicap spaces are available and occupied only by those with proper credentials. You should also have a wheelchair-accessible ramp or curb option that remains clear of obstructions and maintains enough space for wheelchairs to navigate.

Navigable Store

Make sure your aisles are at least three feet wide and remain unobstructed. You should also keep enough space between displays, fixtures, and design elements for wheelchairs and scooters to pass. Also, be wary of items on the ground and maintain a clear floor space without obstacles where people might trip.

Restrooms, Fitting Rooms & Elevators

Keep accessible bathrooms open during all business hours, remove items from fitting rooms that impede wheelchair access, and maintain your elevators so they are in working order during business hours.

Customer Information

Ensure your customers know about your disability-friendly features by posting accessibility information on your website and educating staff so they can provide in-store assistance.

Once you have sketched out your floor plan, it is time to begin product mapping. When placing your products, do so in a way that promotes customer engagement, creates a positive experience, and drives your sales.

Screenshot of store layout product mapping

Retailers use product mapping to strategically place product categories in designated store areas. (Source: Gift Shop Magazine)

Implement Zone Merchandising

In zone design, you categorize products into “zones,” such as kitchen and cooking, home decor, or skirts and pants. The quantities of products determine the size of each zone.

Zoning design makes it easy for shoppers to find what they are looking for, which will lead to more transactions and greater sales. Not only that, but your customers will also have a better experience shopping in your store.

Use Cross Merchandising to Increase Units Per Transaction

You should also use cross merchandising to make shopping easier for customers and to promote multiple item purchases.

For example, say you cross merchandise pasta and red sauce in the same aisle. Placing these items together makes it easy for customers to find everything they need for a pasta dinner and will help you sell through your items faster.

This grocer cross merchandised items for a barbecue to make shopping easier and to promote multi-department purchases. (Source: Dor)

As you are laying out your store, consider what products work well together and how you can feature them together in a cross merchandising strategy. Zone your products so that customers can find things easily and that complementary items are together, even if that means placing categorically different items in the same area.

Add Low-cost Products to Your Checkout

Place impulse items like small toys, candy bars, lip gloss, or other small, low-cost items near your register. When customers approach the register to pay and leave, you don’t want them to stop shopping. Placing low-cost impulse-buy items near registers, as shown in the image below, encourages shoppers to add an item or two as they check out, which will drive your sales.

Design Power Walls to Pique Interest

A power wall is a wall in a high-traffic or key area of your store that you merchandise with items that attract attention and promote engagement. Typically, you place it on the right of your store, just beyond the entrance, so that it is one of the first things customers see when they enter your store and can draw people into your space.

Power walls can be anywhere throughout your store—just be sure that they are in a high-traffic area to get maximum visibility. Use them to showcase important departments and new and seasonal items, create vignettes, tell product stories, and feature high-demand, high-profit products.

Create power walls at high-visibility points in your store. (Source: Pinterest)

However, you should remember that your power wall will need to change frequently, so plan for that. Outfit your power walls with hooks, shelving, or other fixtures that you can easily change to showcase various product groupings.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are some commonly asked questions about the basics of retail store layout design:

What is a store layout?

A retail store layout is the map or plan that you design for your store to determine the best placements for fixtures, products, checkout counters, and other permanent areas of your store. A store layout also dictates traffic flow, impacts customer behavior, and determines how shoppers interact with your products.

What are the types of store layouts?

The most common types of store layouts are grid floor plans, loop layouts, diagonal floor plans, forced-path plans, angular layouts, spine or straight plans, herringbone layouts, free-flow plans, and boutique or pop-in layouts.

How do you organize a retail store?

Start by considering your physical space, the types and quantities of product you have, how your shoppers will interact with your store, and any space you will need to set aside for clerical duties or stockrooms.

Then, weigh the pros and cons of each design type and choose one that best fits your needs and space. Next, install your fixtures like your cash wrap and handing displays.

Map out your product and category placements, define and implement an inventory tracking system, and set up a recurring schedule for cleaning, organizing, and updating temporary merchandising displays.

Planning your retail store layout is no small task, but many small retail store owners do it all themselves with great success. Take it slow, follow our tips, and remember to put the customer first.

With the ideas in this guide and a little elbow grease, you’ll soon be on your way to mapping out a retail store that’s easy to navigate, welcoming to customers, and, best of all, profitable.

About the Author

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Meaghan Brophy

Meaghan Brophy is a Retail Expert at Fit Small Business focusing on small business retail and ecommerce content. Meaghan’s 10+ years of retail experience includes working at local book and dance supply stores, handcrafting gifts at an eco-friendly manufacturer, developing private label brands, and managing a team of more than 40 sales and service professionals at a local spa.

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September 19, 2023
By ConnectPOS Content Creator

The Ultimate Guide To Designing Your Retail Counter

For brick-and-mortar shops to maximize income, they need to have a strategic retail counter layout. Retailers can strategically route customers to high-priority items, promote impulsive purchases, and manage customer flow while keeping everything organized. If you want to know more about the tips to design your ideal retail counter , this blog is for you.

Table of Contents

Determine a floor plan

Before designing the retail counter , it is important to determine a floor plan as a whole. The sort of layout you select is determined by the size of your store, the style of shopping experience you want to provide, and the items you offer.

Grid layouts are common in grocery shops, for example, since they are predictable and easy to navigate. On the other hand, Boutiques are more likely to use more imaginative layouts that allow businesses to emphasize various items.

Why should you do this first? Once you’ve decided on a floor plan (and put it on paper), it will be much easier to move on to the smaller details, including the retail counter.

Consider traffic flow and customers’ behaviors

Customer flow is one of the most important factors influencing your retail counter’s design. To prevent discomfort and create a great customer experience, the location of your retail counter should fit the natural ways that customers flow through your area. A place that is easy to find will help you build a retail layout that is both comfortable and natural.

Research shows up to 90% of the global population is right-handed. This means consumers will be likelier to turn right when walking in a store. Therefore, the checkout counter should be placed in the front left corner of the shop. When people enter a store, they naturally go to the right, loop around, and exit on the left. This eliminates confusion while they shop at physical stores, especially those with large areas.

It is, however, only our suggestion. Remember to be creative and select a location that best fits your store.

Make sure to give enough space for payment

When designing a retail counter, it is important to ensure enough room for the checkout process . For example, use a checkout counter large enough to keep products while consumers continue shopping (especially in small stores that don’t have carts). Interestingly, empty hands can pick up more items, resulting in greater sales.

In addition, make sure the checkout counters are big enough to place the checkout tools needed – such as cash drawers and receipt printers. Last but not least, you should also provide enough for consumers to lay their bags down.

Consider the traffic load

This point is more important to bigger companies with high store traffic load. Ask yourself if one retail counter should be enough to handle checkout efficiently. Moreover, according to research, 20% of shoppers said they are not willing to spend more than 3 minutes in stores to wait in line. As a retailer, you obviously don’t want customers to wait in lines in order to complete their in-store purchases. Therefore, it is important to plan beforehand the number of retail counters you will need

Consider self-checkout

According to a consumer survey in 2019, 73% of respondents prefer self-checkout. Your consumers will benefit from a self-service point of sale (POS) system since they can check out faster and have a better shopping experience. Meanwhile, you may increase your sales and better utilize other resources.

Many POS on the market nowadays, such as ConnectPOS , offer powerful features that support a seamless self-checkout. Top-notch technologies such as the PWA Consumer App allows customers to make a purchase right on their phones. This will be the future of retail, so considering it when developing an efficient retail counter can bring huge success in the long run.

Wrapping up

Although planning the retail counter is not an easy process, many small business owners succeed in doing so. With the suggestions in this blog and further efforts, you’ll be well on your way to designing a retail business that’s easy to browse, friendly to consumers, and, most importantly, profitable. If you are interested in ConnectPOS, it’s time to leverage your retail counter with us by contacting our team !

►►► See our products: Magento POS , BigCommerce POS , Shopify POS , Woocommerce POS , NetSuite POS , Commercetools POS , Custom POS , Customer Experience Solution and Next-Gen POS

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></center></p><h2>5 business plan examples for retail</h2><p>Table of contents.</p><p>The retail business landscape is dynamic and presents both challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs. In the heart of a successful retail business lies an effective business plan, which serves as a roadmap for future growth. Solink can be a vital part of a business plan for retailers, providing benefits such as cloud video surveillance, loss prevention, enhanced security, and invaluable business insights.</p><p>See how Solink can help your retail business.</p><h2>What is a business plan for the retail industry?</h2><p>A business plan for the retail industry serves as a structured document that outlines the objectives, strategies, and operations of a retail venture. It provides a detailed roadmap for launching or expanding a retail store, taking into account factors like market research, product offerings, target demographics, and financial projections. This plan acts as both a blueprint for the business’s future growth and a communication tool to attract potential investors or partners.</p><p>In the dynamic world of retail, where consumer preferences and market trends can shift rapidly, a comprehensive business plan becomes essential. It not only helps retailers navigate the complexities of the industry but also prepares them to adapt and evolve. Incorporating tools like Solink can further enhance these plans by providing real-time insights, bolstering security, and aiding in loss prevention , ensuring that the retail business remains resilient and profitable in a competitive market.</p><h2>What goes into a retail business plan?</h2><p>When writing a business plan for the retail industry, there are some essential sections that shouldn’t be missed. In addition to an introduction and conclusion, here are the other eight sections to add to your retail business plan and some pointers on what to include. </p><h2>1. Executive summary</h2><ul><li>Brief description of the business</li><li>Retail sector (e.g., apparel, electronics, groceries)</li><li>Business goals and vision</li></ul><h2>2. Business description and structure</h2><ul><li>Nature of the retail business</li><li>Legal structure (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation)</li><li>Location and facilities</li></ul><h2>3. Market research</h2><ul><li>Overview of the retail industry</li><li>Target market demographics and behavior</li><li>Competitive analysis</li></ul><h2>Learn how Solink can support your business.</h2><p>4. product and services.</p><ul><li>Description of products or services offered</li><li>Pricing strategy</li><li>Unique selling points and value proposition</li></ul><h2>5. Marketing and sales strategy</h2><ul><li>Marketing objectives</li><li>Advertising and promotion strategies</li><li>Sales tactics and forecast</li></ul><h2>6. Operational plan</h2><ul><li>Supply chain management</li><li>Inventory control</li><li>Role of technology and software</li></ul><h2>7. Management and personnel</h2><ul><li>Overview of key personnel</li><li>Roles and responsibilities</li><li>Training and development</li></ul><h2>8. Financial projections</h2><ul><li>Start-up expenses and funding sources</li><li>Projected income statement</li><li>Cash flow forecast and balance sheet</li><li>Break-even analysis</li></ul><h2>3 business plan examples for the retail industry</h2><p>What goes into a retail business plan will change depending on the type of store you are opening. Here are three business plan examples for the retail industry:</p><ul><li>Fuel & Flee is a convenience store and gas station.</li><li>Buy Right is a large footprint franchised grocery store</li><li>Green Groves is a zero waste concept store targeting eco-conscious consumers</li></ul><h2>Business plan example 1:

Here is the first retail business plan example. Fuel & Fire is a typical convenience store and gas station business.

Introduction

In today’s fast-paced world, the convenience store and gas station industry plays a pivotal role for daily commuters, weekend travelers, and community residents. “Fuel & Flee” is poised to redefine this sector by delivering top-notch vehicle fuels and a diverse array of essential items for on-the-go consumers. By harnessing Solink’s potent tools, we anticipate an enhanced security atmosphere and precise, actionable business insights.

Name and nature: “Fuel & Flee” is designed to be a dual-function entity, melding a state-of-the-art gas station with a fully-stocked convenience store.
Prime location: The business will reside at the intersection of Main Street and Highway 101, capturing both the local and highway traffic.
Vision statement: Our aim is to emerge as the number one pit-stop choice for every traveler and local resident within a 10-mile radius.
Holistic offerings: Apart from standard fuel services, a variety of convenience products such as fresh food, beverages, and daily essentials will be available.
Legal backbone: Registered as a Limited Liability Company (LLC), ensuring protection and flexibility.
Location details: A spacious location with 4 fuel pumps, 12 parking spots, and a 2,500 sqft store, all primed for quick and easy access.
Industry insight: A 5% annual growth has been noted in the convenience store and gas station sector, especially in highway-adjacent areas.
Target audience: Segment 1: Daily commuters (40%); Segment 2: Long-distance travelers (35%); Segment 3: Local families (25%).
Competition analysis: Within a 15-mile radius, there are three major competitors—two national chains and one local establishment.
Fuel varieties: Regular, mid-grade, premium, and diesel options for diverse vehicle needs.
Store inventory: Over 1,000 unique items including snacks, drinks, automotive products, and a dedicated section for organic and local produce.
Added amenities: A 24-hour ATM, a self-service air pump, and a mini cafe offering fresh coffee and pastries.
Technological boost: The Solink system will provide unparalleled management insights, monitoring transaction data to understand optimal restocking times.
Visual branding: Vibrant signboards and in-store displays to attract and retain customer attention.
Promotional moves: Monthly deals such as “Fill & Feast” offering discounts on combined fuel and store purchases, aiming to increase average ticket size by 15%.
Financial forecast: Anticipated revenue growth of 20% in the first year, scaling to 30% by the third year due to strategic promotions and customer loyalty initiatives.
Supplier ties: Established contracts with top-tier fuel suppliers and local product distributors, ensuring consistent quality and timely deliveries.
Inventory tactics: Bi-weekly stock checks and data-driven restocking decisions supported by Solink’s analytical prowess.
Safety and surveillance: Continuous monitoring with Solink’s cloud-based video surveillance , ensuring a secure shopping environment and deterring potential thefts.
Key staff: A seasoned store manager with 10 years in the retail and fuel sectors, supported by four cashiers, six fuel attendants, and three part-time staff members for restocking and cleaning.
Employee growth: A commitment to staff development through quarterly training sessions focusing on safety protocols, customer service enhancements, and product knowledge.
Startup costs: An initial outlay of $500,000 covering land lease, construction, and the first stock of inventory.
Recurring expenditures: Estimated monthly expenses of $50,000 including salaries, utilities, and replenishing stock.
Revenue breakdown: Anticipated monthly earnings from fuel sales ($120,000), convenience store sales ($80,000), and additional services ($10,000) totaling $210,000.
Profit milestone: Predicted to hit the break-even point by the eighth month, with steady profit growth thereafter.

With its strategic offerings and location, “Fuel & Flee” stands on the precipice of becoming a dominant force in the convenience store and gas station domain. Tools like Solink can drastically amplify its operational capabilities and security levels, ensuring the venture is both profitable and remains a top pick for its diverse clientele.

Business plan example 2: "Buy Right", a grocery store

Here is the second business plan example. In this case, we are looking at opening a franchised grocery store. The overall size of the property is much higher, as are the startup costs.

In an era where consumer preferences lean towards vast selections and one-stop shopping experiences, grocery stores have an immense role. “Buy Right” seeks to harness this demand by inaugurating a large franchised grocery outlet, ensuring customers have access to a diverse range of products under one roof.

Partnering with Solink, the store aims to guarantee safety, loss prevention, and deep business insights for continual improvement.

Business essence: “Buy Right” will function as a large-scale franchised grocery store, offering everything from daily essentials to gourmet items.
Strategic location: Situated in the bustling commercial hub of Maple Street, ensuring easy access for a large population.
Mission: Delivering quality products at competitive prices while ensuring an unmatched shopping experience.
Store blueprint: A sprawling 20,000 sqft store with dedicated sections for fresh produce, dairy, bakery, meats, international goods, and more.
Legal design: Operating as a franchise under a well-renowned grocery chain ensures brand recognition and trust.
Facility features: Equipped with 15 checkout counters (including 6 self-checkouts ), a deli, a bakery, and ample parking for over 100 vehicles.
Industry dynamics: A consistent 4% annual growth in the large grocery store sector, particularly in urban areas.
Target demographic: Segment 1: Families (50%); Segment 2: Young working professionals (30%); Segment 3: Seniors (20%).
Competitive landscape: Three direct competitors within a 10-mile radius, including another franchised store and two local grocery chains.
Comprehensive offerings: Over 15,000 unique SKUs from local, national, and international brands.
Value-added services: A bakery producing fresh items daily, a deli offering cold cuts, and a pharmacy section.
Tech enhancement: Implementation of Solink to monitor customer shopping patterns, ensuring inventory is aligned with demand and improving store layout based on customer heatmaps .
Promotion: Weekly flyers highlighting discounts, in-store product sampling, and seasonal sales to boost footfall.
Loyalty programs: “Buy More, Save More” program, aiming to increase average customer spending by 10% within the first year.
Sales projections: Expected to serve over 500 customers daily, with an average spending of $50 per customer.
Supply chain dynamics: Tie-ups with established distributors, ensuring regular stock replenishment and fresh produce every alternate day.
Inventory management: Use of Solink to prevent POS employee theft , audit shelves for stock levels, and detect any irregular activities in real time.
Security measures: Enhanced surveillance with Solink Video Alarms Monitoring Service .
Management team: A store manager backed by a decade of retail experience, along with two assistant managers.
Staff structure: A team of 40 which includes cashiers, stockers, bakery and deli staff, and customer service representatives.
Training paradigm: Monthly training on product knowledge, customer service etiquette, and safety measures.
Initial investment: Estimated at $1.5 million, covering franchising fees, store setup, and initial inventory.
Ongoing expenses: Monthly costs projected at $200,000, which includes salaries, utilities, rent, and inventory purchases.
Revenue estimates: Anticipated monthly revenue of $750,000, with the goal of achieving a break-even point by the seventh month.

“Buy Right” holds the potential to redefine grocery shopping in the Maple Street area by offering a comprehensive selection in a customer-friendly environment. The added advantage of Solink ensures security, streamlined operations , and valuable insights. With this robust plan, “Buy Right” is geared to flourish in the competitive grocery market.

Business plan example 3: "Green Groves", an eco-friendly store

This is the third retail business plan example. It is a unique concept store focusing on the green market. The business operates as an eco-friendly, zero waste store catering to environmentally conscious consumers.

In a world grappling with environmental issues, sustainable solutions are at the forefront of consumer choices. “Green Groves” aspires to be a game-changer in retail by offering an eco-friendly zero waste shopping experience. With the integration of Solink’s capabilities, security and insightful business analysis will be assured.

Business ethos: “Green Groves” will pioneer a zero waste, packaging-free retail environment.
Strategic spot: Positioned in the heart of EcoVille, a community known for its green initiatives.
Objective: To nurture a sustainable shopping culture and diminish the carbon footprint of retail.
Store design: A 5,000 sqft open-plan store, equipped with bulk bins, refill stations, and reusable container displays.
Business form: Operates as a sole proprietorship, with strong ties to local organic farmers and ethical suppliers.
Store features: Apart from bulk goods, there’s a section for sustainable living products like bamboo toothbrushes, metal straws, and cloth bags.
Eco trend: A 7% yearly increase in consumers seeking sustainable shopping options.
Target demographic: Segment 1: Eco-conscious families (45%); Segment 2: Millennials and Gen-Z (40%); Segment 3: Sustainable lifestyle adopters (15%).
Rivals: Two health stores in the vicinity, but none offer a complete zero waste experience.
Goods galore: A range of organic foods, personal care items, household cleaning products, all sold without packaging.
Eco tools: Reusable containers for sale and rent, ensuring customers can shop even if they forget theirs.
Tech integration: Solink will monitor the POS , preventing operational shrink, and will provide insights on consumer purchase patterns.
Eco-campaigns: Monthly workshops on sustainable living, zero waste challenges, and rewards for consistent zero waste shoppers.
Loyalty perks: “Sustain & Save” program, targeting a 12% hike in repeat customers within the initial year.
Revenue forecast: Expecting an average daily footfall of 200 customers, with an average spend of $30.
Supply chain: Direct collaborations with organic farmers and ethical product makers, ensuring fresh stock and product authenticity.
Stock management: Remote video monitoring of the store and stockroom will help keep the right amount of inventory available for purchase.
Safety and security: Enhanced by Solink’s surveillance capabilities, ensuring a safe and theft-free shopping environment.
Lead team: Store manager with a passion for sustainable living, backed by a degree in environmental studies.
Crew composition: A mix of 10 full-time and part-time staff members, including stockers, cashiers, and a dedicated person for customer education on zero waste.
Kick-off capital: An estimated $250,000, which includes store setup, initial inventory, and marketing efforts.
Recurring costs: Monthly operational expenses estimated at $30,000, covering salaries, rent, utilities, and stock replenishments.

“Green Groves” stands out as a beacon for sustainable shopping in EcoVille. With Solink in its arsenal, the store is not only set to offer a secure and streamlined shopping experience but also a data-driven approach to meet consumer demands effectively. This venture promises not just profitability but also a positive impact on the planet.

Add Solink to your retail business plan

In the evolving retail landscape, having a robust business plan is only the beginning. The real differentiator lies in harnessing cutting-edge tools that optimize operations, enhance security, and provide actionable insights. Solink stands out as a transformative solution in this realm.

By integrating Solink into your retail strategy, businesses are not merely investing in surveillance but in a comprehensive tool that brings loss prevention, advanced security, and invaluable business insights to the fore.

As demonstrated with “Green Groves”, a store with a vision, the marriage of sustainability and technology can create a retail environment that’s both profitable and in tune with modern needs. For any retailer crafting or refining their business plan, Solink isn’t just an option; it’s a forward-thinking imperative.

To see why Solink should be part of every retail business plan, sign up for a demo today.

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The Essential Guide to Retail Store Layouts that Shape the Customer Experience

By Kate Eby | October 26, 2017 (updated May 15, 2024)

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Although the retail industry is transforming as technology continues to shape the consumer landscape, the primary goals of a sound retail strategy have not changed: Deliver value in the supply chain and create a unique customer experience. The rebirth of retail stores — after years of digital disruption and economic challenges — is possible if retailers can successfully contend for their consumers’ attention, and in return, earn their business. One way to do this is to design a digital and physical retail environment that captures the overtaxed attention of consumers today.

In this article, you’ll learn about how retail customers predictably behave, why this behavior matters, and how you can influence it with a thought out store layout design. Use the navigation guide on the left to find a collection of essential retail floor plans and discover the pros and cons of each. If you’re ready to plan and design your store, jump ahead to the tips and best practices from professional retail designers, and browse through the design resources to help you imagine and create a new environment that captures your customer’s attention.

What Is a Retail Store Layout?

A retail store layout (whether physical or digital) is the strategic use of space to influence the customer experience. How customers interact with your merchandise affects their purchase behavior. This retail principle is one of the many from Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, keynote speaker, and founder of Envirosell.

The interior retail store layout has two important components:

Store Design: The use of strategic floor plans and space management, including furniture, displays, fixtures, lighting, and signage. Website designers and user experience (UX) researchers use space management techniques and web design principles to optimize e-commerce websites. We’ll further discuss a variety of popular retail floor plans later in this article.
Customer Flow: This is the pattern of behavior and way that a customer navigates through a store. Understanding customer flow and the common patterns that emerge when customers interact with merchandise based on the store layout is critical to retail management strategy. Physical retailers are able to track this using analytics software and data from in-store video and the wifi signal from smartphones. For example, solution providers like RetailNext provide shopper analytics software for retailers to understand flow and optimize the customer experience based on in-store video recordings. The technology also exists to track the digital customer flow and online shopping behavior. Using “cookies” and other software, online retailers can track customer behavior, including how customers interact with their website.

While the exterior retail store layout includes exterior store design and customer flow, it also includes the following factors:

Geographic location of the retail store (real estate)
Size of the building and length of the walkways accessible from the entrance and exit
Use of furniture and exterior space for people to gather and interact
Style of architecture of the retail building
Color of paint and choice of exterior building materials
Design of the physical entrance and exterior window displays

The objective of retail store design is to positively impact customer experience and create value, which is the primary goal of retailers in the supply chain. For more information on retail strategy and management read the article “ How to Survive and Thrive in Retail Management .”

What Is Store Planning?

Store planning is the designing and optimizing of physical retail stores to upgrade customer experience and maximize sales. It involves determining the ideal store size, layout, fixture placement, signage, and product placement to create a visually appealing and engaging shopping environment.

A Step-By-Step Guide to Planning Store Layouts that Maximize Your Space

It is essential to understand your customer flow and the general patterns of navigation in your specific retail environment before you can optimize customer experience and plan a strategic store layout. Retailers, consultants, store planners, interior designers, and architects all use a variety of retail floor plans and concepts to influence customer flow and behavior. Retail giants along with small, independent retailers can improve customer experience, and in return, long-term profitability with efficient store layouts. In Store Design and Visual Merchandising: Creating Store Space That Encourages Buying, author Claus Ebster offers valuable insight into maximizing your retail space.

Step One: Target The First Floor

The first step to maximize your profitable retail space might be the most unavoidable, however the principle and knowledge behind the customer behavior is crucial for understanding your overall design strategy. Ebster’s research indicates that customers prefer to navigate the floor of a retail store they initially entered. Walking up and down stairs or using elevators and escalators to navigate a store hurts customer flow. When possible, planning for a single floor store design will optimize the customer experience. Exceptions exist, such as downtown locations where real estate is at a premium or large department stores with multiple categories of merchandise. Further, Ebster points out that retailers should consider customer perception if they are a luxury retailer, as shoppers often associate multi-level stores as “elite.” Conversely, if a discount retailer is planning store layouts, as customers associate single floor layouts with “less high-end” merchandise. Consider your overall retail strategy and store layout design prior to selecting your store location. If you have multiple floors, account for the preferences of first floor shoppers by using this space for the feature or high-margin merchandise in your retail mix.

Step Two: Identify Customer Flow

Ebster presents some general rules for customer traffic. Customer flow patterns vary depending on the type of retailer, the size of the store, and the target customer. Ebster encourages retailers to use their observations to discover the problems and opportunities unique to their environment. The next step in maximizing your space for profitability is identifying your customer flow. The most effective method for understanding your existing customer flow and identifying areas of opportunity is video recording and heat mapping analysis. This service is available via solution providers such as Prism (you can also do a quick online search for heat mapping consultant services in your area). However, setting aside different times of the day to make in-store observations in person and recording your notes is a step in the right direction for identifying customer flow patterns.

Step Three: Avoid The Transition Zone

After you identify how your customers navigate your entire retail space, turn your attention back to the entrance. The transition zone area, coined the “decompression zone” by Underhill, refers to the space just beyond the entrance to a retail store. The average customer needs this space to transition so they can familiarize with the new environment. Underhill is adamant that nothing of value to the retailer, not high-margin merchandise, prominent signage, or brand information goes inside this zone. Customers need time, however brief, to adjust to new lighting, smells, the music, and the visual stimulation in the store.

Step Four: Design for Clockwork Navigation

The next step moves beyond the transition zone and shifts the focus on how to leverage a customer’s tendency to navigate the retail environment. The area just outside of the transition zone is where most retailers make a first impression. Customers consistently turn right after entering the store and continue to navigate the store in a counterclockwise direction. Ebster points out that this customer behavior repeats itself time and again in consumer research. Although researchers and design professionals have different explanations for the reaction, in general, many recommend displaying high-margin merchandise and valuable information just to the right of the entrance (outside of the transition zone). Underhill popularized the “invariant right” and proved the effectiveness of the technique with thousands of hours of video.

Step Five: Remove Narrow Aisles

Finally, follow your customer flow through the transition zone and around the retail space in a counterclockwise pattern. Search for tight spaces or bottlenecks along aisles or around fixtures and displays. Repeated analysis of Underhill’s video research demonstrates that customers in the US — women in particular — value their personal space when shopping. If a customer is touched, bumped, or otherwise interrupted when interacting with merchandise, they are likely to move on from the items or exit the store altogether. Ebster uses customer behavior research from one study of a supermarket to further advocate for broader aisle design. Video analysis showed fewer customers entering narrow aisles in the store compared to the more expansive, accessible walkways. These aisles send positive signals to shoppers and positively impact customer flow and merchandise interaction. Avoid narrow aisles and corridors when planning your store layout and strive to protect customers from what Underhill coined as the “butt-brush effect.”

Essential Retail Store Layouts

Once you research and understand how customers navigate your store, you can start influencing how they interact with the merchandise. The foundation for this strategy is the design of your store floor plan. To create an environment that strategically emphasizes the desired purchasing behavior, it is essential to use all of the floor space you have allotted for merchandise, base your layout on the principles of customer behavior, and not sacrifice customer flow for artistic taste. With these factors in mind, the following are common store layouts for your consideration.

Forced-Path Store Layout

This layout directs the customer on a predetermined route through the retail store. As an example, Ebster uses furniture retailer IKEA to demonstrate the use of the forced-path store design. Research shows that, with this type of store layout , IKEA achieves a uniform and efficient customer flow that promotes higher sales.

Ebster discusses the advantage of a forced-path layout: Every aisle in the store is maximized. With customers exposed to all of the merchandise offered, this design might entice the customer to make an unplanned purchase. However, he points out that using this store layout risks irritating shoppers that have a specific task and desired location, and could also overwhelm shoppers by hurrying them through an experience of customers all moving in one direction together, quickly.

Grid Store Layout

The grid store layout design is a familiar, repetitive pattern favored by retail drugstores like Walgreens and hardware stores like Ace Hardware. According to Ebster, there are multiple advantages to the grid layout, including the following:

Customers can move quickly through an efficient floor space using standard fixtures and displays.
The presentation is uniform and comfortable due to its popularity, creating a seamless customer experience.
Design simplifies inventory control for the retailer - a key to retail strategy that leverages store design to maximize profitability.

However, the downside of this layout is the lack of aesthetics and the “sterile and uninspiring” environment often associated with its use. To counter this, Ebster recommends effective signage to guide customers and create a “cognitive map” of the store.

Loop Store Layout

Also known as the “racetrack” layout, think of the loop design as the “yellow brick road” of retail store layouts. Ebster uses this analogy to describe the way a loop store layout uses a path to lead customers from the entrance of the store to the checkout area. This is a versatile choice for store design when implemented with another layout style or used as a prominent feature of the retail store. Ebster recommends this layout for a larger retail space (over 5,000 square feet) and encourages a clear and visible loop for customer flow.

Designers accomplish the loop effect by making the floor path a standout color, lighting the loop to guide the customer, or using a different floor material to mark the loop. Lines are not recommended, as they can be a psychological barrier to some customers, potentially discouraging them from stepping away from the loop and interacting with merchandise. Ebster encourages a loop design that rewards the customer with interesting visual displays and focal points on the way to the checkout area.

Straight Store Layout

The straight store layout is efficient, simple to plan, and capable of creating individual spaces for the customer. Plus, a basic straight design helps pull customers towards featured merchandise in the back of the store. Merchandise displays and signage is used to keep customers moving and interested.

Liquor stores, convenience stores, and small markets use the straight design efficiently. However, the drawback is the simplicity: Depending on how a customer enters the store and moves past the transition zone, it may be more difficult to highlight merchandise or draw them to a specific location.

Diagonal Store Layout

Just as the name implies, the diagonal store layout uses aisles placed at angles to increase customer sightlines and expose new merchandise as customers navigate through the space. A variation of the grid layout, the design helps guide customers to the checkout area. Small stores can benefit from this space management option, and it is excellent for self-service retailers because it invites more movement and better customer circulation.

When the checkout is located in the center and possibly raised up, the diagonal layout offers better security and loss prevention due to the extra sightline effect. The downside of this layout is that it doesn’t enable the customer to shortcut toward specific merchandise, and the risk of narrow aisles is higher.

Angular Store Layout

The name of this design is deceptive, as the “angular” store layout relies on curved walls and corners, rounded merchandise displays, and other curved fixtures to manage the customer flow. Luxury stores use this layout effectively because, according to Herb Sorenson’s research from Inside the Mind of the Shopper: The Science of Retailing, customers notice free-standing product displays 100 percent of the time (end cap displays - those at the end of aisles - also get noticed 100 percent of the time).

There is a perception of higher quality merchandise that the angular layout leverages to target the appropriate customer behavior in that environment. And although this design sacrifices efficient space use, because of the rounded displays and limited shelf space, if a retailer has sufficient inventory storage away from the sales floor, this layout is useful in creating a unique perception.

Geometric Store Layout

Popular with retailers targeting trendy millennials and Generation Z demographics, a geometric layout offers artistic expression and function when combined with the appropriate displays and fixtures. The unique architecture of some retail stores, including wall angles, support columns, and different ceiling styles mix well with the uniqueness of a geometric layout.

Merchandise displays and fixtures of various geometric shapes and sizes combine to make a statement, often as an extension of the retailer's overall brand identity. Clothing and apparel stores use a variety of environmental merchandising strategies (for example, music, scents, and artwork) with the geometric layout to enhance the customer experience.

Mixed Store Layout

The mixed store layout uses design elements from multiple layouts to create a flexible option for retailers. Department stores use a compelling mix of straight, diagonal, and angular concepts, among other design elements, to create a dynamic flow through a range of departments featuring a variety of merchandise.

Large grocery store chains also successfully combine mixed store layout elements. For example, customers have the flexibility to navigate through a grid layout for their basic groceries but feel compelled to search the angular displays featuring high-margin wine, beer, and imported cheeses. The advantages of combining different store layouts seems apparent, but the space and resource requirements to maintain this design can pose difficulties to retailers.

What Is a Free Flow Store Layout?

A free flow layout rejects typical design patterns and styles commonly used to influence customer behavior. In a free flow layout, the intent is not to lead the customer using predictable design patterns, displays, or signage. There are no specific design rules followed for this retail store design, and customers have more liberty to interact with merchandise and navigate on their own. For this reason, the free flow layout is sophisticated in its simplicity.

Ebster points out that customers feel less rushed in this creative environment. Retail stores look less sterile in the free flow design, and merchandise may seem more intriguing. The only limitation for retailers using this layout is the overall space available, but that doesn’t mean that the research on customer navigation behavior and tendencies shouldn’t be accounted for as well. The main disadvantage to this experimental design layout is the risk of confusing customers past the point of their preferred behavior and disrupting customer flow.

What Is a Boutique Store Layout?

According to Ebster, the boutique layout (also called shop-in-the-shop or alcove layout) is the most widely used type of free flow layout. Merchandise is separated by category, and customers are encouraged to interact more intimately with like items in semi-separate areas created by walls, merchandise displays, and fixtures. Typically used by boutique clothing retailers, wine merchants, and gourmet markets, this layout stimulates customer curiosity in different brands or themes of merchandise within the overall category.

The downsides of the boutique layout include the following factors:
Reducing the total display space for merchandise with inefficient space management
Encouraging too much exploration of separate areas within the store
Confusing customers past the point of purchasing behavior.

Ultimately, the exploration can distract from customer interaction with the merchandise.

Retail Store Design Tips From The Pros

Jaina Rodriguez is a Creative Director of the Integrated Design-Retail Design Studio at Microsoft. She is adamant that store design is important and should not be overlooked when designing the customer experience.

“It is everything! The look, feel, and sounds evoke feelings in consumers and the more it resonates, engages, comforts, or surprises them, the more likely they are to purchase or become a fan, which leads to [more] fans,” says Rodriguez. “If [the design] is too loud, has obstructed or confusing pathways, which some retailers use as a sales tactic, no rhyme or reason [...], it is not conducive to customers spending more time [in store] or converting sales.”

A store’s layout design is not an isolated advantage for retailers. Rodriguez points out that the customer experience is influenced by more than the overall layout. “It’s a mix of thoughtful moments — placement of product stories and unassisted digital experiences throughout the [store] footprint — mixed with sales people that help consumers make decisions quickly and effectively.”

“I think alongside [customer] flow is understanding the sales data to help better inform where you want to [attract] the customer and what the overall experience is from the front to the back of the store,” says Rodriguez. “For a store footprint [design] within a mall, a commercial shopping area, or [inside] a third party retailer (for example Best Buy or Target), understanding the key players around your area and their sales tactics should be a priority. Many companies make the mistake of copying what others are doing, which creates more confusion. People have brand loyalty and want to see differentiation and a reason to move from their comfort zone.” “Best Buy does this well,” says Rodriguez. “They do a great job with a mix of digital innovations, retail pros and the Geek Squad. They can entice the customer via emails, push alerts via their app, digital experiences throughout the store, assisted and unassisted sales, and tech help to ensure your product is ready to use or installed properly. Basically, they cover all the bases from start to finish and while they don’t always hit the mark, they are open to innovation and trying and measuring new ways to reach the customer base and beyond.”

Rodriguez does not agree with all of the store layout design and “storytelling” that Best Buy uses throughout some of their locations. For example, she believes the video game section could be designed to be more cohesive and less scattered in different spaces.

Authenticity Creates Real Customer Experiences

When it comes to designing the retail store and customer experience, Rodriguez has a specific message. “Be authentic and real,” she says. “Create memorable moments to build and keep fans.”

“So many companies are obsessed with going viral, ROI (which is important), and creating something they think is cool, that they forget why they are doing it. Building fans and purveyors of quality takes time and not every campaign or interactive experience you install will hit the mark,” adds Rodriguez.

“Sometimes it hits the mark but the reaction is delayed. There is no way to measure whether someone saw a great campaign or experienced a digital innovation you created and if that led them to buy months down the road. But the reality is those authentic and real moments stick with people and it takes time [...] The focus should be continuing to be authentic and real — negotiating and editing with successes and failures, but never wavering on those two things.”

Rodriguez points to Nordstrom and Tesla as examples of retailers that understand the importance of authentic, real customer experiences that are easy and memorable.

“Retailers should remember that not every product or outcome is tangible,” shes says. “Interactive experiences at Tesla showrooms in malls allow consumers, who would otherwise not be able to afford the car or wouldn’t go out of their way to visit a dealership, to build and interact [with a virtual vehicle]. They provide a boutique experience which draws in consumers based on emotion, feelings of nostalgia, and even sex. It puts something out of reach directly into their hands.”

Rodriguez appreciates how Nordstrom varies store design elements and floor plan layouts for different customers and how important balanced design is to the customer experience. “They aren’t afraid to experiment and try new things to see how it affects their broad range of target markets,” she says. “Nordstrom understands the importance of providing varying experiences for many types of consumers, creating pop-ups that change out quarterly (sometimes more frequently), curb-side service, personal shoppers, and even a bar just beyond the most shopped area to loosen up shoppers’ inhibitions and their wallets.”

Data Drives Design

To know your customer is to know your retail business. The correlation between a retailer's profitability and the customer experience is closer than ever in retail history. For physical retail stores, this experience is connected to the customer’s surroundings — how they navigate the store’s environment, and the flow of attention they spend on your merchandise and messaging.

The digital, online retail experience follows a similar principle. The design of a website or mobile application, and the user experience the layout creates, is critical to creating value for a customer and in return, has a positive impact on the retailer’s profitability.

For Rodriguez, data emphasizes the importance of design in the overall customer experience and is a core part of any successful retail design playbook. “Data is essential to creating a memorable and effective experience,” she says. “For online experiences, there must be a mix of testing and best practices.”

According to Rodriguez, at Microsoft the data collected from customers interacting with digital screens might include the following:

Tracking time spent in experience
Hot spots (how the customer interacts with the device’s screen)
Click Through Rates (CTRs)
Impact to sales (ROI)
Analysis of other sales/promos during that time to influence

Rodriguez further explains that once data is collected and analyzed and an update is needed, it should happen quickly. If the tests are successful, the formula should be documented and repeated. Using data to design and plan physical or digital retail layouts with the overall experience in mind creates value for customers.

“Retailers should not make assumptions about their clientele or only make decisions based on their personal experiences, wants, and needs,” says Rodriguez. She adds a reminder to retailers about the importance of aligning the desired experience of the target customer with retail management and the overall retail strategy. She recommends looking to market research and customer data to make the most impact, remembering that executive leadership, for example, may have a store design strategy that data shows is not aligned with the target customer experience.

“People want their experience to be individualized. [Customers] have become fickle and often are annoyed by an overabundance of help, even if they need it,” she adds. “Algorithms and data are scary to most consumers, but when they realize how it can help to filter and tailor their experience to exactly what they need and want, even before they know they need or want it, the retailer then becomes priceless.”

The Multi-Channel Mindset

Connecting the customer experience with a mobile friendly retail strategy is important, as people are increasingly dependent on their mobile devices and interacting with the digital world throughout the day. Retail customers use their mobile devices to stay connected throughout their shopping experience. This might include checking prices and inventory availability, or using their device to find physical store location and hours.

“As a mobile-first world, we sometimes must forgo the shiny experiences and provide a user with a friendly, value proposition-focused customer journey with fewer clicks to get consumers where they need to be,” says Rodriguez. Part of a sound mobile-first retail design strategy, when considering your ecommerce site or mobile application, is simplicity. Mobile design strategy means impacting the customer experience by making shopping easier.

“From an online perspective, the customer journey should be straightforward, user friendly, and require as few clicks as possible to get the customer where they want to go,” says Rodriguez. “Many consumers stick with what they know until they see the value. Often, this is due to habit or lack of energy to create a new account, enter information, etc.”

Rodriguez believes that the more a retailer does to simplify purchasing, the more value they add to the customer experience. She uses Amazon’s strategy for linking new services and products based on the customer’s purchasing habits as an example of the “ease of purchase” experience retailers should strive for.

“Amazon Go and Amazon.com provide ease of shopping at your fingertips without the hardship of dealing with, well, anyone,” says Rodriguez. “This footprint is a great example of how to bring a digital experience into a brick and mortar reality. While they continue to test, their key to success is measuring, monitoring, and reacting quickly to individual consumer needs.”

Mobile applications provide an opportunity for retailers looking to make purchasing simple and easy, whether the customer chooses the brick-and-mortar or digital shopper journey. “Stores with robust mobile apps can add on everything from triggering [...] a mobile push alert when [the customer’s] within a certain distance from a store location,” says Rodriguez. This alert might notify customers of an in-store event or send a specific deal on seasonal merchandise based on the geo-location of the customer.

“Retailers willing to push the limits of their applications (and spend development dollars) can also use apps to track [in-store] customers and remind [them] of sales or products currently in their cart, request service on the floor with their mobile device, or forgo any interaction with sales reps by ordering everything on their device via scanning barcodes or shopping available stock to have it ready for them at the register,” she adds.

Video Is a Game Changer

Using video to enhance the digital experience and create customer interaction is a game changer. “Video is key,” says Rodriguez. “Studies show that video on home or product pages have conversion rates between 80-100 percent.” Rodriguez recommends using video in “short, snackable bites.” In addition to online advertising and store branding opportunities on social media platforms like Facebook and Snapchat, the reduced cost of digital displays and user friendly digital video tools provides retailers with creative, affordable ways to design their stores to leverage video. A couple examples of leveraging interactive video display include the following:

Touchscreens: Customers spend an increasing amount of their day interacting with their mobile devices and retailers can leverage this habitual behavior. “Consumers will try to interact with any type of screen out of habit,” says Rodriguez. “This is an opportunity to quickly educate consumers, update content remotely, compare products, and share ratings, reviews, or tech specs.” Rodriguez claims most retailers and businesses using touchscreen presentations or video displays are not taking full advantage of their power. “Most are basically PowerPoint [presentations], or the screens aren’t cared for, or they are turned off, or broken.” She cautions that “customers are too smart and tech savvy” and using this technology in the wrong way can quickly turn a positive effort into a negative customer experience.
Streaming Content: Rodriguez highlights a unique in-store content marketing trend for retailers to engage customers. Combining store design and digital technology, retail stores can use strategically placed screens to connect customers to their overall brand message or targeted marketing campaigns. “[...] the online journey should be done first (or in tandem with) the [digital] campaigns and store footprint,” says Rodriguez. “[Digital] experiences are often seen as separate, but the goal should be to create a seamless experience whether the customer is on their desktop at home, their mobile phone, or physically in the store.”

Sensor Technology

Specialized sensors provide data and interactive customer experiences using video and internet of things (IoT) technology. Sensors benefit retailer and customer, as the data gathered from their use provides insight into customer flow and purchasing behavior. Rodriguez highlights Disney’s use of wristbands to provide visitors with a personalized experience. The device can unlock the hotel room door and change imagery on digital screens to match the visitor’s experience of choice. “This isn’t a tangible thing, but provides a sense of belonging, delight, and memories that will build and keep fans coming back for more for generations to come,” she says. The following are examples of different types of sensor technology that are relevant to retail store design:

Heat Maps : A heat map is a visual representation of data. In retail, this data displays how customers interact with merchandise and navigate the retail environment in physical stores using video surveillance to map movement. Heat map technology provides data for online retailers as well, plotting data, and visualizing how a customer navigates and interacts with a website using their mouse for example.
Phidgets : Phidgets are sensors, often used in robotics, that manage different environmental elements. There are many uses for phidget technology, according to Rodriguez. “These are basically sensors that come in a wide array of options such as distance, heat/cold sensing, and seismic,” she says. “There are fun ways these can create interactive experiences, triggering an event when the product is handled and even changing content on the screens when a person approaches the display.”
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Sensors: According to Rodriguez, RFID technology is becoming more popular as retailers experiment with more uses for the sensors including inventory management. “With [RFID] gates installed, supply chain management becomes easier. A retailer can use the tags to sense when a product has moved from the back room to the floor, activate an experience on a screen once a product is picked up or moved, and can take the place of the old barcode system,” she says.

Top Store Layout Design Strategies that Impact the Customer Experience

Moving merchandise from the end of the supply chain to the customer is a retailer's primary function. Successful retailers do so by creating value and delivering a differentiated customer experience. How customers experience your merchandise is determined by how your store is designed to guide them to interact with it. A retail management strategy that successfully leverages store design to drive customer flow and create unique experiences is a big part of your overall retail brand. It is a proven method for producing the kind of value that keeps retailers competitive and profitable.

Allison Walzer , Sr. Retail Channel Marketing Manager at Microsoft, believes store design is a direct reflection of your brand and a vital part of staying competitive with e-commerce trends.

“One of the main challenges for stores is how they will stand out from competitors and a busy [retail] marketplace,” says Walzer. “How do they create the convenience and experience to drive customers to come into the store?”

“Store design really has to stand out from the pack right now,” she says. “It’s crucial for brick-and-mortar stores to create experiences that encourage people to visit stores.”

Visual Merchandising Strategy

Visual merchandising is a core retail strategy. It is the “language of the store,” writes Ebster — the way retailers communicate with the customer through visual imagery and the presentation of merchandise. Part art and part science, visual merchandising involves everything that helps create a unique customer experience. The well-lit entryway, the strategically placed furniture, fixtures, and promotional displays combine with the store layout to influence customer behavior and make the customer’s journey efficient, unique, and memorable.

“[We] are noticing a turn to lifestyle- and experience-driven retail experiences,” says Walzer. “Stores are integrating materials from home or outdoors to create a comfortable, beautiful shopping space that leads to longer dwell time in stores.” She describes a visual merchandising strategy that luxury brand retailers use to promote health and beauty by placing living plants inside their stores.

Visual merchandising brings together the overall environment of the retail store. It is a strategic element in retail management that distinguishes a retailer from the competition. The type of merchandise offered is a crucial consideration in the how the retailer influences uses visual merchandising elements to target customers. As Malcolm Gladwell writes in his feature article, “The Science of Shopping,” “the clothes have to match the environment.”

Walzer recommends that retailers deciding how to plan for visual merchandising elements that work for their concept consider their customer flow in a way that guides the customer through “the path to purchase.”

“Aesop is killing it right now,” says Walzer, when asked about retailers that highlight the importance of store design. “Their stores are beautiful and each one is different and contextual while still keeping in step with their brand. They concentrate on materials and even acoustics to create a personal environment. Each shop is individual and takes the environment and city into account when building a new store. It’s the right approach to make a memorable shopping experience and delights customers with its idiosyncratic design-led principles.”

The visual merchandising techniques that a retailer chooses can alter the customer’s perception of the retailer’s value. Ebster recommends looking at visual merchandising from the customer’s perspective. For more retail merchandising tips and best practices from experts and researchers, check out “ The Art and Science of Retail Merchandising .”

Zone Merchandising Strategy

Customers also respond to where products are placed. A zone merchandising strategy combines visual merchandising with your store layout design to highlight high-margin merchandise or merchandise you want featured. Creating zones using walls, merchandise displays, and signage develops semi-separate areas. Merchandise displays are set up as speed bumps to keep the customer in the zone and slow them from leaving the area.

“Stores need to be thoughtful in their layout, and have clear zones so navigation is easy. Not everyone likes to ask sales assistants for directions,” says Walzer. She recommends creating “instagrammable” moments in-store. “Make it fun and easy for people to share their stories on social media,” she says. This includes using hashtags in messaging, or on merchandise displays, creating “set-designing” zones, and favoring natural light with “unique designs that make for cool backdrops or host events.”

Lighting Strategy

Proper lighting is more than just making sure the customer can see and interact with the merchandise. When done well, light can help structure and influence the customer’s mood while shopping.

Store planners and designers use lighting solutions to highlight or downplay specific areas of the store to draw in customers and create an environment that works in sync with the retail brand and the merchandise offered. Lighting specialists provide expertise in the appropriate types of lighting for specific store layouts, based on natural light exposure, and can recommend solutions that suit budgets and environmentally conscious business models.

Signage Strategy

Signs serve multiple purposes for retailers. They are the graphic representation of the retailer's brand and merchandise. Signs provide product information for specific merchandise, help customers navigate the store layout efficiently, and create the desired price perception. Retailers should keep signs fresh and updated based on the merchandise offered, the season, or specific promotions. Keep in-store signs and messaging consistent with the brand voice and use standard fonts and colors that are easy to identify and read with your lighting.

“From a strictly visual perspective, it’s key to have clear readable signage from the outside that leads customers in the store. From there, plan the customer journey from [a] high level,” says Walzer. She recommends using signage that encourages overall shopping (for example, placing old and iconic imagery - specifically for tech stores - towards the front of the store). When the customer arrives at specific merchandise, or the “buy level,” use signage that builds the buy messaging.

Display Strategy

The word “display” comes from the French word “deployer”, which means “to unfold.” Far from being exclusive to clothing, however, promotional displays help “unfold” the merchandise you offer to the customer. Along with your store layout design, displays set the stage for your customer’s overall experience when navigating the store. In general, displays come in all shapes and sizes, and refer to the movable units in the store that feature merchandise such as tables, racks, or gondolas.

Careful selection of the type and placement of displays is crucial to the overall retail strategy of using space management and store design to influence customer flow and in-store behavior. Also, treat displays as flexible, cost-effective investments and ask your product manufacturers and suppliers about providing low-cost options specific to their products and brands.

Fixture Strategy

If displays are the flexible, freestanding, and modular units used to present merchandise, then fixtures refer to the more permanent units in the store. Counters, wall mounted shelving units, support columns, and bench seating are examples of fixtures. The purpose of fixtures is to coordinate your store layout and influence customer flow and interactions. In other words, they are designed to impact the customer flow and bring attention to merchandise in a consistent, familiar environment.

In general, fixtures are less versatile than displays and in-store design layouts, but when planned carefully, they become a defining part of a retail space. Walzer recommends minimal, clean, and uncluttered fixtures, and modular signage areas to promote offers. Fixtures need to drive a premium look and feel. Materials that are “authentic and have some warmth to them” work best (real wood versus laminate, stone or marble versus coated plastic, glass versus acrylic).

“Fixtures should be made from premium authentic materials that are durable and uplevel the experience,” says Walzer. “If the table is shoddy and falling apart, why would you want to buy what is merchandised on it?”

Window Strategy

Windows welcome customers from the outside and draw them into the store where layout design and the various elements of visual merchandising go to work. The window display requires careful attention to lighting, size of display units, type of merchandise featured, props (like mannequins), and signage. Because the customer has yet to enter the store, a window display must combine all of the visual merchandising elements to successfully pique the customer’s interest and promote the retailer’s brand and personality.

Communal Design Strategy

Concentrate on how to create community and engagement with store design. “What makes a consumer want to come and repeatedly spend time in a retail store in the digital age will be based on the feeling you get when you are shopping,” says Walzer. “Create a rapport with the customer, pull in elements from the community as part of the design inspiration. If there is a local artist or ceramist or musician, use those pieces in the stores.” Walzer mentions the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport showcasing Sub Pop artists and Pearl Jam artwork as an example. “[They] are currently doing a great job. It’s creating pride for residents and a sense of joy for travelers, who are also customers that purchase Sub Pop gear at the store.”

Other Space Management Considerations

As discussed, the visual presentation of merchandise and the influence of store layout design is vital to retail strategy. There are also functional considerations involved in the overall store layout that impacts the customer experience. One example is to keep design functional with the overall space.

“It’s not so much about the space as how the space is designed,” says Walzer. “If it’s a crowded or awkward space, build in open walkways, keep merchandising elegant. If it’s a large space, don’t let it look too cavernous. Create walkways to guide the purchase journey with easy wayfinding.”

The following is a list of additional space management factors to consider:

Legal Requirements: Review the standards issued under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to understand the legal requirements for retailers in the United States. For example, the ADA requires a minimum of three feet of aisle width for customer accessibility. Consult with qualified professionals if you’re planning changes to your store layout design that may impact customer accessibility.
Seating: Provide customers with comfortable seating to enhance the overall customer experience and slow customers down. Clothing stores with dressing rooms are the primary example of this strategy in use. According to Ebster, an extended store visit increases the likelihood that customers make a purchase.
Checkout: The checkout area of a retail store is critical to more than cash handling and payment processing. This space accommodates all customers and a variety of interactions, and is typically the last area to make an impression on customers. Depending on the store layout, the checkout area provides additional visual merchandising opportunities. Retailers use this space to encourage impulse purchases of complementary merchandise while customers wait to pay.
Back-of-the-House Operations: The retail store layout should factor for store operations and activity like shipping and receiving, inventory storage and retrieval, and the employee’s overall workspace and break area. Storage options are essential to the overall store layout design because it impacts how much merchandise you will feature on the sales floor where customers navigate. Ebster recommends keeping the customer in a flow state and focused on shopping. Therefore, maintaining back-of-the-house operations concealed from customers is a visual merchandising strategy.

Retail Store Layout Design and Planning Resources

Store layout planning and design is a profession all its own. The design knowledge and planning skills required to develop an entirely new retail store, modify an existing floor plan, or even remodel a specific area of your store is a daunting task for retailers focused on attracting customers and earning revenue. The good news is that an entire network of design professionals, store planners, project managers, architects, contractors, and more operate and serve in the largest private sector employment category of the U.S. economy. The following resources are available to retailers looking to explore store layout design and planning:

National Retail Federation (NRF) : The NRF is the world’s largest retail trade association. Operating in the U.S. and in 45 countries, their mission is “to advance the interests of the retail industry through advocacy, communications, and education.”
Retail Design Blog: Architects, designers, visual merchandisers, retailers, brand managers, and fans submit pictures and projects about retail design. It includes store and exhibit design, fashion merchandising, visual merchandising content, and more.
Store Design and Visual Merchandising: The website design:retail covers retail trends, products, and projects, and publishes an aggregate list of products and services.
Retail Design Institute: The Retail Design Institute is the largest and oldest not-for-profit store planning and design organization. Founded in 1961, members include architects, graphic designers, lighting designers, interior designers, store planners, visual merchandisers, resource designers, brand strategists, educators, trade partners, trade media, and students of design. The website publishes a list of design resources .
American Society of Interior Designers (ASID): ASID is a multi-disciplinary professional organization for interior designers, students, and retail manufacturers and suppliers that satisfy the organization's acceptance standards for accreditation. Members receive access to services by industry experts in legal assistance, human resources, liability and disability insurance, and more.
NCIDQ Certified Interior Designer: NCIDQ Certification tests for industry design standards, and for public health, safety, and welfare. More than 30,000 people are NCIDQ certified, an international standard for interior design professionals by The Council for Interior Design Qualification (CIDQ).
VMSD (Visual Marketing and Store Design) : The VMSD magazine and website provides retail professionals with “innovative retail design ideas, visual presentations, new products, merchandising strategies, and industry news and events.” VMSD hosts the annual International Retail Design Conference (IRDC)
Pinterest : Explore store design concepts and ideas through photography and project images posted by a variety of sources.

Retail Store Layout Software

One application you can use to create diagrams of store layouts is Google Drawing, a free software application available in the Chrome Web Store . For store planners, retail consultants, design professionals, or the aspiring DIY retailer, there is a market for drawing and floor planning software to help you create professional retail store layouts.

The following list of solutions offers diagramming tools that let you customize existing store layout templates and explore different design ideas. Drawing software provides libraries of design elements for architecture, furniture, fixtures, and floor plan specific symbols. Like most SaaS (software-as-a-service) solutions today, some of the solutions listed below offer customer support and tutorials, cloud hosting features, and software integration with your existing store management software and standard operating systems.

Microsoft Visio
EDrawSoft Floor Plan Maker
ConceptDraw PRO
FloorPlanner
Lucidchart Floor Plan Software

Improve Retail Store Operations with Smartsheet for Retail

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Blog , Store Fixtures

15 modern retail counter examples for your retail stores.

Retail counter displays are the main focus of a store, making the buyer journey easier to manage as well as providing other benefits:

An effective way to display impulse purchases
An eye-catching point of purchase
Creates a lasting impression
Useful for extra storage

What are retail counters?

A retail counter is often the focal point of a store, providing a point of purchase and a connection to your brand. It’s often the place customers will go to for assistance, and the rest of your store can be organised around this central experience.

Counter displays can be constructed from different types of material, so you can choose something that best suits your brand and ideal in-store customer experience. Common materials used for counter displays include:

A laminate finish can also provide colour, patterns and extra durability.

Retail counter display ideas to help you drive sales

Counter displays aren’t just the hub of your sales. Used effectively, they can drive customer purchases, up- and cross-sell and ensure shoppers really connect with your brand.

These 15 examples showcase how a counter can be used to draw attention and create a memorable in-store experience.

1. Modern mirror retail counter

This use of a mirror on the counter not only reflects extra light but also the products displayed around the store and the store fittings . Since store fittings influence shopper behaviour by drawing products to the eye, this is a clever way of multiplying that effect.

This is especially the case if you have bespoke shop fittings that are designed specifically for your products and that enhance your brand.

2. Make a statement with your retail counter

Retail counters that make a statement, such as this clothing counter with a mannequin by KSF Global for Maryling , are both eye-catching and memorable.

You can also use this creative idea to showcase your core product or promotion.

3. Counter displays that support your re-brand

If you’re rebranding, or even launching a new product, you can use your counter to highlight what’s new, such as in this example for Kenneth Cole by KSF Global .

Since every customer who makes a purchase has to come to the counter, they will see brand updates so it’s a way of strengthening your brand message.

CTA for 100+ retail store fixtures examples

4. Bespoke retail counters

The main advantage of a bespoke retail counter is that you can:

Tailor it to suit your brand
Ensure it fits neatly into your store’s space
Get the exact amount of shelf and storage space you need

5. Corner counter displays

A corner counter neatly seals shop floor staff at the focal point of your store, from which they can provide customer assistance.

This type of counter also means you have extra storage that customers can’t see, keeping things at hand and organised behind the scenes. You also have more counter space to display products.

6. Glass counter displays

For precious, expensive or fragile items, glass top counters allow you to show your products to their best advantage while ensuring they are safe and secure.

This also provides a feeling of luxury and exclusivity, making glass counters ideal for items like watches and jewellery.

A high end jewellery counter for Cartier

7. Counter displays with shelves

A retail counter with shelves has a double advantage. It offers both spaces for extra products right at the point of purchase and more storage space. If you are tight on floor space, this type of display may be well suited for your store.

8. Retail counters with drops

9. Wooden retail counter displays

A wooden retail counter in a homeware shop

Wood is a popular material for counters. In this example, you can see how it’s perfectly suited to the store aesthetic and overall brand.

Wooden retail counters are also highly durable and hard-wearing, important considerations in an area where there will be a lot of footfall and usage.

10. Optical retail counters

a modern opticians retail shop with a glass counter

11. Customisable counters

Add a great lighting system to your store counter designs

12. Retail counter displays with in-built technology

A retail counter with integrated digital display for customers to use

13. Curved counters

Revolution - cash counter for clothes stores 2, Curved counter for shop cash desk, with display drawer

14. Branded retail counters

15. Light up your retail counter

A modern retail counter display for Sony

Effective use of lighting, whether that’s LEDs, overhead lights or lightboxes, can help you draw attention to your counter. In this example, LEDs are used to highlight the logo on the counter, and a lightbox maximises the power of the Sony brand.

Enhance Your Retail Counters With KSF Global

As a retail design agency , we have plenty of experience creating and designing a wide range of display stand solutions as a leading store fixtures manufacturer .

To find out how we can help you make a success of your retail stores with effective counter displays, get in touch today .

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Sample Retail Business Plan

Growthink.com Retail Business Plan Template

Writing a business plan is a crucial step in starting a retail business. Not only does it provide structure and guidance for the future, but it also helps to create funding opportunities and attract potential investors. For aspiring retail business owners, having access to a sample retail business plan can be especially helpful in providing direction and gaining insight into how to draft their own retail business plan.

Download our Ultimate Retail Business Plan Template

Having a thorough business plan in place is critical for any successful retail venture. It will serve as the foundation for your operations, setting out the goals and objectives that will help guide your decisions and actions. A well-written business plan can give you clarity on realistic financial projections and help you secure financing from lenders or investors. A retail business plan example can be a great resource to draw upon when creating your own plan, making sure that all the key components are included in your document.

The retail business plan sample below will give you an idea of what one should look like. It is not as comprehensive and successful in raising capital for your retail as Growthink’s Ultimate Retail Business Plan Template , but it can help you write a retail business plan of your own.

Retail Business Plan Example – MarketMosaic

Table of contents, executive summary, company overview, industry analysis, customer analysis, competitive analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, management team, financial plan.

MarketMosaic is a dynamic retail enterprise, poised to redefine the shopping experience by offering an extensive selection of retail items, from the latest tech gadgets to essential household products. Our commitment to competitive pricing, backed by efficient procurement and inventory management processes, ensures that our customers always receive the best value. Situated in the heart of Bakersfield, CA, our goal is to establish ourselves as the go-to shopping destination by being a one-stop-shop for diverse customer needs, thereby setting a new standard in the retail industry.

Our success hinges on our ability to offer a wide range of products at competitive prices and our dedication to exceptional customer service. By training our staff extensively and developing a user-friendly online platform, we enhance the shopping experience both in-store and online. These efforts, combined with our strategic location in Bakersfield, CA, and our focus on leveraging technology to meet customer needs, have positioned us as leaders in the retail sector. Our accomplishments to date include establishing a comprehensive inventory, securing a prime storefront, and building a robust supply chain, laying a strong foundation for future growth.

The retail industry is experiencing rapid transformation, driven by changing consumer preferences and technological advancements. Customers now seek convenience, variety, and value in their shopping experiences, trends that have been accelerated by the rise of e-commerce. This shift presents both challenges and opportunities for traditional and online retailers alike. By understanding these dynamics, MarketMosaic is well-positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for one-stop shopping solutions that blend physical and digital retail spaces. Our approach is designed to not only meet but exceed the evolving expectations of today’s consumers.

Our target customers are diverse, spanning various demographics yet unified by their desire for a convenient, one-stop shopping experience. They value variety, quality, and affordability in their purchases, ranging from tech aficionados looking for the latest gadgets to busy families in need of daily essentials. By recognizing and adapting to the unique preferences of our customer base, MarketMosaic aims to create a retail environment that caters to the needs of each shopper, ensuring satisfaction and fostering loyalty. Our commitment to understanding and meeting these needs is central to our customer acquisition and retention strategies.

Top competitors include established retail chains and e-commerce platforms. Despite the competition, MarketMosaic’s advantages lie in our wide product range, competitive pricing, and exceptional customer service. Our omnichannel approach, combining an intuitive online platform with a welcoming physical store, sets us apart, allowing us to offer convenience, efficiency, and a personalized shopping experience that surpasses that of our competitors.

At MarketMosaic, our product strategy encompasses a wide variety of high-quality items at competitive prices, ensuring we cater to the diverse needs of our customers. We are dedicated to maintaining a balance between offering the latest trends and stocking everyday essentials, thereby positioning ourselves as a comprehensive shopping destination. Our promotions plan is multifaceted, incorporating local advertising, social media campaigns, and community engagement events to build our brand presence both online and in the Bakersfield area. By leveraging these channels, we aim to attract a broad customer base and foster strong relationships within the community, driving traffic to both our physical store and online platform.

Key operational milestones for MarketMosaic include securing a prime location in Bakersfield, obtaining necessary permits, designing a welcoming retail space, developing efficient supply chain and inventory systems, and hiring a high-performing team. These steps are critical to launching our retail operations successfully and achieving our initial goal of reaching $15,000/month in revenue. Additionally, our focus on customer feedback will allow us to adapt our product offerings and store layout to better meet market demand, ensuring customer satisfaction and loyalty as we establish a strong community presence.

Our management team brings together seasoned professionals with extensive experience in retail, operations, and customer service. This diverse skill set is crucial to our mission of redefining the retail landscape by combining technology with a customer-centric approach. Each team member’s expertise in their respective fields ensures that MarketMosaic is not only equipped to navigate the challenges of the retail industry but also poised to capitalize on its opportunities, driving growth and innovation.

MarketMosaic is a new Retail serving customers in Bakersfield, CA. We are a local retail business, stepping into an arena where high-quality local retail options have been notably absent. Our mission is to fill this void by offering a diverse range of products that cater to the needs and preferences of our community. With our strategic location and a keen understanding of the local market, we are poised to become a staple for shoppers in Bakersfield.

Our product lineup is meticulously curated to meet the wide-ranging needs of our customers. At MarketMosaic, shoppers can find an extensive selection of Apparel and Fashion Accessories, ensuring that the latest trends are always within reach. For tech enthusiasts and those looking to upgrade their gadgets, our Electronics and Technology section offers the latest innovations. Home and Furniture is for customers aiming to add a touch of comfort and style to their living spaces, whereas our Beauty and Personal Care products cater to those who prioritize wellness and self-care. Last but certainly not least, our Groceries and Food Products aisle provides the essentials and specialties alike, making everyday shopping convenient and enjoyable.

Located in the heart of Bakersfield, CA, MarketMosaic serves the local community with pride and dedication. Our strategic location is not just about geographical convenience; it’s about being an integral part of the community we serve, understanding its needs, and evolving with its changing dynamics. This local presence strengthens our commitment to providing a shopping experience that is both enjoyable and rewarding.

MarketMosaic is uniquely qualified to succeed for several reasons. Firstly, our founder brings a wealth of experience from running a successful retail business in the past. This experience is invaluable in navigating the competitive landscape and ensuring that MarketMosaic stands out from the competition. Moreover, our diverse range of retail items is not only more extensive but also priced more competitively than what’s currently available in the market. This combination of experience, variety, and value positions us for success in Bakersfield’s retail sector.

Since our inception on January 5, 2024, as a Limited Liability Company, we’ve made significant strides in establishing our brand. Our accomplishments to date include the creation of our logo, which encapsulates our brand’s essence and values, the development of our company name that resonates with our target audience, and securing a prime location that offers accessibility and convenience to our customers. These milestones are just the beginning of our journey towards becoming the go-to retail destination in Bakersfield.

The Retail industry in the United States is a massive sector that plays a significant role in the country’s economy. As of now, the retail market in the US is valued at over $5 trillion, making it one of the largest industries in the country. With a large and diverse consumer base, the retail industry continues to thrive and show strong growth potential.

Market research indicates that the retail industry in the US is expected to continue growing in the coming years. Experts forecast a steady increase in market size, with an estimated annual growth rate of 3-4%. This growth is driven by factors such as consumer spending, e-commerce expansion, and technological advancements that enhance the shopping experience for customers.

Recent trends in the retail industry, such as the shift towards online shopping, personalized marketing strategies, and sustainability initiatives, are all positive indicators for MarketMosaic. As a new retail business serving customers in Bakersfield, CA, MarketMosaic can leverage these trends to attract and retain customers. By staying ahead of industry developments and embracing innovative practices, MarketMosaic has the potential to carve out a successful niche in the competitive retail market.

Below is a description of our target customers and their core needs.

Target Customers

MarketMosaic will target a diverse customer base, with a significant focus on local residents who are always on the lookout for unique retail experiences. This segment is composed of families, young professionals, and elderly residents who value convenience, quality, and a personalized shopping experience. MarketMosaic will tailor its offerings to meet the specific needs and preferences of these local customers, ensuring a loyal customer base.

The store will also attract customers who are eco-conscious and interested in sustainable living. This segment is growing rapidly, as more people are becoming aware of the environmental impact of their purchases. MarketMosaic will offer a range of eco-friendly products and will emphasize its commitment to sustainability in its marketing efforts, appealing to this environmentally aware customer segment.

In addition to local residents and eco-conscious consumers, MarketMosaic will target tourists visiting Bakersfield. The store will feature locally made products and souvenirs that reflect the culture and heritage of the area, serving as a unique shopping destination for visitors looking to take a piece of Bakersfield back home. This strategy will not only diversify MarketMosaic’s customer base but also contribute to the local economy by promoting regional artisans and producers.

Customer Needs

MarketMosaic aims to cater to the discerning customers in its area by providing high-quality retail items. These consumers expect nothing less than premium products that stand the test of time. By focusing on quality over quantity, MarketMosaic ensures that its customers have access to goods that reflect their desire for excellence and durability.

In addition to offering high-quality products, MarketMosaic understands the importance of a diverse product range. Customers can find a wide variety of items that not only meet their practical needs but also cater to their unique tastes and preferences. This diversity in product selection allows shoppers to enjoy a one-stop shopping experience that is both convenient and fulfilling.

Moreover, MarketMosaic places a strong emphasis on customer service. The staff is knowledgeable and ready to assist, ensuring that every customer’s shopping experience is seamless and enjoyable. This level of service, combined with the quality and variety of products offered, positions MarketMosaic as a retail destination that truly understands and fulfills the needs of its customers.

MarketMosaic’s competitors include the following companies:

Shop Spoiled Boutique offers a curated selection of women’s fashion, focusing on trendy and upscale clothing items. Their price points are moderately high, targeting consumers looking for unique and fashionable pieces that aren’t widely available. This boutique generates revenue primarily through its physical store in Bakersfield, CA, and an online platform that extends their reach to customers nationwide.

The customer segment for Shop Spoiled Boutique includes fashion-forward women, typically aged 18-35, who are seeking unique, stylish, and high-quality clothing. The key strength of Shop Spoiled Boutique lies in its unique selection of products and personalized customer service. However, its key weakness is the limited variety of sizes, which may not cater to all potential customers.

Macy’s , a nationwide department store chain, offers a wide range of products including clothing, accessories, home goods, and beauty products. Their price points vary widely to accommodate a broad spectrum of customers, from budget-friendly options to luxury brands. Macy’s generates substantial revenue from its extensive network of stores across the United States and a robust online sales platform.

Macy’s serves a diverse customer segment, from young adults to elderly customers, offering products for every age group and for both men and women. The key strengths of Macy’s include its wide variety of products, strong brand recognition, and nationwide presence. However, Macy’s faces weaknesses such as competition with online retailers and the challenge of maintaining a compelling in-store experience.

Action Sports specializes in sporting goods, athletic wear, and outdoor equipment, catering to sports enthusiasts and outdoor adventurers. Their products are priced to offer value for quality, appealing to those who prioritize durability and performance in their sporting and outdoor gear. Action Sports generates revenue through its brick-and-mortar location in Bakersfield, CA, and an online store that serves customers across the country.

The customer segment for Action Sports includes individuals leading an active lifestyle, ranging from amateur sports enthusiasts to professional athletes. The key strength of Action Sports is its focus on high-quality, durable products, and knowledgeable staff. However, its key weakness lies in its limited product range compared to larger, more diversified competitors.

Competitive Advantages

At MarketMosaic, we pride ourselves on offering a broader selection of retail items compared to our competitors, thereby catering to the diverse needs and preferences of our customers. By ensuring a wide variety of products, from the latest in tech gadgets to everyday household items, we make it our priority to be a one-stop-shop for our shoppers. This vast selection not only enhances customer convenience but also positions us as a market leader in providing a comprehensive shopping experience. Furthermore, our commitment to competitive pricing ensures that our customers receive the best value for their money. By leveraging efficient procurement and inventory management processes, we can offer high-quality products at prices that are hard to beat, thus providing a significant cost advantage to our customers.

In addition to our wide range and competitive pricing, another key competitive advantage lies in our customer-centric approach. We invest heavily in training our staff to provide exceptional customer service, ensuring that every customer leaves satisfied with their shopping experience. Our intuitive, user-friendly online platform complements our physical presence, enabling customers to shop with us from the comfort of their homes. This omnichannel approach not only expands our reach but also enhances accessibility for all our customers, making shopping convenient, efficient, and enjoyable. By integrating technology with personalized customer service, we set new standards in retail, distinguishing ourselves from the competition and cementing our position as a leader in the industry.

Our marketing plan, included below, details our products/services, pricing and promotions plan.

Products and Services

At MarketMosaic, customers can discover a wide range of products and services designed to cater to diverse needs and preferences. From stylish apparel to the latest in electronics, this retail destination is committed to providing quality items at competitive prices. The following is a detailed overview of the key products and services available at MarketMosaic, along with the average selling price for each category.

In the realm of Apparel and Fashion Accessories, MarketMosaic offers a variety of clothing items and accessories for men, women, and children. Shoppers can find everything from casual wear to more formal attire, ensuring a selection that suits any occasion. The average selling price for apparel items hovers around $35, while fashion accessories are typically priced at $20, making stylishness accessible without breaking the bank.

For those interested in Electronics and Technology, MarketMosaic is a treasure trove of the latest gadgets and devices. From smartphones and laptops to home entertainment systems, the store provides cutting-edge technology to enhance daily life and productivity. The average selling price in this category is approximately $250, offering customers high-quality electronics at reasonable prices.

When it comes to Home and Furniture, MarketMosaic presents an array of options to beautify living spaces. Whether customers are looking for contemporary furniture designs or cozy home decor items, the store caters to various tastes and budgets. On average, furniture items are priced at $150, while home accessories can be purchased for around $30, ensuring that every home can be a haven of style and comfort.

Beauty and Personal Care products at MarketMosaic cater to a wide range of grooming and wellness needs. From skincare and makeup to hair care products, the store offers an extensive selection for both men and women. Customers can expect to find their favorite beauty essentials at an average price of $15, making self-care both affordable and indulgent.

Lastly, the Groceries and Food Products section at MarketMosaic is stocked with a variety of food items, including fresh produce, packaged goods, and gourmet specialties. Whether planning a meal or looking for a quick snack, shoppers can find what they need at an average price of $5 per item, making mealtime both delicious and economical.

MarketMosaic is dedicated to providing a shopping experience that combines quality, variety, and affordability. With a wide range of products and services available, customers in Bakersfield, CA, can enjoy a one-stop shopping destination that meets all their needs.

Promotions Plan

MarketMosaic will utilize a comprehensive promotional strategy to attract and retain customers in the competitive retail landscape. At the core of these efforts is online marketing, a powerful tool that will enable MarketMosaic to reach a broad audience efficiently and effectively. Through the use of social media platforms, search engine optimization (SEO), and email marketing campaigns, MarketMosaic will engage with potential customers by showcasing their unique value proposition, special promotions, and the wide range of products available.

Beyond online marketing, MarketMosaic will also implement traditional advertising methods, including print media, billboards, and local radio spots. These tried-and-true approaches will complement the digital strategy by increasing brand visibility in the local community of Bakersfield, CA. Furthermore, MarketMosaic will leverage public relations activities, such as press releases and community events, to build a positive brand image and foster strong relationships with customers.

In-store promotions and loyalty programs will be another key component of MarketMosaic’s promotional efforts. Special discounts, loyalty points, and exclusive offers for returning customers will encourage repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals, which are invaluable in building a loyal customer base. Additionally, MarketMosaic will host in-store events and workshops to engage with the community and provide an interactive shopping experience.

Partnerships with local businesses and influencers will also play a significant role in MarketMosaic’s promotional strategy. By collaborating with complementary businesses and influential personalities in Bakersfield, MarketMosaic will tap into new customer segments and enhance its market presence through co-marketing efforts and cross-promotions.

To ensure the success of these promotional methods, MarketMosaic will consistently monitor and analyze the performance of each strategy, adjusting tactics as necessary to maximize return on investment. By implementing a dynamic and multi-faceted promotional approach, MarketMosaic expects to attract a wide range of customers and establish itself as a go-to retail destination in Bakersfield, CA.

Our Operations Plan details:

The key day-to-day processes that our business performs to serve our customers
The key business milestones that our company expects to accomplish as we grow

Key Operational Processes

To ensure the success of MarketMosaic, there are several key day-to-day operational processes that we will perform.

Inventory Management: We will continuously monitor stock levels to ensure that popular items are always available, while also identifying slow-moving items for promotional sales or clearance.
Supplier Relations: We will maintain strong relationships with suppliers to ensure timely delivery of goods, negotiate better prices, and stay informed about new or trending products.
Customer Service: We will prioritize exceptional customer service by training staff to be knowledgeable about products, friendly, and helpful to create a positive shopping experience.
Store Presentation: We will regularly update store layouts and displays to make shopping intuitive and engaging, and ensure the store is clean and well-maintained at all times.
Marketing and Promotions: We will implement targeted marketing campaigns and in-store promotions to attract new customers and encourage repeat business.
Sales Monitoring: We will use point-of-sale (POS) systems to track sales data, identify trends, and make informed decisions about inventory and marketing strategies.
Staff Management: We will schedule staff efficiently to cover peak times while managing labor costs, and provide ongoing training to improve skills and knowledge.
Financial Management: We will meticulously manage finances, including monitoring daily sales, expenses, and cash flow, to ensure profitability.
Compliance: We will ensure all business operations comply with local, state, and federal regulations, including health and safety standards.
Feedback and Improvement: We will actively seek feedback from customers and employees to identify areas for improvement and implement changes to enhance the shopping experience.

MarketMosaic expects to complete the following milestones in the coming months in order to ensure its success:

Secure a Prime Location in Bakersfield, CA : Selecting and securing a lease for a storefront in a high-traffic area that aligns with MarketMosaic’s target demographic will be crucial for attracting initial customers and establishing brand presence.
Obtain Necessary Permits and Licenses : Completing all legal requirements including business registration, sales tax permits, and any specific retail operation licenses ahead of the launch will ensure compliance and avoid any legal hurdles post-launch.
Build Out and Design the Retail Space : Creating a welcoming and brand-aligned store environment that maximizes product visibility and enhances the shopping experience will be key to attracting and retaining customers.
Develop Supply Chain and Inventory Management Systems : Establishing reliable relationships with suppliers and implementing inventory management systems will ensure that MarketMosaic can maintain stock levels efficiently, reducing the risk of stockouts or excess inventory.
Hire and Train a High-Performing Team : Recruiting a capable team and providing them with the necessary training on customer service, product knowledge, and operational procedures will be essential for delivering a positive customer experience and driving sales.
Launch Our Retail Business : Officially opening the doors to customers with a well-publicized grand opening event will mark the start of business operations, aiming to generate buzz and attract initial customer traffic.
Implement Marketing and Customer Acquisition Strategies : Developing and executing a comprehensive marketing strategy that includes local advertising, social media engagement, and community events will help MarketMosaic build its brand and attract customers.
Monitor and Adapt Product Offerings Based on Customer Feedback : Regularly collecting and analyzing customer feedback to adjust product offerings and store layout will help meet market demand and improve customer satisfaction.
Reach $15,000/Month in Revenue : Achieving this financial milestone will indicate that MarketMosaic has successfully penetrated the market and is on a path toward sustainability and growth.
Establish a Loyal Customer Base and Community Presence : Developing strong relationships with customers and becoming an active participant in the Bakersfield community will contribute to long-term success by building brand loyalty and encouraging word-of-mouth referrals.

MarketMosaic management team, which includes the following members, has the experience and expertise to successfully execute on our business plan:

Aria Morales, President

Aria Morales brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record of success to her role as President of MarketMosaic. With a rich history in the retail industry, Morales has demonstrated her ability to not only run a business but to do so with notable success. Her hands-on experience in managing a retail business has endowed her with a deep understanding of the market dynamics, consumer behavior, and operational efficiency. These skills and insights are critical in steering MarketMosaic towards achieving its business objectives and ensuring its long-term success in a competitive landscape. Morales’s leadership is characterized by a strategic approach to business growth, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to excellence, making her an invaluable asset to the MarketMosaic team.

MarketMosaic requires significant funding to achieve our growth goals, including securing a prime retail location, building out and designing our store environment, developing our inventory and supply chain infrastructure, and implementing our marketing strategy. This investment will support our operations until we reach our initial revenue target of $15,000/month, setting the stage for long-term sustainability and expansion in the competitive retail market.

Financial Statements

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Retail Business Plan Example PDF

Download our Retail Business Plan PDF here. This is a free retail business plan example to help you get started on your own retail plan.

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The Ultimate Guide To Checkout Counters: Tips and Tricks for Retailers

Checkout counters are an essential part of any retail store. They are the final point of contact between the customer and the store and can greatly impact the customer experience. A well-designed checkout counter can improve the customer experience and increase sales.

When designing a checkout counter, it’s important to consider the customer experience . The checkout process should be quick and efficient, with minimal wait times. The counter should be designed to accommodate different types of customers, including those with disabilities. Additionally, the counter should be designed to promote a positive image of the store, with clear signage and branding.

In addition to improving the customer experience, a well-designed checkout counter can increase sales. By strategically placing products and promotions near the counter, retailers can encourage customers to make last-minute purchases. The counter can also showcase new products or highlight popular items. Overall, a well-designed checkout counter can have a significant impact on the success of a retail store.

Designing the Checkout Area

Choosing the Right Checkout Counter

Several checkout counters include traditional straight, curved, and L-shaped counters. The type of counter you choose will depend on factors such as the size and layout of your store , the number of checkout lanes you need, and your budget.

When choosing a checkout counter, it is also important to consider factors such as durability, ease of use, and security. For example, a counter with a locking cash drawer can help prevent theft and ensure that cash is secure.

Optimizing Space and Traffic Flow

The checkout area should be designed to optimize space and traffic flow. This means ensuring that there is enough space for customers to move around comfortably and that there are no bottlenecks or congestion points that could slow down checkout times.

One way to optimize space and traffic flow is to use a cash wrap counter to provide a clear separation between the checkout area and the rest of the store. This can help create a more organized and efficient checkout experience for customers.

Incorporating Brand Identity and Style

The checkout area is also an opportunity to incorporate brand identity and style into the store design. This can be done through decorations, lighting, and other design elements that reflect the store’s brand and style.

For example, if the store has a modern and minimalist aesthetic, the checkout area could be designed with clean lines and simple, understated decor. Alternatively, if the store has a more eclectic and bohemian style, the checkout area could be designed with colorful accents and unique decor items.

Overall, designing a checkout area that is functional, efficient, and visually appealing requires careful consideration of several factors, including the type of checkout counter, space and traffic flow, and brand identity and style. By considering these factors, retailers can create a checkout area that enhances the overall shopping experience for customers.

Enhancing Customer Service

Efficient payment processing is essential for an excellent customer service experience. Customers appreciate fast checkout times, and a slow or complicated payment process can lead to frustration. To ensure efficient payment processing, checkout counters must have modern POS systems. These systems should be integrated with cash registers, cash drawers, monitors, receipt printers, payment terminals, barcode scanners, keyboards, and mice.

Integrating modern POS systems is crucial for enhancing customer service. These systems have features like touch-screen interfaces, barcode scanners, and contactless payment options that make the payment process faster and more convenient. Additionally, modern POS systems allow for real-time inventory tracking, ensuring customers can purchase stock items.

Improving staff-customer interactions is another crucial aspect of enhancing customer service. Staff should be trained to interact with customers in a friendly and engaging manner, making them feel welcome and valued. Staff should also be knowledgeable about the store’s products and services, so they can answer customer questions effectively.

Efficient payment processing, modern POS systems, and improved staff-customer interactions are essential to enhancing customer service. By implementing these practices, checkout counters can provide customers a seamless and enjoyable experience. Moreover, checkout counters should have a hand sanitizer dispenser to ensure that customers and staff maintain proper hygiene.

Maximizing Sales and Promotions

Strategies for upselling and cross-selling.

One of the most effective ways to increase sales at the checkout counter is through upselling and cross-selling. Upselling involves encouraging customers to purchase a higher-priced item than they originally intended. In contrast, cross-selling involves suggesting complementary products to accompany the customer’s purchase.

To successfully implement these strategies, the cashier should have a good understanding of the products being sold and be able to make recommendations based on the customer’s needs. For example, if a customer purchases a new phone, the cashier could suggest a phone case or screen protector.

Displaying Impulse Purchase Items

Impulse purchases can significantly increase sales at the checkout counter. These are items that customers may not have planned to purchase but decide to buy on a whim. Retailers should display small, affordable, and visually appealing items to encourage impulse purchases.

Retailers can also use signage and displays to draw attention to these items. For example, placing a sign that says “Last Chance!” or “Limited Time Offer” can create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to purchase.

Leveraging Seasonal and Promotional Products

Seasonal and promotional products can be a great way to increase sales at the checkout counter. Retailers can leverage holidays and special events by offering themed products or promotions.

For example, during the holiday season, retailers can offer gift-wrapping services or sell holiday-themed items such as ornaments or decorations. Retailers can also partner with other businesses to offer joint promotions or discounts.

By leveraging seasonal and promotional products, retailers can create a sense of excitement and urgency among customers, leading to increased sales at the checkout counter.

Building a Lasting Impression

Customers often form their final impression of a store at the checkout counter. Retailers who recognize this can leverage the checkout process to create a memorable experience that fosters brand recognition and customer loyalty. Here are some ways to build a lasting impression at the checkout counter.

Fostering Brand Recognition Through Checkout Experience

The checkout counter is an excellent opportunity to reinforce a store’s brand. Retailers can use branded bags, gift cards, and loyalty programs to remind customers of their brand story. The checkout counter can also be used to showcase a brand’s values. For example, a plant on the counter can convey a commitment to sustainability, while a TV screen can display a brand’s social media feed or promotional videos.

Engaging Customers with Technology and Media

Technology can be used to engage customers at the checkout counter. For example, a touchscreen interface can speed up checkout while providing customers a fun and interactive experience. Retailers can also use television screens to display promotional videos or product information. In addition, retailers can use scents to create a pleasant in-store experience that engages the senses. Finally, retailers can use gift cards and loyalty programs to incentivize customers to return and make future purchases.

By leveraging technology and media and creating a checkout experience that fosters brand recognition, retailers can create a lasting impression encouraging customers to return to the store.

About The Author:

Checkout Counter Ideas That Work: Maximize Retail Sales

How High Should A Checkout Counter Be? A Guide to Finding the Optimal Height

Increasing Sales With End Cap Displays: Tips and Strategies

How to Clean a Glass Display Case: Tips and Tricks

Boutique Cash Wrap Counter: A Professional Guide to Choosing the Perfect One

Display Merchandise

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How to Write a Business Plan in 9 Steps (+ Template and Examples)

Every successful business has one thing in common, a good and well-executed business plan. A business plan is more than a document, it is a complete guide that outlines the goals your business wants to achieve, including its financial goals . It helps you analyze results, make strategic decisions, show your business operations and growth.

If you want to start a business or already have one and need to pitch it to investors for funding, writing a good business plan improves your chances of attracting financiers. As a startup, if you want to secure loans from financial institutions, part of the requirements involve submitting your business plan.

Writing a business plan does not have to be a complicated or time-consuming process. In this article, you will learn the step-by-step process for writing a successful business plan.

You will also learn what you need a business plan for, tips and strategies for writing a convincing business plan, business plan examples and templates that will save you tons of time, and the alternatives to the traditional business plan.

Let’s get started.

What Do You Need A Business Plan For?

Businesses create business plans for different purposes such as to secure funds, monitor business growth, measure your marketing strategies, and measure your business success.

1. Secure Funds

One of the primary reasons for writing a business plan is to secure funds, either from financial institutions/agencies or investors.

For you to effectively acquire funds, your business plan must contain the key elements of your business plan . For example, your business plan should include your growth plans, goals you want to achieve, and milestones you have recorded.

A business plan can also attract new business partners that are willing to contribute financially and intellectually. If you are writing a business plan to a bank, your project must show your traction , that is, the proof that you can pay back any loan borrowed.

Also, if you are writing to an investor, your plan must contain evidence that you can effectively utilize the funds you want them to invest in your business. Here, you are using your business plan to persuade a group or an individual that your business is a source of a good investment.

2. Monitor Business Growth

A business plan can help you track cash flows in your business. It steers your business to greater heights. A business plan capable of tracking business growth should contain:

The business goals
Methods to achieve the goals
Time-frame for attaining those goals

A good business plan should guide you through every step in achieving your goals. It can also track the allocation of assets to every aspect of the business. You can tell when you are spending more than you should on a project.

You can compare a business plan to a written GPS. It helps you manage your business and hints at the right time to expand your business.

3. Measure Business Success

A business plan can help you measure your business success rate. Some small-scale businesses are thriving better than more prominent companies because of their track record of success.

Right from the onset of your business operation, set goals and work towards them. Write a plan to guide you through your procedures. Use your plan to measure how much you have achieved and how much is left to attain.

You can also weigh your success by monitoring the position of your brand relative to competitors. On the other hand, a business plan can also show you why you have not achieved a goal. It can tell if you have elapsed the time frame you set to attain a goal.

4. Document Your Marketing Strategies

You can use a business plan to document your marketing plans. Every business should have an effective marketing plan.

Competition mandates every business owner to go the extraordinary mile to remain relevant in the market. Your business plan should contain your marketing strategies that work. You can measure the success rate of your marketing plans.

In your business plan, your marketing strategy must answer the questions:

How do you want to reach your target audience?
How do you plan to retain your customers?
What is/are your pricing plans?
What is your budget for marketing?

How to Write a Business Plan Step-by-Step

1. create your executive summary.

The executive summary is a snapshot of your business or a high-level overview of your business purposes and plans . Although the executive summary is the first section in your business plan, most people write it last. The length of the executive summary is not more than two pages.

Generally, there are nine sections in a business plan, the executive summary should condense essential ideas from the other eight sections.

A good executive summary should do the following:

A Snapshot of Growth Potential. Briefly inform the reader about your company and why it will be successful)
Contain your Mission Statement which explains what the main objective or focus of your business is.
Product Description and Differentiation. Brief description of your products or services and why it is different from other solutions in the market.
The Team. Basic information about your company’s leadership team and employees
Business Concept. A solid description of what your business does.
Target Market. The customers you plan to sell to.
Marketing Strategy. Your plans on reaching and selling to your customers
Current Financial State. Brief information about what revenue your business currently generates.
Projected Financial State. Brief information about what you foresee your business revenue to be in the future.

The executive summary is the make-or-break section of your business plan. If your summary cannot in less than two pages cannot clearly describe how your business will solve a particular problem of your target audience and make a profit, your business plan is set on a faulty foundation.

Avoid using the executive summary to hype your business, instead, focus on helping the reader understand the what and how of your plan.

View the executive summary as an opportunity to introduce your vision for your company. You know your executive summary is powerful when it can answer these key questions:

Who is your target audience?
What sector or industry are you in?
What are your products and services?
What is the future of your industry?
Is your company scaleable?
Who are the owners and leaders of your company? What are their backgrounds and experience levels?
What is the motivation for starting your company?
What are the next steps?

Writing the executive summary last although it is the most important section of your business plan is an excellent idea. The reason why is because it is a high-level overview of your business plan. It is the section that determines whether potential investors and lenders will read further or not.

The executive summary can be a stand-alone document that covers everything in your business plan. It is not uncommon for investors to request only the executive summary when evaluating your business. If the information in the executive summary impresses them, they will ask for the complete business plan.

If you are writing your business plan for your planning purposes, you do not need to write the executive summary.

2. Add Your Company Overview

The company overview or description is the next section in your business plan after the executive summary. It describes what your business does.

Adding your company overview can be tricky especially when your business is still in the planning stages. Existing businesses can easily summarize their current operations but may encounter difficulties trying to explain what they plan to become.

Your company overview should contain the following:

What products and services you will provide
Geographical markets and locations your company have a presence
What you need to run your business
Who your target audience or customers are
Who will service your customers
Your company’s purpose, mission, and vision
Information about your company’s founders
Who the founders are
Notable achievements of your company so far

When creating a company overview, you have to focus on three basics: identifying your industry, identifying your customer, and explaining the problem you solve.

If you are stuck when creating your company overview, try to answer some of these questions that pertain to you.

Who are you targeting? (The answer is not everyone)
What pain point does your product or service solve for your customers that they will be willing to spend money on resolving?
How does your product or service overcome that pain point?
Where is the location of your business?
What products, equipment, and services do you need to run your business?
How is your company’s product or service different from your competition in the eyes of your customers?
How many employees do you need and what skills do you require them to have?

After answering some or all of these questions, you will get more than enough information you need to write your company overview or description section. When writing this section, describe what your company does for your customers.

The company description or overview section contains three elements: mission statement, history, and objectives.

Mission Statement

The mission statement refers to the reason why your business or company is existing. It goes beyond what you do or sell, it is about the ‘why’. A good mission statement should be emotional and inspirational.

Your mission statement should follow the KISS rule (Keep It Simple, Stupid). For example, Shopify’s mission statement is “Make commerce better for everyone.”

When describing your company’s history, make it simple and avoid the temptation of tying it to a defensive narrative. Write it in the manner you would a profile. Your company’s history should include the following information:

Founding Date
Major Milestones
Location(s)
Flagship Products or Services
Number of Employees
Executive Leadership Roles

When you fill in this information, you use it to write one or two paragraphs about your company’s history.

Business Objectives

Your business objective must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.) Failure to clearly identify your business objectives does not inspire confidence and makes it hard for your team members to work towards a common purpose.

3. Perform Market and Competitive Analyses to Proof a Big Enough Business Opportunity

The third step in writing a business plan is the market and competitive analysis section. Every business, no matter the size, needs to perform comprehensive market and competitive analyses before it enters into a market.

Performing market and competitive analyses are critical for the success of your business. It helps you avoid entering the right market with the wrong product, or vice versa. Anyone reading your business plans, especially financiers and financial institutions will want to see proof that there is a big enough business opportunity you are targeting.

This section is where you describe the market and industry you want to operate in and show the big opportunities in the market that your business can leverage to make a profit. If you noticed any unique trends when doing your research, show them in this section.

Market analysis alone is not enough, you have to add competitive analysis to strengthen this section. There are already businesses in the industry or market, how do you plan to take a share of the market from them?

You have to clearly illustrate the competitive landscape in your business plan. Are there areas your competitors are doing well? Are there areas where they are not doing so well? Show it.

Make it clear in this section why you are moving into the industry and what weaknesses are present there that you plan to explain. How are your competitors going to react to your market entry? How do you plan to get customers? Do you plan on taking your competitors' competitors, tap into other sources for customers, or both?

Illustrate the competitive landscape as well. What are your competitors doing well and not so well?

Answering these questions and thoughts will aid your market and competitive analysis of the opportunities in your space. Depending on how sophisticated your industry is, or the expectations of your financiers, you may need to carry out a more comprehensive market and competitive analysis to prove that big business opportunity.

Instead of looking at the market and competitive analyses as one entity, separating them will make the research even more comprehensive.

Market Analysis

Market analysis, boarding speaking, refers to research a business carried out on its industry, market, and competitors. It helps businesses gain a good understanding of their target market and the outlook of their industry. Before starting a company, it is vital to carry out market research to find out if the market is viable.

The market analysis section is a key part of the business plan. It is the section where you identify who your best clients or customers are. You cannot omit this section, without it your business plan is incomplete.

A good market analysis will tell your readers how you fit into the existing market and what makes you stand out. This section requires in-depth research, it will probably be the most time-consuming part of the business plan to write.

Market Research

To create a compelling market analysis that will win over investors and financial institutions, you have to carry out thorough market research . Your market research should be targeted at your primary target market for your products or services. Here is what you want to find out about your target market.

Your target market’s needs or pain points
The existing solutions for their pain points
Geographic Location
Demographics

The purpose of carrying out a marketing analysis is to get all the information you need to show that you have a solid and thorough understanding of your target audience.

Only after you have fully understood the people you plan to sell your products or services to, can you evaluate correctly if your target market will be interested in your products or services.

You can easily convince interested parties to invest in your business if you can show them you thoroughly understand the market and show them that there is a market for your products or services.

How to Quantify Your Target Market

One of the goals of your marketing research is to understand who your ideal customers are and their purchasing power. To quantify your target market, you have to determine the following:

Your Potential Customers: They are the people you plan to target. For example, if you sell accounting software for small businesses , then anyone who runs an enterprise or large business is unlikely to be your customers. Also, individuals who do not have a business will most likely not be interested in your product.
Total Households: If you are selling household products such as heating and air conditioning systems, determining the number of total households is more important than finding out the total population in the area you want to sell to. The logic is simple, people buy the product but it is the household that uses it.
Median Income: You need to know the median income of your target market. If you target a market that cannot afford to buy your products and services, your business will not last long.
Income by Demographics: If your potential customers belong to a certain age group or gender, determining income levels by demographics is necessary. For example, if you sell men's clothes, your target audience is men.

What Does a Good Market Analysis Entail?

Your business does not exist on its own, it can only flourish within an industry and alongside competitors. Market analysis takes into consideration your industry, target market, and competitors. Understanding these three entities will drastically improve your company’s chances of success.

You can view your market analysis as an examination of the market you want to break into and an education on the emerging trends and themes in that market. Good market analyses include the following:

Industry Description. You find out about the history of your industry, the current and future market size, and who the largest players/companies are in your industry.
Overview of Target Market. You research your target market and its characteristics. Who are you targeting? Note, it cannot be everyone, it has to be a specific group. You also have to find out all information possible about your customers that can help you understand how and why they make buying decisions.
Size of Target Market: You need to know the size of your target market, how frequently they buy, and the expected quantity they buy so you do not risk overproducing and having lots of bad inventory. Researching the size of your target market will help you determine if it is big enough for sustained business or not.
Growth Potential: Before picking a target market, you want to be sure there are lots of potential for future growth. You want to avoid going for an industry that is declining slowly or rapidly with almost zero growth potential.
Market Share Potential: Does your business stand a good chance of taking a good share of the market?
Market Pricing and Promotional Strategies: Your market analysis should give you an idea of the price point you can expect to charge for your products and services. Researching your target market will also give you ideas of pricing strategies you can implement to break into the market or to enjoy maximum profits.
Potential Barriers to Entry: One of the biggest benefits of conducting market analysis is that it shows you every potential barrier to entry your business will likely encounter. It is a good idea to discuss potential barriers to entry such as changing technology. It informs readers of your business plan that you understand the market.
Research on Competitors: You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and how you can exploit them for the benefit of your business. Find patterns and trends among your competitors that make them successful, discover what works and what doesn’t, and see what you can do better.

The market analysis section is not just for talking about your target market, industry, and competitors. You also have to explain how your company can fill the hole you have identified in the market.

Here are some questions you can answer that can help you position your product or service in a positive light to your readers.

Is your product or service of superior quality?
What additional features do you offer that your competitors do not offer?
Are you targeting a ‘new’ market?

Basically, your market analysis should include an analysis of what already exists in the market and an explanation of how your company fits into the market.

Competitive Analysis

In the competitive analysis section, y ou have to understand who your direct and indirect competitions are, and how successful they are in the marketplace. It is the section where you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, the advantage(s) they possess in the market and show the unique features or qualities that make you different from your competitors.

Four Steps to Create a Competitive Marketing Analysis

Many businesses do market analysis and competitive analysis together. However, to fully understand what the competitive analysis entails, it is essential to separate it from the market analysis.

Competitive analysis for your business can also include analysis on how to overcome barriers to entry in your target market.

The primary goal of conducting a competitive analysis is to distinguish your business from your competitors. A strong competitive analysis is essential if you want to convince potential funding sources to invest in your business. You have to show potential investors and lenders that your business has what it takes to compete in the marketplace successfully.

Competitive analysis will s how you what the strengths of your competition are and what they are doing to maintain that advantage.

When doing your competitive research, you first have to identify your competitor and then get all the information you can about them. The idea of spending time to identify your competitor and learn everything about them may seem daunting but it is well worth it.

Find answers to the following questions after you have identified who your competitors are.

What are your successful competitors doing?
Why is what they are doing working?
Can your business do it better?
What are the weaknesses of your successful competitors?
What are they not doing well?
Can your business turn its weaknesses into strengths?
How good is your competitors’ customer service?
Where do your competitors invest in advertising?
What sales and pricing strategies are they using?
What marketing strategies are they using?
What kind of press coverage do they get?
What are their customers saying about your competitors (both the positive and negative)?

If your competitors have a website, it is a good idea to visit their websites for more competitors’ research. Check their “About Us” page for more information.

If you are presenting your business plan to investors, you need to clearly distinguish yourself from your competitors. Investors can easily tell when you have not properly researched your competitors.

Take time to think about what unique qualities or features set you apart from your competitors. If you do not have any direct competition offering your product to the market, it does not mean you leave out the competitor analysis section blank. Instead research on other companies that are providing a similar product, or whose product is solving the problem your product solves.

The next step is to create a table listing the top competitors you want to include in your business plan. Ensure you list your business as the last and on the right. What you just created is known as the competitor analysis table.

Direct vs Indirect Competition

You cannot know if your product or service will be a fit for your target market if you have not understood your business and the competitive landscape.

There is no market you want to target where you will not encounter competition, even if your product is innovative. Including competitive analysis in your business plan is essential.

If you are entering an established market, you need to explain how you plan to differentiate your products from the available options in the market. Also, include a list of few companies that you view as your direct competitors The competition you face in an established market is your direct competition.

In situations where you are entering a market with no direct competition, it does not mean there is no competition there. Consider your indirect competition that offers substitutes for the products or services you offer.

For example, if you sell an innovative SaaS product, let us say a project management software , a company offering time management software is your indirect competition.

There is an easy way to find out who your indirect competitors are in the absence of no direct competitors. You simply have to research how your potential customers are solving the problems that your product or service seeks to solve. That is your direct competition.

Factors that Differentiate Your Business from the Competition

There are three main factors that any business can use to differentiate itself from its competition. They are cost leadership, product differentiation, and market segmentation.

1. Cost Leadership

A strategy you can impose to maximize your profits and gain an edge over your competitors. It involves offering lower prices than what the majority of your competitors are offering.

A common practice among businesses looking to enter into a market where there are dominant players is to use free trials or pricing to attract as many customers as possible to their offer.

2. Product Differentiation

Your product or service should have a unique selling proposition (USP) that your competitors do not have or do not stress in their marketing.

Part of the marketing strategy should involve making your products unique and different from your competitors. It does not have to be different from your competitors, it can be the addition to a feature or benefit that your competitors do not currently have.

3. Market Segmentation

As a new business seeking to break into an industry, you will gain more success from focusing on a specific niche or target market, and not the whole industry.

If your competitors are focused on a general need or target market, you can differentiate yourself from them by having a small and hyper-targeted audience. For example, if your competitors are selling men’s clothes in their online stores , you can sell hoodies for men.

4. Define Your Business and Management Structure

The next step in your business plan is your business and management structure. It is the section where you describe the legal structure of your business and the team running it.

Your business is only as good as the management team that runs it, while the management team can only strive when there is a proper business and management structure in place.

If your company is a sole proprietor or a limited liability company (LLC), a general or limited partnership, or a C or an S corporation, state it clearly in this section.

Use an organizational chart to show the management structure in your business. Clearly show who is in charge of what area in your company. It is where you show how each key manager or team leader’s unique experience can contribute immensely to the success of your company. You can also opt to add the resumes and CVs of the key players in your company.

The business and management structure section should show who the owner is, and other owners of the businesses (if the business has other owners). For businesses or companies with multiple owners, include the percent ownership of the various owners and clearly show the extent of each others’ involvement in the company.

Investors want to know who is behind the company and the team running it to determine if it has the right management to achieve its set goals.

Management Team

The management team section is where you show that you have the right team in place to successfully execute the business operations and ideas. Take time to create the management structure for your business. Think about all the important roles and responsibilities that you need managers for to grow your business.

Include brief bios of each key team member and ensure you highlight only the relevant information that is needed. If your team members have background industry experience or have held top positions for other companies and achieved success while filling that role, highlight it in this section.

Create Management Team For Business Plan

A common mistake that many startups make is assigning C-level titles such as (CMO and CEO) to everyone on their team. It is unrealistic for a small business to have those titles. While it may look good on paper for the ego of your team members, it can prevent investors from investing in your business.

Instead of building an unrealistic management structure that does not fit your business reality, it is best to allow business titles to grow as the business grows. Starting everyone at the top leaves no room for future change or growth, which is bad for productivity.

Your management team does not have to be complete before you start writing your business plan. You can have a complete business plan even when there are managerial positions that are empty and need filling.

If you have management gaps in your team, simply show the gaps and indicate you are searching for the right candidates for the role(s). Investors do not expect you to have a full management team when you are just starting your business.

Key Questions to Answer When Structuring Your Management Team

Who are the key leaders?
What experiences, skills, and educational backgrounds do you expect your key leaders to have?
Do your key leaders have industry experience?
What positions will they fill and what duties will they perform in those positions?
What level of authority do the key leaders have and what are their responsibilities?
What is the salary for the various management positions that will attract the ideal candidates?

Additional Tips for Writing the Management Structure Section

1. Avoid Adding ‘Ghost’ Names to Your Management Team

There is always that temptation to include a ‘ghost’ name to your management team to attract and influence investors to invest in your business. Although the presence of these celebrity management team members may attract the attention of investors, it can cause your business to lose any credibility if you get found out.

Seasoned investors will investigate further the members of your management team before committing fully to your business If they find out that the celebrity name used does not play any actual role in your business, they will not invest and may write you off as dishonest.

2. Focus on Credentials But Pay Extra Attention to the Roles

Investors want to know the experience that your key team members have to determine if they can successfully reach the company’s growth and financial goals.

While it is an excellent boost for your key management team to have the right credentials, you also want to pay extra attention to the roles they will play in your company.

Organizational Chart

Adding an organizational chart in this section of your business plan is not necessary, you can do it in your business plan’s appendix.

If you are exploring funding options, it is not uncommon to get asked for your organizational chart. The function of an organizational chart goes beyond raising money, you can also use it as a useful planning tool for your business.

An organizational chart can help you identify how best to structure your management team for maximum productivity and point you towards key roles you need to fill in the future.

You can use the organizational chart to show your company’s internal management structure such as the roles and responsibilities of your management team, and relationships that exist between them.

5. Describe Your Product and Service Offering

In your business plan, you have to describe what you sell or the service you plan to offer. It is the next step after defining your business and management structure. The products and services section is where you sell the benefits of your business.

Here you have to explain how your product or service will benefit your customers and describe your product lifecycle. It is also the section where you write down your plans for intellectual property like patent filings and copyrighting.

The research and development that you are undertaking for your product or service need to be explained in detail in this section. However, do not get too technical, sell the general idea and its benefits.

If you have any diagrams or intricate designs of your product or service, do not include them in the products and services section. Instead, leave them for the addendum page. Also, if you are leaving out diagrams or designs for the addendum, ensure you add this phrase “For more detail, visit the addendum Page #.”

Your product and service section in your business plan should include the following:

A detailed explanation that clearly shows how your product or service works.
The pricing model for your product or service.
Your business’ sales and distribution strategy.
The ideal customers that want your product or service.
The benefits of your products and services.
Reason(s) why your product or service is a better alternative to what your competitors are currently offering in the market.
Plans for filling the orders you receive
If you have current or pending patents, copyrights, and trademarks for your product or service, you can also discuss them in this section.

What to Focus On When Describing the Benefits, Lifecycle, and Production Process of Your Products or Services

In the products and services section, you have to distill the benefits, lifecycle, and production process of your products and services.

When describing the benefits of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

Unique features
Translating the unique features into benefits
The emotional, psychological, and practical payoffs to attract customers
Intellectual property rights or any patents

When describing the product life cycle of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

Upsells, cross-sells, and down-sells
Time between purchases
Plans for research and development.

When describing the production process for your products or services, you need to think about the following:

The creation of new or existing products and services.
The sources for the raw materials or components you need for production.
Assembling the products
Maintaining quality control
Supply-chain logistics (receiving the raw materials and delivering the finished products)
The day-to-day management of the production processes, bookkeeping, and inventory.

Tips for Writing the Products or Services Section of Your Business Plan

1. Avoid Technical Descriptions and Industry Buzzwords

The products and services section of your business plan should clearly describe the products and services that your company provides. However, it is not a section to include technical jargons that anyone outside your industry will not understand.

A good practice is to remove highly detailed or technical descriptions in favor of simple terms. Industry buzzwords are not necessary, if there are simpler terms you can use, then use them. If you plan to use your business plan to source funds, making the product or service section so technical will do you no favors.

2. Describe How Your Products or Services Differ from Your Competitors

When potential investors look at your business plan, they want to know how the products and services you are offering differ from that of your competition. Differentiating your products or services from your competition in a way that makes your solution more attractive is critical.

If you are going the innovative path and there is no market currently for your product or service, you need to describe in this section why the market needs your product or service.

For example, overnight delivery was a niche business that only a few companies were participating in. Federal Express (FedEx) had to show in its business plan that there was a large opportunity for that service and they justified why the market needed that service.

3. Long or Short Products or Services Section

Should your products or services section be short? Does the long products or services section attract more investors?

There are no straightforward answers to these questions. Whether your products or services section should be long or relatively short depends on the nature of your business.

If your business is product-focused, then automatically you need to use more space to describe the details of your products. However, if the product your business sells is a commodity item that relies on competitive pricing or other pricing strategies, you do not have to use up so much space to provide significant details about the product.

Likewise, if you are selling a commodity that is available in numerous outlets, then you do not have to spend time on writing a long products or services section.

The key to the success of your business is most likely the effectiveness of your marketing strategies compared to your competitors. Use more space to address that section.

If you are creating a new product or service that the market does not know about, your products or services section can be lengthy. The reason why is because you need to explain everything about the product or service such as the nature of the product, its use case, and values.

A short products or services section for an innovative product or service will not give the readers enough information to properly evaluate your business.

4. Describe Your Relationships with Vendors or Suppliers

Your business will rely on vendors or suppliers to supply raw materials or the components needed to make your products. In your products and services section, describe your relationships with your vendors and suppliers fully.

Avoid the mistake of relying on only one supplier or vendor. If that supplier or vendor fails to supply or goes out of business, you can easily face supply problems and struggle to meet your demands. Plan to set up multiple vendor or supplier relationships for better business stability.

5. Your Primary Goal Is to Convince Your Readers

The primary goal of your business plan is to convince your readers that your business is viable and to create a guide for your business to follow. It applies to the products and services section.

When drafting this section, think like the reader. See your reader as someone who has no idea about your products and services. You are using the products and services section to provide the needed information to help your reader understand your products and services. As a result, you have to be clear and to the point.

While you want to educate your readers about your products or services, you also do not want to bore them with lots of technical details. Show your products and services and not your fancy choice of words.

Your products and services section should provide the answer to the “what” question for your business. You and your management team may run the business, but it is your products and services that are the lifeblood of the business.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing your Products and Services Section

Answering these questions can help you write your products and services section quickly and in a way that will appeal to your readers.

Are your products existing on the market or are they still in the development stage?
What is your timeline for adding new products and services to the market?
What are the positives that make your products and services different from your competitors?
Do your products and services have any competitive advantage that your competitors’ products and services do not currently have?
Do your products or services have any competitive disadvantages that you need to overcome to compete with your competitors? If your answer is yes, state how you plan to overcome them,
How much does it cost to produce your products or services? How much do you plan to sell it for?
What is the price for your products and services compared to your competitors? Is pricing an issue?
What are your operating costs and will it be low enough for you to compete with your competitors and still take home a reasonable profit margin?
What is your plan for acquiring your products? Are you involved in the production of your products or services?
Are you the manufacturer and produce all the components you need to create your products? Do you assemble your products by using components supplied by other manufacturers? Do you purchase your products directly from suppliers or wholesalers?
Do you have a steady supply of products that you need to start your business? (If your business is yet to kick-off)
How do you plan to distribute your products or services to the market?

You can also hint at the marketing or promotion plans you have for your products or services such as how you plan to build awareness or retain customers. The next section is where you can go fully into details about your business’s marketing and sales plan.

6. Show and Explain Your Marketing and Sales Plan

Providing great products and services is wonderful, but it means nothing if you do not have a marketing and sales plan to inform your customers about them. Your marketing and sales plan is critical to the success of your business.

The sales and marketing section is where you show and offer a detailed explanation of your marketing and sales plan and how you plan to execute it. It covers your pricing plan, proposed advertising and promotion activities, activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success, and the benefits of your products and services.

There are several ways you can approach your marketing and sales strategy. Ideally, your marketing and sales strategy has to fit the unique needs of your business.

In this section, you describe how the plans your business has for attracting and retaining customers, and the exact process for making a sale happen. It is essential to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales plans because you are still going to reference this section when you are making financial projections for your business.

Outline Your Business’ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

The sales and marketing section is where you outline your business’s unique selling proposition (USP). When you are developing your unique selling proposition, think about the strongest reasons why people should buy from you over your competition. That reason(s) is most likely a good fit to serve as your unique selling proposition (USP).

Target Market and Target Audience

Plans on how to get your products or services to your target market and how to get your target audience to buy them go into this section. You also highlight the strengths of your business here, particularly what sets them apart from your competition.

Before you start writing your marketing and sales plan, you need to have properly defined your target audience and fleshed out your buyer persona. If you do not first understand the individual you are marketing to, your marketing and sales plan will lack any substance and easily fall.

Creating a Smart Marketing and Sales Plan

Marketing your products and services is an investment that requires you to spend money. Like any other investment, you have to generate a good return on investment (ROI) to justify using that marketing and sales plan. Good marketing and sales plans bring in high sales and profits to your company.

Avoid spending money on unproductive marketing channels. Do your research and find out the best marketing and sales plan that works best for your company.

Your marketing and sales plan can be broken into different parts: your positioning statement, pricing, promotion, packaging, advertising, public relations, content marketing, social media, and strategic alliances.

Your Positioning Statement

Your positioning statement is the first part of your marketing and sales plan. It refers to the way you present your company to your customers.

Are you the premium solution, the low-price solution, or are you the intermediary between the two extremes in the market? What do you offer that your competitors do not that can give you leverage in the market?

Before you start writing your positioning statement, you need to spend some time evaluating the current market conditions. Here are some questions that can help you to evaluate the market

What are the unique features or benefits that you offer that your competitors lack?
What are your customers’ primary needs and wants?
Why should a customer choose you over your competition? How do you plan to differentiate yourself from the competition?
How does your company’s solution compare with other solutions in the market?

After answering these questions, then you can start writing your positioning statement. Your positioning statement does not have to be in-depth or too long.

All you need to explain with your positioning statement are two focus areas. The first is the position of your company within the competitive landscape. The other focus area is the core value proposition that sets your company apart from other alternatives that your ideal customer might consider.

Here is a simple template you can use to develop a positioning statement.

For [description of target market] who [need of target market], [product or service] [how it meets the need]. Unlike [top competition], it [most essential distinguishing feature].

For example, let’s create the positioning statement for fictional accounting software and QuickBooks alternative , TBooks.

“For small business owners who need accounting services, TBooks is an accounting software that helps small businesses handle their small business bookkeeping basics quickly and easily. Unlike Wave, TBooks gives small businesses access to live sessions with top accountants.”

You can edit this positioning statement sample and fill it with your business details.

After writing your positioning statement, the next step is the pricing of your offerings. The overall positioning strategy you set in your positioning statement will often determine how you price your products or services.

Pricing is a powerful tool that sends a strong message to your customers. Failure to get your pricing strategy right can make or mar your business. If you are targeting a low-income audience, setting a premium price can result in low sales.

You can use pricing to communicate your positioning to your customers. For example, if you are offering a product at a premium price, you are sending a message to your customers that the product belongs to the premium category.

Basic Rules to Follow When Pricing Your Offering

Setting a price for your offering involves more than just putting a price tag on it. Deciding on the right pricing for your offering requires following some basic rules. They include covering your costs, primary and secondary profit center pricing, and matching the market rate.

Covering Your Costs: The price you set for your products or service should be more than it costs you to produce and deliver them. Every business has the same goal, to make a profit. Depending on the strategy you want to use, there are exceptions to this rule. However, the vast majority of businesses follow this rule.
Primary and Secondary Profit Center Pricing: When a company sets its price above the cost of production, it is making that product its primary profit center. A company can also decide not to make its initial price its primary profit center by selling below or at even with its production cost. It rather depends on the support product or even maintenance that is associated with the initial purchase to make its profit. The initial price thus became its secondary profit center.
Matching the Market Rate: A good rule to follow when pricing your products or services is to match your pricing with consumer demand and expectations. If you price your products or services beyond the price your customer perceives as the ideal price range, you may end up with no customers. Pricing your products too low below what your customer perceives as the ideal price range may lead to them undervaluing your offering.

Pricing Strategy

Your pricing strategy influences the price of your offering. There are several pricing strategies available for you to choose from when examining the right pricing strategy for your business. They include cost-plus pricing, market-based pricing, value pricing, and more.

Cost-plus Pricing: This strategy is one of the simplest and oldest pricing strategies. Here you consider the cost of producing a unit of your product and then add a profit to it to arrive at your market price. It is an effective pricing strategy for manufacturers because it helps them cover their initial costs. Another name for the cost-plus pricing strategy is the markup pricing strategy.
Market-based Pricing: This pricing strategy analyses the market including competitors’ pricing and then sets a price based on what the market is expecting. With this pricing strategy, you can either set your price at the low-end or high-end of the market.
Value Pricing: This pricing strategy involves setting a price based on the value you are providing to your customer. When adopting a value-based pricing strategy, you have to set a price that your customers are willing to pay. Service-based businesses such as small business insurance providers , luxury goods sellers, and the fashion industry use this pricing strategy.

After carefully sorting out your positioning statement and pricing, the next item to look at is your promotional strategy. Your promotional strategy explains how you plan on communicating with your customers and prospects.

As a business, you must measure all your costs, including the cost of your promotions. You also want to measure how much sales your promotions bring for your business to determine its usefulness. Promotional strategies or programs that do not lead to profit need to be removed.

There are different types of promotional strategies you can adopt for your business, they include advertising, public relations, and content marketing.

Advertising

Your business plan should include your advertising plan which can be found in the marketing and sales plan section. You need to include an overview of your advertising plans such as the areas you plan to spend money on to advertise your business and offers.

Ensure that you make it clear in this section if your business will be advertising online or using the more traditional offline media, or the combination of both online and offline media. You can also include the advertising medium you want to use to raise awareness about your business and offers.

Some common online advertising mediums you can use include social media ads, landing pages, sales pages, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, emails, Google Ads, and others. Some common traditional and offline advertising mediums include word of mouth, radios, direct mail, televisions, flyers, billboards, posters, and others.

A key component of your advertising strategy is how you plan to measure the effectiveness and success of your advertising campaign. There is no point in sticking with an advertising plan or medium that does not produce results for your business in the long run.

Public Relations

A great way to reach your customers is to get the media to cover your business or product. Publicity, especially good ones, should be a part of your marketing and sales plan. In this section, show your plans for getting prominent reviews of your product from reputable publications and sources.

Your business needs that exposure to grow. If public relations is a crucial part of your promotional strategy, provide details about your public relations plan here.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a popular promotional strategy used by businesses to inform and attract their customers. It is about teaching and educating your prospects on various topics of interest in your niche, it does not just involve informing them about the benefits and features of the products and services you have,

Businesses publish content usually for free where they provide useful information, tips, and advice so that their target market can be made aware of the importance of their products and services. Content marketing strategies seek to nurture prospects into buyers over time by simply providing value.

Your company can create a blog where it will be publishing content for its target market. You will need to use the best website builder such as Wix and Squarespace and the best web hosting services such as Bluehost, Hostinger, and other Bluehost alternatives to create a functional blog or website.

If content marketing is a crucial part of your promotional strategy (as it should be), detail your plans under promotions.

Including high-quality images of the packaging of your product in your business plan is a lovely idea. You can add the images of the packaging of that product in the marketing and sales plan section. If you are not selling a product, then you do not need to include any worry about the physical packaging of your product.

When organizing the packaging section of your business plan, you can answer the following questions to make maximum use of this section.

Is your choice of packaging consistent with your positioning strategy?
What key value proposition does your packaging communicate? (It should reflect the key value proposition of your business)
How does your packaging compare to that of your competitors?

Social Media

Your 21st-century business needs to have a good social media presence. Not having one is leaving out opportunities for growth and reaching out to your prospect.

You do not have to join the thousands of social media platforms out there. What you need to do is join the ones that your customers are active on and be active there.

Businesses use social media to provide information about their products such as promotions, discounts, the benefits of their products, and content on their blogs.

Social media is also a platform for engaging with your customers and getting feedback about your products or services. Make no mistake, more and more of your prospects are using social media channels to find more information about companies.

You need to consider the social media channels you want to prioritize your business (prioritize the ones your customers are active in) and your branding plans in this section.

Choosing the right social media platform

Strategic Alliances

If your company plans to work closely with other companies as part of your sales and marketing plan, include it in this section. Prove details about those partnerships in your business plan if you have already established them.

Strategic alliances can be beneficial for all parties involved including your company. Working closely with another company in the form of a partnership can provide access to a different target market segment for your company.

The company you are partnering with may also gain access to your target market or simply offer a new product or service (that of your company) to its customers.

Mutually beneficial partnerships can cover the weaknesses of one company with the strength of another. You should consider strategic alliances with companies that sell complimentary products to yours. For example, if you provide printers, you can partner with a company that produces ink since the customers that buy printers from you will also need inks for printing.

Steps Involved in Creating a Marketing and Sales Plan

1. Focus on Your Target Market

Identify who your customers are, the market you want to target. Then determine the best ways to get your products or services to your potential customers.

2. Evaluate Your Competition

One of the goals of having a marketing plan is to distinguish yourself from your competition. You cannot stand out from them without first knowing them in and out.

You can know your competitors by gathering information about their products, pricing, service, and advertising campaigns.

These questions can help you know your competition.

What makes your competition successful?
What are their weaknesses?
What are customers saying about your competition?

3. Consider Your Brand

Customers' perception of your brand has a strong impact on your sales. Your marketing and sales plan should seek to bolster the image of your brand. Before you start marketing your business, think about the message you want to pass across about your business and your products and services.

4. Focus on Benefits

The majority of your customers do not view your product in terms of features, what they want to know is the benefits and solutions your product offers. Think about the problems your product solves and the benefits it delivers, and use it to create the right sales and marketing message.

Your marketing plan should focus on what you want your customer to get instead of what you provide. Identify those benefits in your marketing and sales plan.

5. Focus on Differentiation

Your marketing and sales plan should look for a unique angle they can take that differentiates your business from the competition, even if the products offered are similar. Some good areas of differentiation you can use are your benefits, pricing, and features.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing Your Marketing and Sales Plan

What is your company’s budget for sales and marketing campaigns?
What key metrics will you use to determine if your marketing plans are successful?
What are your alternatives if your initial marketing efforts do not succeed?
Who are the sales representatives you need to promote your products or services?
What are the marketing and sales channels you plan to use? How do you plan to get your products in front of your ideal customers?
Where will you sell your products?

You may want to include samples of marketing materials you plan to use such as print ads, website descriptions, and social media ads. While it is not compulsory to include these samples, it can help you better communicate your marketing and sales plan and objectives.

The purpose of the marketing and sales section is to answer this question “How will you reach your customers?” If you cannot convincingly provide an answer to this question, you need to rework your marketing and sales section.

7. Clearly Show Your Funding Request

If you are writing your business plan to ask for funding from investors or financial institutions, the funding request section is where you will outline your funding requirements. The funding request section should answer the question ‘How much money will your business need in the near future (3 to 5 years)?’

A good funding request section will clearly outline and explain the amount of funding your business needs over the next five years. You need to know the amount of money your business needs to make an accurate funding request.

Also, when writing your funding request, provide details of how the funds will be used over the period. Specify if you want to use the funds to buy raw materials or machinery, pay salaries, pay for advertisements, and cover specific bills such as rent and electricity.

In addition to explaining what you want to use the funds requested for, you need to clearly state the projected return on investment (ROI) . Investors and creditors want to know if your business can generate profit for them if they put funds into it.

Ensure you do not inflate the figures and stay as realistic as possible. Investors and financial institutions you are seeking funds from will do their research before investing money in your business.

If you are not sure of an exact number to request from, you can use some range of numbers as rough estimates. Add a best-case scenario and a work-case scenario to your funding request. Also, include a description of your strategic future financial plans such as selling your business or paying off debts.

Funding Request: Debt or Equity?

When making your funding request, specify the type of funding you want. Do you want debt or equity? Draw out the terms that will be applicable for the funding, and the length of time the funding request will cover.

Case for Equity

If your new business has not yet started generating profits, you are most likely preparing to sell equity in your business to raise capital at the early stage. Equity here refers to ownership. In this case, you are selling a portion of your company to raise capital.

Although this method of raising capital for your business does not put your business in debt, keep in mind that an equity owner may expect to play a key role in company decisions even if he does not hold a major stake in the company.

Most equity sales for startups are usually private transactions . If you are making a funding request by offering equity in exchange for funding, let the investor know that they will be paid a dividend (a share of the company’s profit). Also, let the investor know the process for selling their equity in your business.

Case for Debt

You may decide not to offer equity in exchange for funds, instead, you make a funding request with the promise to pay back the money borrowed at the agreed time frame.

When making a funding request with an agreement to pay back, note that you will have to repay your creditors both the principal amount borrowed and the interest on it. Financial institutions offer this type of funding for businesses.

Large companies combine both equity and debt in their capital structure. When drafting your business plan, decide if you want to offer both or one over the other.

Before you sell equity in exchange for funding in your business, consider if you are willing to accept not being in total control of your business. Also, before you seek loans in your funding request section, ensure that the terms of repayment are favorable.

You should set a clear timeline in your funding request so that potential investors and creditors can know what you are expecting. Some investors and creditors may agree to your funding request and then delay payment for longer than 30 days, meanwhile, your business needs an immediate cash injection to operate efficiently.

Additional Tips for Writing the Funding Request Section of your Business Plan

The funding request section is not necessary for every business, it is only needed by businesses who plan to use their business plan to secure funding.

If you are adding the funding request section to your business plan, provide an itemized summary of how you plan to use the funds requested. Hiring a lawyer, accountant, or other professionals may be necessary for the proper development of this section.

You should also gather and use financial statements that add credibility and support to your funding requests. Ensure that the financial statements you use should include your projected financial data such as projected cash flows, forecast statements, and expenditure budgets.

If you are an existing business, include all historical financial statements such as cash flow statements, balance sheets and income statements .

Provide monthly and quarterly financial statements for a year. If your business has records that date back beyond the one-year mark, add the yearly statements of those years. These documents are for the appendix section of your business plan.

8. Detail Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projections

If you used the funding request section in your business plan, supplement it with a financial plan, metrics, and projections. This section paints a picture of the past performance of your business and then goes ahead to make an informed projection about its future.

The goal of this section is to convince readers that your business is going to be a financial success. It outlines your business plan to generate enough profit to repay the loan (with interest if applicable) and to generate a decent return on investment for investors.

If you have an existing business already in operation, use this section to demonstrate stability through finance. This section should include your cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements covering the last three to five years. If your business has some acceptable collateral that you can use to acquire loans, list it in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

Apart from current financial statements, this section should also contain a prospective financial outlook that spans the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and capital expenditure budget.

If your business is new and is not yet generating profit, use clear and realistic projections to show the potentials of your business.

When drafting this section, research industry norms and the performance of comparable businesses. Your financial projections should cover at least five years. State the logic behind your financial projections. Remember you can always make adjustments to this section as the variables change.

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section create a baseline which your business can either exceed or fail to reach. If your business fails to reach your projections in this section, you need to understand why it failed.

Investors and loan managers spend a lot of time going through the financial plan, metrics, and projection section compared to other parts of the business plan. Ensure you spend time creating credible financial analyses for your business in this section.

Many entrepreneurs find this section daunting to write. You do not need a business degree to create a solid financial forecast for your business. Business finances, especially for startups, are not as complicated as they seem. There are several online tools and templates that make writing this section so much easier.

Use Graphs and Charts

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business. Charts and images make it easier to communicate your finances.

Accuracy in this section is key, ensure you carefully analyze your past financial statements properly before making financial projects.

Address the Risk Factors and Show Realistic Financial Projections

Keep your financial plan, metrics, and projection realistic. It is okay to be optimistic in your financial projection, however, you have to justify it.

You should also address the various risk factors associated with your business in this section. Investors want to know the potential risks involved, show them. You should also show your plans for mitigating those risks.

What You Should In The Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection Section of Your Business Plan

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section of your business plan should have monthly sales and revenue forecasts for the first year. It should also include annual projections that cover 3 to 5 years.

A three-year projection is a basic requirement to have in your business plan. However, some investors may request a five-year forecast.

Your business plan should include the following financial statements: sales forecast, personnel plan, income statement, income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, and an exit strategy.

1. Sales Forecast

Sales forecast refers to your projections about the number of sales your business is going to record over the next few years. It is typically broken into several rows, with each row assigned to a core product or service that your business is offering.

One common mistake people make in their business plan is to break down the sales forecast section into long details. A sales forecast should forecast the high-level details.

For example, if you are forecasting sales for a payroll software provider, you could break down your forecast into target market segments or subscription categories.

Your sales forecast section should also have a corresponding row for each sales row to cover the direct cost or Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). The objective of these rows is to show the expenses that your business incurs in making and delivering your product or service.

Note that your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) should only cover those direct costs incurred when making your products. Other indirect expenses such as insurance, salaries, payroll tax, and rent should not be included.

For example, the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for a restaurant is the cost of ingredients while for a consulting company it will be the cost of paper and other presentation materials.

2. Personnel Plan

The personnel plan section is where you provide details about the payment plan for your employees. For a small business, you can easily list every position in your company and how much you plan to pay in the personnel plan.

However, for larger businesses, you have to break the personnel plan into functional groups such as sales and marketing.

The personnel plan will also include the cost of an employee beyond salary, commonly referred to as the employee burden. These costs include insurance, payroll taxes , and other essential costs incurred monthly as a result of having employees on your payroll.

3. Income Statement

The income statement section shows if your business is making a profit or taking a loss. Another name for the income statement is the profit and loss (P&L). It takes data from your sales forecast and personnel plan and adds other ongoing expenses you incur while running your business.

Every business plan should have an income statement. It subtracts your business expenses from its earnings to show if your business is generating profit or incurring losses.

The income statement has the following items: sales, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), gross margin, operating expenses, total operating expenses, operating income , total expenses, and net profit.

Sales refer to the revenue your business generates from selling its products or services. Other names for sales are income or revenue.
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) refers to the total cost of selling your products. Other names for COGS are direct costs or cost of sales. Manufacturing businesses use the Costs of Goods Manufactured (COGM) .
Gross Margin is the figure you get when you subtract your COGS from your sales. In your income statement, you can express it as a percentage of total sales (Gross margin / Sales = Gross Margin Percent).
Operating Expenses refer to all the expenses you incur from running your business. It exempts the COGS because it stands alone as a core part of your income statement. You also have to exclude taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Your operating expenses include salaries, marketing expenses, research and development (R&D) expenses, and other expenses.
Total Operating Expenses refers to the sum of all your operating expenses including those exemptions named above under operating expenses.
Operating Income refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It is simply known as the acronym EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Calculating your operating income is simple, all you need to do is to subtract your COGS and total operating expenses from your sales.
Total Expenses refer to the sum of your operating expenses and your business’ interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
Net profit shows whether your business has made a profit or taken a loss during a given timeframe.

4. Cash Flow Statement

The cash flow statement tracks the money you have in the bank at any given point. It is often confused with the income statement or the profit and loss statement. They are both different types of financial statements. The income statement calculates your profits and losses while the cash flow statement shows you how much you have in the bank.

5. Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a financial statement that provides an overview of the financial health of your business. It contains information about the assets and liabilities of your company, and owner’s or shareholders’ equity.

You can get the net worth of your company by subtracting your company’s liabilities from its assets.

6. Exit Strategy

The exit strategy refers to a probable plan for selling your business either to the public in an IPO or to another company. It is the last thing you include in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

You can choose to omit the exit strategy from your business plan if you plan to maintain full ownership of your business and do not plan on seeking angel investment or virtual capitalist (VC) funding.

Investors may want to know what your exit plan is. They invest in your business to get a good return on investment.

Your exit strategy does not have to include long and boring details. Ensure you identify some interested parties who may be interested in buying the company if it becomes a success.

Exit Strategy Section of Business Plan Infographic

Key Questions to Answer with Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection

Your financial plan, metrics, and projection section helps investors, creditors, or your internal managers to understand what your expenses are, the amount of cash you need, and what it takes to make your company profitable. It also shows what you will be doing with any funding.

You do not need to show actual financial data if you do not have one. Adding forecasts and projections to your financial statements is added proof that your strategy is feasible and shows investors you have planned properly.

Here are some key questions to answer to help you develop this section.

What is your sales forecast for the next year?
When will your company achieve a positive cash flow?
What are the core expenses you need to operate?
How much money do you need upfront to operate or grow your company?
How will you use the loans or investments?

9. Add an Appendix to Your Business Plan

Adding an appendix to your business plan is optional. It is a useful place to put any charts, tables, legal notes, definitions, permits, résumés, and other critical information that do not fit into other sections of your business plan.

The appendix section is where you would want to include details of a patent or patent-pending if you have one. You can always add illustrations or images of your products here. It is the last section of your business plan.

When writing your business plan, there are details you cut short or remove to prevent the entire section from becoming too lengthy. There are also details you want to include in the business plan but are not a good fit for any of the previous sections. You can add that additional information to the appendix section.

Businesses also use the appendix section to include supporting documents or other materials specially requested by investors or lenders.

You can include just about any information that supports the assumptions and statements you made in the business plan under the appendix. It is the one place in the business plan where unrelated data and information can coexist amicably.

If your appendix section is lengthy, try organizing it by adding a table of contents at the beginning of the appendix section. It is also advisable to group similar information to make it easier for the reader to access them.

A well-organized appendix section makes it easier to share your information clearly and concisely. Add footnotes throughout the rest of the business plan or make references in the plan to the documents in the appendix.

The appendix section is usually only necessary if you are seeking funding from investors or lenders, or hoping to attract partners.

People reading business plans do not want to spend time going through a heap of backup information, numbers, and charts. Keep these documents or information in the Appendix section in case the reader wants to dig deeper.

Common Items to Include in the Appendix Section of Your Business Plan

The appendix section includes documents that supplement or support the information or claims given in other sections of the business plans. Common items you can include in the appendix section include:

Additional data about the process of manufacturing or creation
Additional description of products or services such as product schematics
Additional financial documents or projections
Articles of incorporation and status
Backup for market research or competitive analysis
Bank statements
Business registries
Client testimonials (if your business is already running)
Copies of insurances
Credit histories (personal or/and business)
Deeds and permits
Equipment leases
Examples of marketing and advertising collateral
Industry associations and memberships
Images of product
Intellectual property
Key customer contracts
Legal documents and other contracts
Letters of reference
Links to references
Market research data
Organizational charts
Photographs of potential facilities
Professional licenses pertaining to your legal structure or type of business
Purchase orders
Resumes of the founder(s) and key managers
State and federal identification numbers or codes
Trademarks or patents’ registrations

Avoid using the appendix section as a place to dump any document or information you feel like adding. Only add documents or information that you support or increase the credibility of your business plan.

Tips and Strategies for Writing a Convincing Business Plan

To achieve a perfect business plan, you need to consider some key tips and strategies. These tips will raise the efficiency of your business plan above average.

1. Know Your Audience

When writing a business plan, you need to know your audience . Business owners write business plans for different reasons. Your business plan has to be specific. For example, you can write business plans to potential investors, banks, and even fellow board members of the company.

The audience you are writing to determines the structure of the business plan. As a business owner, you have to know your audience. Not everyone will be your audience. Knowing your audience will help you to narrow the scope of your business plan.

Consider what your audience wants to see in your projects, the likely questions they might ask, and what interests them.

A business plan used to address a company's board members will center on its employment schemes, internal affairs, projects, stakeholders, etc.
A business plan for financial institutions will talk about the size of your market and the chances for you to pay back any loans you demand.
A business plan for investors will show proof that you can return the investment capital within a specific time. In addition, it discusses your financial projections, tractions, and market size.

2. Get Inspiration from People

Writing a business plan from scratch as an entrepreneur can be daunting. That is why you need the right inspiration to push you to write one. You can gain inspiration from the successful business plans of other businesses. Look at their business plans, the style they use, the structure of the project, etc.

To make your business plan easier to create, search companies related to your business to get an exact copy of what you need to create an effective business plan. You can also make references while citing examples in your business plans.

When drafting your business plan, get as much help from others as you possibly can. By getting inspiration from people, you can create something better than what they have.

3. Avoid Being Over Optimistic

Many business owners make use of strong adjectives to qualify their content. One of the big mistakes entrepreneurs make when preparing a business plan is promising too much.

The use of superlatives and over-optimistic claims can prepare the audience for more than you can offer. In the end, you disappoint the confidence they have in you.

In most cases, the best option is to be realistic with your claims and statistics. Most of the investors can sense a bit of incompetency from the overuse of superlatives. As a new entrepreneur, do not be tempted to over-promise to get the interests of investors.

The concept of entrepreneurship centers on risks, nothing is certain when you make future analyses. What separates the best is the ability to do careful research and work towards achieving that, not promising more than you can achieve.

To make an excellent first impression as an entrepreneur, replace superlatives with compelling data-driven content. In this way, you are more specific than someone promising a huge ROI from an investment.

4. Keep it Simple and Short

When writing business plans, ensure you keep them simple throughout. Irrespective of the purpose of the business plan, your goal is to convince the audience.

One way to achieve this goal is to make them understand your proposal. Therefore, it would be best if you avoid the use of complex grammar to express yourself. It would be a huge turn-off if the people you want to convince are not familiar with your use of words.

Another thing to note is the length of your business plan. It would be best if you made it as brief as possible.

You hardly see investors or agencies that read through an extremely long document. In that case, if your first few pages can’t convince them, then you have lost it. The more pages you write, the higher the chances of you derailing from the essential contents.

To ensure your business plan has a high conversion rate, you need to dispose of every unnecessary information. For example, if you have a strategy that you are not sure of, it would be best to leave it out of the plan.

5. Make an Outline and Follow Through

A perfect business plan must have touched every part needed to convince the audience. Business owners get easily tempted to concentrate more on their products than on other sections. Doing this can be detrimental to the efficiency of the business plan.

For example, imagine you talking about a product but omitting or providing very little information about the target audience. You will leave your clients confused.

To ensure that your business plan communicates your full business model to readers, you have to input all the necessary information in it. One of the best ways to achieve this is to design a structure and stick to it.

This structure is what guides you throughout the writing. To make your work easier, you can assign an estimated word count or page limit to every section to avoid making it too bulky for easy reading. As a guide, the necessary things your business plan must contain are:

Table of contents
Introduction
Product or service description
Target audience
Market size
Competition analysis
Financial projections

Some specific businesses can include some other essential sections, but these are the key sections that must be in every business plan.

6. Ask a Professional to Proofread

When writing a business plan, you must tie all loose ends to get a perfect result. When you are done with writing, call a professional to go through the document for you. You are bound to make mistakes, and the way to correct them is to get external help.

You should get a professional in your field who can relate to every section of your business plan. It would be easier for the professional to notice the inner flaws in the document than an editor with no knowledge of your business.

In addition to getting a professional to proofread, get an editor to proofread and edit your document. The editor will help you identify grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and inappropriate writing styles.

Writing a business plan can be daunting, but you can surmount that obstacle and get the best out of it with these tips.

Business Plan Examples and Templates That’ll Save You Tons of Time

1. hubspot's one-page business plan.

The one-page business plan template by HubSpot is the perfect guide for businesses of any size, irrespective of their business strategy. Although the template is condensed into a page, your final business plan should not be a page long! The template is designed to ask helpful questions that can help you develop your business plan.

Hubspot’s one-page business plan template is divided into nine fields:

Business opportunity
Company description
Industry analysis
Target market
Implementation timeline
Marketing plan
Financial summary
Funding required

2. Bplan’s Free Business Plan Template

Bplans' free business plan template is investor-approved. It is a rich template used by prestigious educational institutions such as Babson College and Princeton University to teach entrepreneurs how to create a business plan.

The template has six sections: the executive summary, opportunity, execution, company, financial plan, and appendix. There is a step-by-step guide for writing every little detail in the business plan. Follow the instructions each step of the way and you will create a business plan that impresses investors or lenders easily.

3. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

HubSpot’s downloadable business plan template is a more comprehensive option compared to the one-page business template by HubSpot. This free and downloadable business plan template is designed for entrepreneurs.

The template is a comprehensive guide and checklist for business owners just starting their businesses. It tells you everything you need to fill in each section of the business plan and how to do it.

There are nine sections in this business plan template: an executive summary, company and business description, product and services line, market analysis, marketing plan, sales plan, legal notes, financial considerations, and appendix.

4. Business Plan by My Own Business Institute

My Own Business Institute (MOBI) which is a part of Santa Clara University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship offers a free business plan template. You can either copy the free business template from the link provided above or download it as a Word document.

The comprehensive template consists of a whopping 15 sections.

The Business Profile
The Vision and the People
Home-Based Business and Freelance Business Opportunities
Organization
Licenses and Permits
Business Insurance
Communication Tools
Acquisitions
Location and Leasing
Accounting and Cash Flow
Opening and Marketing
Managing Employees
Expanding and Handling Problems

There are lots of helpful tips on how to fill each section in the free business plan template by MOBI.

5. Score's Business Plan Template for Startups

Score is an American nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs build successful companies. This business plan template for startups by Score is available for free download. The business plan template asks a whooping 150 generic questions that help entrepreneurs from different fields to set up the perfect business plan.

The business plan template for startups contains clear instructions and worksheets, all you have to do is answer the questions and fill the worksheets.

There are nine sections in the business plan template: executive summary, company description, products and services, marketing plan, operational plan, management and organization, startup expenses and capitalization, financial plan, and appendices.

The ‘refining the plan’ resource contains instructions that help you modify your business plan to suit your specific needs, industry, and target audience. After you have completed Score’s business plan template, you can work with a SCORE mentor for expert advice in business planning.

6. Minimalist Architecture Business Plan Template by Venngage

The minimalist architecture business plan template is a simple template by Venngage that you can customize to suit your business needs .

There are five sections in the template: an executive summary, statement of problem, approach and methodology, qualifications, and schedule and benchmark. The business plan template has instructions that guide users on what to fill in each section.

7. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two free business plan templates, filled with practical real-life examples that you can model to create your business plan. Both free business plan templates are written by fictional business owners: Rebecca who owns a consulting firm, and Andrew who owns a toy company.

There are five sections in the two SBA’s free business plan templates.

Executive Summary
Company Description
Service Line
Marketing and Sales

8. The $100 Startup's One-Page Business Plan

The one-page business plan by the $100 startup is a simple business plan template for entrepreneurs who do not want to create a long and complicated plan . You can include more details in the appendices for funders who want more information beyond what you can put in the one-page business plan.

There are five sections in the one-page business plan such as overview, ka-ching, hustling, success, and obstacles or challenges or open questions. You can answer all the questions using one or two sentences.

9. PandaDoc’s Free Business Plan Template

The free business plan template by PandaDoc is a comprehensive 15-page document that describes the information you should include in every section.

There are 11 sections in PandaDoc’s free business plan template.

Executive summary
Business description
Products and services
Operations plan
Management organization
Financial plan
Conclusion / Call to action
Confidentiality statement

You have to sign up for its 14-day free trial to access the template. You will find different business plan templates on PandaDoc once you sign up (including templates for general businesses and specific businesses such as bakeries, startups, restaurants, salons, hotels, and coffee shops)

PandaDoc allows you to customize its business plan templates to fit the needs of your business. After editing the template, you can send it to interested parties and track opens and views through PandaDoc.

10. Invoiceberry Templates for Word, Open Office, Excel, or PPT

InvoiceBerry is a U.K based online invoicing and tracking platform that offers free business plan templates in .docx, .odt, .xlsx, and .pptx formats for freelancers and small businesses.

Before you can download the free business plan template, it will ask you to give it your email address. After you complete the little task, it will send the download link to your inbox for you to download. It also provides a business plan checklist in .xlsx file format that ensures you add the right information to the business plan.

Alternatives to the Traditional Business Plan

A business plan is very important in mapping out how one expects their business to grow over a set number of years, particularly when they need external investment in their business. However, many investors do not have the time to watch you present your business plan. It is a long and boring read.

Luckily, there are three alternatives to the traditional business plan (the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck). These alternatives are less laborious and easier and quicker to present to investors.

Business Model Canvas (BMC)

The business model canvas is a business tool used to present all the important components of setting up a business, such as customers, route to market, value proposition, and finance in a single sheet. It provides a very focused blueprint that defines your business initially which you can later expand on if needed.

The sheet is divided mainly into company, industry, and consumer models that are interconnected in how they find problems and proffer solutions.

Segments of the Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas was developed by founder Alexander Osterwalder to answer important business questions. It contains nine segments.

Key Partners: Who will be occupying important executive positions in your business? What do they bring to the table? Will there be a third party involved with the company?
Key Activities: What important activities will production entail? What activities will be carried out to ensure the smooth running of the company?
The Product’s Value Propositions: What does your product do? How will it be different from other products?
Customer Segments: What demography of consumers are you targeting? What are the habits of these consumers? Who are the MVPs of your target consumers?
Customer Relationships: How will the team support and work with its customer base? How do you intend to build and maintain trust with the customer?
Key Resources: What type of personnel and tools will be needed? What size of the budget will they need access to?
Channels: How do you plan to create awareness of your products? How do you intend to transport your product to the customer?
Cost Structure: What is the estimated cost of production? How much will distribution cost?
Revenue Streams: For what value are customers willing to pay? How do they prefer to pay for the product? Are there any external revenues attached apart from the main source? How do the revenue streams contribute to the overall revenue?

Lean Canvas

The lean canvas is a problem-oriented alternative to the standard business model canvas. It was proposed by Ash Maurya, creator of Lean Stack as a development of the business model generation. It uses a more problem-focused approach and it majorly targets entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

Lean Canvas uses the same 9 blocks concept as the business model canvas, however, they have been modified slightly to suit the needs and purpose of a small startup. The key partners, key activities, customer relationships, and key resources are replaced by new segments which are:

Problem: Simple and straightforward number of problems you have identified, ideally three.
Solution: The solutions to each problem.
Unfair Advantage: Something you possess that can't be easily bought or replicated.
Key Metrics: Important numbers that will tell how your business is doing.

Startup Pitch Deck

While the business model canvas compresses into a factual sheet, startup pitch decks expand flamboyantly.

Pitch decks, through slides, convey your business plan, often through graphs and images used to emphasize estimations and observations in your presentation. Entrepreneurs often use pitch decks to fully convince their target audience of their plans before discussing funding arrangements.

Considering the likelihood of it being used in a small time frame, a good startup pitch deck should ideally contain 20 slides or less to have enough time to answer questions from the audience.

Unlike the standard and lean business model canvases, a pitch deck doesn't have a set template on how to present your business plan but there are still important components to it. These components often mirror those of the business model canvas except that they are in slide form and contain more details.

Using Airbnb (one of the most successful start-ups in recent history) for reference, the important components of a good slide are listed below.

Cover/Introduction Slide: Here, you should include your company's name and mission statement. Your mission statement should be a very catchy tagline. Also, include personal information and contact details to provide an easy link for potential investors.
Problem Slide: This slide requires you to create a connection with the audience or the investor that you are pitching. For example in their pitch, Airbnb summarized the most important problems it would solve in three brief points – pricing of hotels, disconnection from city culture, and connection problems for local bookings.
Solution Slide: This slide includes your core value proposition. List simple and direct solutions to the problems you have mentioned
Customer Analysis: Here you will provide information on the customers you will be offering your service to. The identity of your customers plays an important part in fundraising as well as the long-run viability of the business.
Market Validation: Use competitive analysis to show numbers that prove the presence of a market for your product, industry behavior in the present and the long run, as well as the percentage of the market you aim to attract. It shows that you understand your competitors and customers and convinces investors of the opportunities presented in the market.
Business Model: Your business model is the hook of your presentation. It may vary in complexity but it should generally include a pricing system informed by your market analysis. The goal of the slide is to confirm your business model is easy to implement.
Marketing Strategy: This slide should summarize a few customer acquisition methods that you plan to use to grow the business.
Competitive Advantage: What this slide will do is provide information on what will set you apart and make you a more attractive option to customers. It could be the possession of technology that is not widely known in the market.
Team Slide: Here you will give a brief description of your team. Include your key management personnel here and their specific roles in the company. Include their educational background, job history, and skillsets. Also, talk about their accomplishments in their careers so far to build investors' confidence in members of your team.
Traction Slide: This validates the company’s business model by showing growth through early sales and support. The slide aims to reduce any lingering fears in potential investors by showing realistic periodic milestones and profit margins. It can include current sales, growth, valuable customers, pre-orders, or data from surveys outlining current consumer interest.
Funding Slide: This slide is popularly referred to as ‘the ask'. Here you will include important details like how much is needed to get your business off the ground and how the funding will be spent to help the company reach its goals.
Appendix Slides: Your pitch deck appendix should always be included alongside a standard pitch presentation. It consists of additional slides you could not show in the pitch deck but you need to complement your presentation.

It is important to support your calculations with pictorial renditions. Infographics, such as pie charts or bar graphs, will be more effective in presenting the information than just listing numbers. For example, a six-month graph that shows rising profit margins will easily look more impressive than merely writing it.

Lastly, since a pitch deck is primarily used to secure meetings and you may be sharing your pitch with several investors, it is advisable to keep a separate public version that doesn't include financials. Only disclose the one with projections once you have secured a link with an investor.

Advantages of the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck over the Traditional Business Plan

Time-Saving: Writing a detailed traditional business plan could take weeks or months. On the other hand, all three alternatives can be done in a few days or even one night of brainstorming if you have a comprehensive understanding of your business.
Easier to Understand: Since the information presented is almost entirely factual, it puts focus on what is most important in running the business. They cut away the excess pages of fillers in a traditional business plan and allow investors to see what is driving the business and what is getting in the way.
Easy to Update: Businesses typically present their business plans to many potential investors before they secure funding. What this means is that you may regularly have to amend your presentation to update statistics or adjust to audience-specific needs. For a traditional business plan, this could mean rewriting a whole section of your plan. For the three alternatives, updating is much easier because they are not voluminous.
Guide for a More In-depth Business Plan: All three alternatives have the added benefit of being able to double as a sketch of your business plan if the need to create one arises in the future.

Business Plan FAQ

Business plans are important for any entrepreneur who is looking for a framework to run their company over some time or seeking external support. Although they are essential for new businesses, every company should ideally have a business plan to track their growth from time to time. They can be used by startups seeking investments or loans to convey their business ideas or an employee to convince his boss of the feasibility of starting a new project. They can also be used by companies seeking to recruit high-profile employee targets into key positions or trying to secure partnerships with other firms.

Business plans often vary depending on your target audience, the scope, and the goals for the plan. Startup plans are the most common among the different types of business plans. A start-up plan is used by a new business to present all the necessary information to help get the business up and running. They are usually used by entrepreneurs who are seeking funding from investors or bank loans. The established company alternative to a start-up plan is a feasibility plan. A feasibility plan is often used by an established company looking for new business opportunities. They are used to show the upsides of creating a new product for a consumer base. Because the audience is usually company people, it requires less company analysis. The third type of business plan is the lean business plan. A lean business plan is a brief, straight-to-the-point breakdown of your ideas and analysis for your business. It does not contain details of your proposal and can be written on one page. Finally, you have the what-if plan. As it implies, a what-if plan is a preparation for the worst-case scenario. You must always be prepared for the possibility of your original plan being rejected. A good what-if plan will serve as a good plan B to the original.

A good business plan has 10 key components. They include an executive plan, product analysis, desired customer base, company analysis, industry analysis, marketing strategy, sales strategy, financial projection, funding, and appendix. Executive Plan Your business should begin with your executive plan. An executive plan will provide early insight into what you are planning to achieve with your business. It should include your mission statement and highlight some of the important points which you will explain later. Product Analysis The next component of your business plan is your product analysis. A key part of this section is explaining the type of item or service you are going to offer as well as the market problems your product will solve. Desired Consumer Base Your product analysis should be supplemented with a detailed breakdown of your desired consumer base. Investors are always interested in knowing the economic power of your market as well as potential MVP customers. Company Analysis The next component of your business plan is your company analysis. Here, you explain how you want to run your business. It will include your operational strategy, an insight into the workforce needed to keep the company running, and important executive positions. It will also provide a calculation of expected operational costs. Industry Analysis A good business plan should also contain well laid out industry analysis. It is important to convince potential investors you know the companies you will be competing with, as well as your plans to gain an edge on the competition. Marketing Strategy Your business plan should also include your marketing strategy. This is how you intend to spread awareness of your product. It should include a detailed explanation of the company brand as well as your advertising methods. Sales Strategy Your sales strategy comes after the market strategy. Here you give an overview of your company's pricing strategy and how you aim to maximize profits. You can also explain how your prices will adapt to market behaviors. Financial Projection The financial projection is the next component of your business plan. It explains your company's expected running cost and revenue earned during the tenure of the business plan. Financial projection gives a clear idea of how your company will develop in the future. Funding The next component of your business plan is funding. You have to detail how much external investment you need to get your business idea off the ground here. Appendix The last component of your plan is the appendix. This is where you put licenses, graphs, or key information that does not fit in any of the other components.

The business model canvas is a business management tool used to quickly define your business idea and model. It is often used when investors need you to pitch your business idea during a brief window.

A pitch deck is similar to a business model canvas except that it makes use of slides in its presentation. A pitch is not primarily used to secure funding, rather its main purpose is to entice potential investors by selling a very optimistic outlook on the business.

Business plan competitions help you evaluate the strength of your business plan. By participating in business plan competitions, you are improving your experience. The experience provides you with a degree of validation while practicing important skills. The main motivation for entering into the competitions is often to secure funding by finishing in podium positions. There is also the chance that you may catch the eye of a casual observer outside of the competition. These competitions also provide good networking opportunities. You could meet mentors who will take a keen interest in guiding you in your business journey. You also have the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs whose ideas can complement yours.

Exlore Further

12 Key Elements of a Business Plan (Top Components Explained)
13 Sources of Business Finance For Companies & Sole Traders
5 Common Types of Business Structures (+ Pros & Cons)
How to Buy a Business in 8 Steps (+ Due Diligence Checklist)

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Martin luenendonk.

Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.

This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.

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Grocery Store Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Business Plan Outline

Grocery Store Business Plan Home
1. Executive Summary
2. Company Overview
3. Industry Analysis
4. Customer Analysis
5. Competitive Analysis
6. Marketing Plan
7. Operations Plan
8. Management Team
9. Financial Plan

Start Your Grocery Store Plan Here

You’ve come to the right place to create your grocery store business plan.

We have helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their grocery stores.

Business Plan Sample for a Grocery Store

Below are links to each section of your grocery store business plan template:

Next Section: Executive Summary >

Grocery Store Business Plan FAQs

What is a grocery business plan.

A grocery business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your grocery business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections.

You can easily complete your grocery business plan using our Grocery Business Plan Template here .

What Are the Main Types of Grocery Businesses?

A grocery store can either be small scale or large scale. Small format groceries are usually small, family-run stores like a neighborhood store, convenience store, or health food store. Large scale groceries, on the other hand, are supermarkets that offer a wider variety of products and goods sold.

What Are the Main Sources of Revenues and Expenses for a Grocery Business?

The primary source of revenue for grocery stores is its food, beverage and alcohol sales.

The key expenses for grocery businesses are wages, rent or mortgage, cost of products sold, and utilities. Among the other expenses are insurance, equipment maintenance, and marketing.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Grocery Business Plan?

Grocery stores are typically funded through small business loans, personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors. Inventory financing is also common for part of their funding needs.

What are the Steps To Start a Grocery Store?

Starting a grocery store business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Develop A Grocery Store Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed grocery store business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include market research on the grocery store industry, potential target market size, as well as information about the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast.

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your grocery store . This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your grocery store business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your Grocery Store Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws.

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to cover your startup costs and launch your grocery store , so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as a business loan from a bank, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms.

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations.

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events.

7. Acquire Necessary Grocery Store Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation.

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your store . Marketing strategies includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising.

Learn more about how to start a successful grocery store business:

How to Open a Grocery Store Business

Where Can I Get a Grocery Store Business Plan PDF?

You can download our free grocery store business plan template PDF here . This is a sample grocery store business plan template you can use in PDF format.

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A strategy for resilience: The role of insurance in your retail business’s long-term plan

Life in retail is full of rewards, but it also comes with its share of risks. From unexpected accidents to unforeseen disasters, protecting your business is crucial for long-term success. This is where a strong insurance plan comes in – it is the safety net that can help you bounce back from the unexpected and keep your business thriving.

The Basics: Motor Insurance – A Must-Have

Let us start with the essentials. By law, every vehicle on the road needs at least third-party motor insurance. This covers any injuries or damage you cause to others with your vehicle. It’s the foundation, but consider going a step further with comprehensive insurance. Coronation Insurance offers comprehensive policies that provide additional protection for your own vehicle in case of accidents, theft, fire, and more. As a bonus, Coronation throws in a free trackingdevice with these policies, helping you locate your car in case of emergencies.

Beyond the Road: Protecting Your Assets

Your business is more than just your car. Fire insurance safeguards your shop against fire damage, while homeowner or householder insurance protects the physical structure of your building, even if youare renting. But what about the contents in your home – the home appliances and equipment you rely on? Here is the good news: Coronation Insurance offers householder insurance that covers the contents of your home, even if you are a renter. This means your valuable products are protected in case of unforeseen events.

Peace of Mind for Business Owners: Business Protection Insurance

Running a retail business exposes you to unique risks. Business protection insurance from Coronation Insurance can shield you from financial losses caused by fire, floods, and even personal accidents that might prevent you from working. This ensures your business can keep operating smoothly even during challenging times.

Coronation Insurance: Your Partner in Resilience

At Coronation Insurance, we understand the importance of protecting your business. That is why we offer same-day claims payment, making it easier for you to get back on your feet quickly. Additionally, our digital solutions allow you to manage your policies and make claims conveniently online. Most importantly, our dedicated staff is here to answer your questions and guide you through the process, ensuring you have the right coverage for your needs.

Do not wait for a crisis to strike. By investing in a comprehensive insurance plan from Coronation Insurance, you are building a strategy for resilience – a safety net that allows you to focus on what matters most: running your successful retail business.

Contact Coronation Insurance (Email: [email protected] , 0302772606/0308249068) today and take a step towards a more secure future.

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Dollar General fights back against thieves with plan to remove theft-prone merchandise, self-checkout lanes

Dollar general has converted self-checkout lanes in 12k stores.

California retail thefts ‘beyond crisis level,’ Sacramento County Sheriff says

Rampant shoplifting in California’s capital is "beyond crisis level," the sheriff tells Fox News Digital.

Dollar General is employing new measures to crack down on rampant retail theft that it says has been the most problematic problem for the business.

The company said it plans to remove items that are frequently stolen and eliminate self-checkout options from thousands of additional stores.

It's part of the company's ongoing effort to eliminate shrink, which "continues to be the most significant headwind," CEO Todd Vasos told analysts during an earnings call.

Shrink is an industry term referring to lost or stolen merchandise.

DOLLAR GENERAL DROPS SELF-CHECKOUT AT HUNDREDS OF STORES TO REDUCE THEFT

"We are deploying an end-to-end approach to shrink reduction across the organization, including efforts in our supply chain, merchandising, and within our stores," Vasos said.

A customer shops at a Dollar General store on Aug. 31, 2023, in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images / Getty Images)

As part of its plan, the chief executive said the company converted approximately 3,000 additional stores away from self-checkout in May, totaling 12,000 total locations that have been converted since the beginning of the fiscal year .

CVS ENGAGING WITH AGS ON RETAIL THEFT; WORKING TO 'DISMANTLE THESE CRIMINAL OPERATIONS'

The company had outlined a plan in March to remove self-checkout registers from 300 stores that had the biggest issue with shrink during the first half of the year. The company also announced it was converting self-checkout registers to assisted-checkout options in approximately 9,000 stores as it sought to change its self-checkout strategy.

A sign hangs above a Dollar General store on Aug. 31, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Even with the latest changes, the company doesn't expect to see a material impact right away.

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"While this represents a significant change in our stores, we believe this is the right course of action to drive increased customer engagement while also better positioning us to begin reducing shrink in the back half of '24 with a more material positive impact expected in 2025," Vasos said.

Dollar General

The company's supply chain teams are also working to make sure deliveries arrive on time, and its merchants are reducing the amount of inventory it has in stock, Vasos said.

As part of its efforts within stores, Dollar General plans to get rid of "high shrink" items, ones that are most likely to be stolen.

During the three-month period ending on March 31, gross profit as a percentage of sales fell 30.2%, a decrease of 145 basis points, which was "primarily attributable to increases in shrink" as well as markdowns, a greater consumable sales mix and lower inventory markups.

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British sandwich chain Pret abandons plan to open in Israel

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Nvidia's stunning gains increasingly power Wall Street's record run

A rally that has propelled U.S. equities to record highs increasingly rests on red-hot chipmaker Nvidia and a handful of other giant stocks, reviving concerns that the market’s performance has become tied to a cluster of companies.

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9 Retail Store Layouts & Tips for Designing Your Floor Plan
Tip: Displays with softer or rounded lines create better traffic flow than squared fixtures in open spaces. 6. Spine Floor Plan. A spine or straight store layout uses one large, wide aisle that runs from the front to the back of the store, with smaller aisles branching off of it.
Retail Business Plan Template & Sample (2024)
Industry Analysis. The retail industry in the United States is valued at over $4T currently and is forecasted to reach $4.9T by the end of 2022. This is up from $3.8T in 2019. After a decade of retail decline between 2010 and 2020, the market is rebounding at a surprising rate.
The Ultimate Guide To Designing Your Retail Counter
Before designing the retail counter, it is important to determine a floor plan as a whole. The sort of layout you select is determined by the size of your store, the style of shopping experience you want to provide, and the items you offer. Grid layouts are common in grocery shops, for example, since they are predictable and easy to navigate.
Store Counters
We can build your retail counters to the specific details of your floor plan, branding assets, storage, security, and display needs. We also consider the mechanical needs of your setup including wiring for IT Networking, landline phones, and electrical requirements. Contact the DisplayMax retail counter experts at 810-494-0400.
Shop Counter Design: Creating an Inviting and Efficient Retail Space
Importance of Shop Counter Design: Enhancing the Customer Experience. First impressions matter, and the design of your shop counter can significantly impact how customers perceive your store. A visually appealing shop counter can create an inviting atmosphere, making customers more likely to explore your products and make a purchase. By ...
PDF ULTIMATE GUIDE Planning a Retail Store Layout
Balance the various constraints and requirements to achieve the most with your available resources. 12A 7-Step Framework for Planning Your Retail Layout 2021 SPC RETAIL. STEP 2: CHOOSE YOUR LAYOUT TYPE. Deciding the retail layout type will allow you to establish the basic framework for the store floor plan.
Retail Store Layout: 10 Ideas, Examples & Tips (2024)
Multiple or mixed layout. 1. Grid store layout. In a grid layout, merchandise is displayed on displays in long aisles where customers weave up and down, browsing as they go. The grid maximizes product display and minimizes white space—convenience stores, pharmacies, and grocery stores utilize this familiar layout.
5 business plan examples for retail
What goes into a retail business plan will change depending on the type of store you are opening. Here are three business plan examples for the retail industry: ... Facility features: Equipped with 15 checkout counters (including 6 self-checkouts), a deli, a bakery, and ample parking for over 100 vehicles. 3. Market research .
Retail Business Plan Template & Guide [Updated 2024]
In this section of your retail store business plan, explain the management structure as this demonstrates your store's ability to succeed as a business. Highlight your key players' backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company. Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in ...
How to Write a Great Retail Business Plan for Your Store
Provide a company description. Your company description is one of the most important aspects of your retail business plan. This section should reflect how you want people to envision your business. It should include the logo, concept, ownership and business structure, design, and layout. Think of a retail shop that you enjoy.
Retail Store Layout Design and Planning
Store layout planning and design is a profession all its own. The design knowledge and planning skills required to develop an entirely new retail store, modify an existing floor plan, or even remodel a specific area of your store is a daunting task for retailers focused on attracting customers and earning revenue.
15 Modern Retail Counter Examples for Your Retail Stores
These 15 examples showcase how a counter can be used to draw attention and create a memorable in-store experience. 1. Modern mirror retail counter. This use of a mirror on the counter not only reflects extra light but also the products displayed around the store and the store fittings. Since store fittings influence shopper behaviour by drawing ...
Sample Retail Business Plan
For aspiring retail business owners, having access to a sample retail business plan can be especially helpful in providing direction and gaining insight into how to draft their own retail business plan. Download our Ultimate Retail Business Plan Template. Having a thorough business plan in place is critical for any successful retail venture.
Checkout Counters 101: Your Ultimate Retail Success Guide
January 7, 2024. Checkout counters are an essential part of any retail store. They are the final point of contact between the customer and the store and can greatly impact the customer experience. A well-designed checkout counter can improve the customer experience and increase sales. When designing a checkout counter, it's important to ...
How to Build a Small Retail Counter
Design your space. Most retail counters are located near the exit and toward the center of the store. Using graph paper, make a diagram of your store's future layout and where you want the counter (s) to be located. Alternatively, use design software to create your diagram -- this may give you more flexibility to make changes. Map out your needs.
Checkout Counter
Tell Us About Your Checkout Counter Project. Complete the form below if you would like to discuss your project with one of our knowledgable experts, please call 810-494-0400. First Name Last Name Email Address Phone Number Company Choose the Type of Counter Big Box Sales Counter Checkout Counter Food/Beverage Counter Lozier Checkout Counter ...
Building Custom Shop Counters for The Retail Store!
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How to Write a Business Plan in 9 Steps (+ Template and Examples)
1. Create Your Executive Summary. The executive summary is a snapshot of your business or a high-level overview of your business purposes and plans. Although the executive summary is the first section in your business plan, most people write it last. The length of the executive summary is not more than two pages.
Retail Counters Virtual Consultation
Be as detailed as possible so we can understand your needs. We will be in contact with you soon to schedule your consultation. If you wish to speak with one of our retail specialists now, call 810-494-0400. First Name Last Name Email Address Phone Number Company Choose the Type of Counter Big Box Sales Counter Checkout Counter Food/Beverage ...
Retail Checkout Counters
Our large selection of retail checkout counters for sale is ideal for any company looking for effective point of sale store fixtures. We offer hundreds of great cases in a wide variety of styles, shelf and door configurations, sizes, and finishes to suit any floor plan and commercial décor. All of our models are sold with wholesale pricing to ...
Aluminum Retail Store Counters
Design Your Store's Cash Wrap Layout with Our "Essentials Series" Cases and Counters. When it comes to building a logical and effective floor plan, you need the right fixtures for the job. Aluminum retail store counters offer quality construction with modular flexibility — the Essentials Series. These display cases and register stands are ...
Grocery Store Business Plan Template (2024)
Starting a grocery store business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.. 1. Develop A Grocery Store Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed grocery store business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture.
Retail Counter
Our collaborative team of designers, craftsmen, and installers will take time to understand your goals and pain points, then design casework and millwork solutions. To enhance the operation and success of your store or shop, contact R.C. Smith today at 800-747-8160. We look forward to working with you!
Workers at TJ Maxx and Marshalls are wearing police-like body cameras
Hourly retail security workers are now wearing police-like body cameras at major stores. Retail giant TJX, the parent of TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods, said it's equipping some store ...
A strategy for resilience: The role of insurance in your retail
Life in retail is full of rewards, but it also comes with its share of risks. From unexpected accidents to unforeseen disasters, protecting your business is crucial for long-term success. This is where a strong insurance plan comes in - it is the safety net that can help you bounce back from the unexpected and keep your business thriving.
Pick n Pay's plan could turn South African retailer around, say
Break-even targets and a new strategy for South Africa's core Pick n Pay supermarkets seem "plausible", analysts said on Tuesday, a day after the new CEO of the struggling retailer outlined his plan.
Dollar General's theft plan: Cutting merchandise ...
As part of its plan, the chief executive said the company converted approximately 3,000 additional stores away from self-checkout in May, totaling 12,000 total locations that have been converted ...
Best Small Business Insurance Of June 2024
Frankenmuth has customized, business-specific insurance packages for operations such as retail stores, manufacturing and small offices. Frankenmuth is a regional carrier operating in 15 states in ...
Nvidia's Jensen Huang, AMD's Lisa Su Lay Out AI Chip Roadmaps
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Sunday that new AI chips are coming in 2025 and 2026. AMD's Lisa Su also gave a two-year AI chip roadmap.
British sandwich chain Pret abandons plan to open in Israel
In 2021, Pret set out a plan to double the size of its business by 2026. It currently trades from over 650 shops in 18 markets. ... Retail & Consumer category Labour Party has met with Shein ahead ...