I’ve struggled with this question many times over the past year and as of today I still decide against it as the numbers and time commitment vs. return just didn’t add up. Aside from it being a good status thing to have where it strokes my ego everyday, everything else was a negative. I’m sure for most re-sellers, opening up a store front is the pinnacle of success and no doubt what’s more better than being your own boss and not having to work for someone? Everyone’s case is different, but today I’m going to be talking about my current situation and why I decided against having a store front.
In my opinion, when it comes to buying shoes I think one of the biggest factor we consider aside from the shoes being legit or not is PRICE! When we are looking to buy a pair of shoes we always want to get the lowest price possible. This is simply human nature because who would want to pay more for the same thing? We live in a world today of fast information and the internet is just a finger click away from our pockets. Hence as a consumer we are quickly able to compare prices between competitors and locate the best price before making a buying decision. As re-sellers, in order to stay competitive you got to charge within market price. Charging a price that’s much higher means you will probably go out of business real quick…probably faster than how Drake shut down Meek Mills. Anyways, pricing is what I would probably say is the single most important factor that defines a successful reselling business. As long as you have good prices for quality goods, CONSUMERS WILL FIND YOU.
Now how do you offer good prices? It simply boils down to 2 factors: Overhead Cost and your Defined Wage. Why I decided against having a store front was mainly the cost associated with opening up a store. I went into some research about possible locations and even the cheapest 300 sq feet location in bumfk no where would run me up to $1,000 in expenses a month at a bare minimum. With the nature of my business, 300 sq feet is definitely not enough to house all the shoes I plan to display and store. Second thing that deters me from a store is my defined wage, which is measured by the opportunity cost of your time. Yes, having a store front creates foot traffic and a landmark for your business but that also means you have to sit there 8 hours a day to meet and greet. Netmag being a side project since the beginning I am definitely not ready to quit my job nor trust anyone at the moment to run it on my behalf. Moreover, I think a good part of our short stint of success was partly due to the fact we stay competitive with low prices. Instead of paying 1k in rent to store owners, we are passing that saving to our customers, vice versa with a store front we will be forced to pass on that 1k added cost to our customers. Hence having a store front really doesn’t make sense in our business model, but that doesn’t necessary mean it wouldn’t work for others.
This past October we partnered with a local men’s clothing store (Muddy George) to host our first ever pop up shop. I couldn’t be more thankful of the turn out we got from local supporters of our brand (pic above is our opening day line up). You might think, with that kind of support why not do it and give it a shot? But I’m a person that likes to look at the longer horizon and ignore all the short term noise. Yes, the pop up shop did give me a glimpse of owning a store front with the surface glamour of being a store owner, but at the same time all this I think is just an ego tax to satisfy myself. Maybe one day if I get fired from my current job, I will consider doing it, but until then, I’ll just stick to 100% online based.
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