Do you want to own a fun and profitable Dollar Store? Who wouldn’t? Dollar Stores are exploding in today’s economy! More and more and more people of all income levels are shopping at Dollar Stores in order to find good values at low prices. According to recent Nielson Studies, “Over 50% of all US Households are frequently shopping at Dollar Stores.” The fact is, the moment you open your very own Dollar Store you’ll experience immediate customers. The key is to keep them coming back. With over fifteen years of experience developing Dollar Stores, worldwide, we at Dollar Store Services know that successful merchandising drives repeat business and word-of-mouth advertising. Without a doubt merchandising is the ultimate competitive edge in the Dollar Store business.
Value:
First of all, your Dollar Store must become associated with quality and value. As customers walk up and down the isles of your store evaluating your merchandise they will be saying to themselves, “Wow! I can’t believe that’s just a dollar.” You see, when a shopper sees a product that they want, and that product is only one dollar…bingo, a business transaction will occur. Here’s the key, you have to show your customers the value. Do you remember Tom Cruz in the hit movie, “Jerry MacGuire” shouting the famous line, “Show me the money!” Think of your customers shouting, “Show me the value!” Your customers can’t wait to pay you a dollar for a good product. Give them the opportunity and they will show you the money over and over again.
Selling high quality merchandise for just a dollar and at the same time achieving a strong profit margin is no easy task. One of the most costly mistakes new Dollar Store Owners make is ordering wholesale products from catalogs and websites sight unseen. When you order hundreds of items for the price of pennies and you don’t personally inspect the merchandise, then you are playing Russian Rolette with your business. You absolutely must personally inspect the value of the merchandise before you buy it. If you don’t then you will end up with junk and ultimately repel shoppers from shopping at your store.
Imagine that you are gearing up for a big shopping weekend and you purchase $3,000 of wholesale merchandise. That’s around six thousand items. The trucks arrive with your shipments and as you begin to shelve your merchandise you notice that the products look nothing like they did in the catalog. The products are light weight, smaller than normal, faded coloring, and the packaging is falling apart as you begin to display the items. What are you going to do? Most importantly, what are your customers going to think? Remember, customers aren’t looking for cheap. They are looking for value. If you fail to deliver that expectation, then you will not succeed.
Good news! Dollar Store Services offers a complete turnkey business package that includes a comprehensive merchandising system. Our store owners have access to our exclusive supplier network. We have been developing win-win relationships with our suppliers for over fifteen years. Our success is really quite simple…we do something that no one else does. We personally visit with our suppliers each month and hand-select the merchandise. Every item is evaluated for aesthetics, feel, weight, color, smell, overall quality, and packaging. If the item does not meet our high standards, then our store owners will never know that it exists. Every week we provide our store owners with a working list of all the items that have been pre-approved. Our store owners never have to worry about the quality of their merchandise. And they don’t have to invest the time or the money necessary to schedule and travel and meet with each supplier.
Not only are we able to insure high quality merchandise we are also able to achieve the lowest wholesale prices in the industry. After all, the best time to negotiate the price of a product is while you are holding it in your hand. The fact that we represent thousands of stores worldwide doesn’t hurt either. We know that on the average we are able to save our clients 20% on wholesale prices. Let’s take a look at what this can mean to your business over time. If a small store were to purchase $300,000 worth of wholesale merchandise over the course of a year, then a 20% savings would equal $60,000 for the year. That’s an additional $60,000 in your pocket simply because you order merchandise through the Dollar Store Services supplier network. If you were to remain in business for ten years you would save nearly one million dollars. Like our President and Founder, James Wichert always says, “every million helps.”
Value is the cornerstone for a successful Dollar Store. Outstanding products are becoming more and more available as manufacturers and suppliers around the world now realize that supplying Dollar Stores with quality merchandise can be a lucrative endeavor. The fact is distinguishing the good products from the bad is an ongoing mission for all retail businesses. At Dollar Store Services our goal is to provide our store owners with the best quality merchandise at the lowest wholesale prices. Our commitment to realize this goal month after month and year after year is unparalleled in the industry.
Variety:
The next critical component to successful Dollar Store Merchandising is variety. A wide variety of product categories as well as a dynamic selection within each category is the key to gaining profits and market share. A large variety of merchandise provides 3 powerful marketing advantages:
1. Variety keeps customers shopping in your store for longer periods of time and increases your average revenue per transaction.
2. Variety allows you to quickly turnover inventory and make merchandising adjustments quickly.
3. Variety distinguishes you from the competition and builds loyal and repeat customers.
How do you achieve a large variety of quality merchandise? First of all, you must have access to a multitude of reputable suppliers. When you have high quality standards as we do at Dollar Store Services you simply cannot properly merchandise a store with just a handful of suppliers. From hardware to flatware, aspirins to aprons, birthdays to holidays, beach balls to ball point pens, and gum drops to flip-flops the possibilities are just too vast. With over 70 suppliers in our network we are able to ensure that our store owners have access to the quality and variety that they need to compete and win in today’s retail marketplace.
Secondly, the ability to display a large variety of merchandise requires that you purchase wholesale merchandise in low quantity orders. One of the biggest challenges that small business owners face today is that their lack of buying power does not allow them to offer competitive prices and maintain substantial profit margins. While most small business owners are forced to purchase large quantities in order to reduce per unit costs; our store owners, on the other hand, are able to purchase wholesale items in small quantity packages.
Because of our long-standing reputation, our commitment to meet with our suppliers personally, and our worldwide buying power we are able to negotiate low wholesale rates on small quantity shipments. Small quantity shipments are critical in maximizing your shelf space. As an independent owner of a local dollar store you are not COSCO or Wal-Mart. You cannot have 500 cases of bottled water on your sales floor. You simply don’t have the space. Your store space needs to be optimized with a large variety of merchandise that is made available in small quantities. The fact is if you do not have the buying power to negotiate for small quantity shipments, then you cannot display the variety of merchandise that you need in order to compete in the marketplace.
New:
In addition to value and variety we also know that successful Dollar Store marketing requires a consistent flow of NEW merchandise. Your Dollar Store will always provide a stable supply of snack foods, household items, and health and beauty products, but the remainder of your store will be dedicated to showcasing a unique mixture of brand new products.
Your dollar store will resemble a box of chocolates…like Forest Gump’s Momma would say, “you never know what you are going to get.” Consistently introducing NEW products into your store keeps shoppers coming back, week after week, month after month, and year after year.In order to keep bringing NEW merchandise into your store you have to have access to a multitude of suppliers…you have to consistently visit with suppliers and see for yourself what’s new and exciting. And the fact is, if you don’t have access to a merchandising system that provides all of these resources, then you cannot properly merchandise your store and succeed long-term.
Here at Dollar Store Services our Merchandising and Management Support Systems operate at the highest level. Not only do our store owners save thousands of dollars every month in wholesale discounts…they also have access to over 70 suppliers nationwide. Our suppliers are dedicated to earn our business, not only do they allow us to receive small quantity shipments, they also set aside top-selling merchandise exclusively for our store owners during peak shopping seasons and weekends.
Our mission at Dollar Store Services is not only to help you open a Dollar Store…our mission is to help you own a profitable and fun Dollar Store for as long as you desire. You will find that Merchandising is the ultimate competitive edge in the Dollar Store business and that Discount Retail Store Services is the ultimate business development partner.
By
Jon Jones
