How to Start a Beauty Supply Store
The beauty industry is extremely competitive. For a small business owner, dealing with the rates that larger retailers sell can be a struggle, but then you can attract consumers on your own in ways other than costs.
Finding your market, such as all organic and vegan products, makes you known in the industry to be an expert in a particular field, and can drive a specific crowd away from bigger, more generic stores and right into yours.
Creating and maintaining your credibility in this area, including being regarded to highly skilled and professional staff can be precisely what you need to find that competitive advantage. Here are a few pointers for beauty supply store owners who are either starting to open their first store or looking to relocate.
- Choose Your Niche
It is essential to make sure that you have the proper licenses and permits. Usually, a business license and a seller’s license are required. Ask your local city and state websites for complete information. Also, please ensure you get your Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS.
- Deciding on a Location
You’ll need to take into account what type of business you’re going to be operating. Are you going to be a brick-and-mortar store, a mall kiosk, an online store, or a combination? It’s easier to start small than to start too big too soon and to be forced to downsize.
When deciding where you’re planning on putting your store, please ensure you do research. Preferably, you want to be in a location with a lot of foot traffic, such as a mall or a major shopping centre.
- Write your Business Plan.
You’re going to need a business plan for many reasons. Not only will the business plan give you an overall idea of costs and help you define your objectives, but it will also be used to secure credit with manufacturers when you’re ready to purchase inventory. If you don’t already have the funding for your beauty supply store in place, you will find that creditors will want a business plan to accompany your financial application.
- Create a website
Building up a website is a simple way to launch a beauty supply company as well as promote your shop. If you don’t understand how to do it yourself, you can get professional support or use ready-to-use e-commerce sites, such as Shopify or Quick2Host, to help you build up an appealing website.
A simple way to get into the industry is through the recruitment of affiliates. You do not have to hold or ship any stocks and promote other products on your website while receiving a commission.
- Employ Staff with Expertise
If you have a physical location, then you must summon the services of some staff. At the very least, you’ll need people to keep a cash register and work on the floor. Be sure that the workers you recruit portray the right image for your business because they are the critical picture your customers see while buying beauty products in your shop.
Also, make sure your employees are knowledgeable about the products you’re selling and able to talk to your customers and answer their beauty questions.
- Come up with an appealing Presentation.
When decorating your beauty shop, ensure you put your most fashionable pieces in front of your store. Provide your customers with a lot of light and mirrors so they can try out the sample of the product. The atmosphere of the store should not make the customer feel anxious or rushed because the longer they stay in your store; the more likely they are to find additional beauty supplies that they would like to buy.
- Locate and Purchase Inventory
You can get your supplies from a wholesale beauty service provider. Potential suppliers can be found on websites such as beauty express or IndiaMART. Make sure you’re working with a reputable manufacturer. You want to be sure you’re getting a right performing product.
Ask for samples before you make large order quantity commitments. Wholesale suppliers will often send you samples free of charge to try and get your business. All you’ve got to do is pay for the product shipping.
- Storing your Inventory
Make sure you stock your inventory correctly. It involves having your makeup products kept in a dry position away from moisture and smoke. To help secure your investment more, consider getting insurance for your warehouse.
- Promote Your Business
Place coupons and fliers in complementary stores such as beauty salons and clothing stores, sponsor a fashion or hair show, launch a promotional website, write a blog or open social networking accounts such as Facebook or Instagram to connect with potential new customers.
Keep the posts engaging and meaningful, especially when using social media. Try giving beauty tips and videos with links back to your website and products.
Top Ten Marketing Tips to Effectively Promote Your Beauty Store Effectively
There are many well-established and new beauty store brands in any given market. A new entrepreneur has to deal with a lot of competition to survive and then move forward under harsh market conditions.
Your small beauty shop needs a smart business marketing strategy to not only counter competition but also become a pioneer in your cosmetics speciality. There are no short cuts to the top.
The beauty and cosmetics industry in the United States exceeded $80 billion in 2019. The largest market share in the overall U.S. Company was predominantly made up of four divisions – cosmetics, fragrances and perfumes, skincare and lotions, and hair care products.
Each of these and other market segmentation is projected to rise steadily. As a result, your small cosmetic brand has many growth opportunities.
Below are ten marketing tactics to promote your Beauty Supply Store:
- Consider selling to smaller retail outlets:
Don’t be tempted to include big wholesalers when talking about selling your beauty products. Your small business may not be ready for large retailers. Many of the more prominent retailers tend to purchase items from companies that only offer goods to big stores.
So, select small to medium-sized retailers as your first clients. Active retailers will ask for samples of the product. This will prove costly for small cosmetic businesses. However, if medium-sized stores decide to sell your product line, it will instantly help your business grow.
- Make contact with distributors.
Your business volume will snowball if you can get a wholesale distributor interested in your beauty products. Most retailers tend to purchase their inventories from wholesalers rather than directly from manufacturers or individual suppliers. If you can effectively market your goods to distributors, the number of products sold would be much higher than that sold at one store.
- Generate Online Sales
Another successful way to advertise your beauty supply brand is to position it on the internet. Nearly all of the future buyers of your goods are browsing and shopping online.
First of all, provide an e-commerce website with all the relevant information, such as an overview of your beauty products and their quality photos, rates, social channel buttons, fine navigation features and, most importantly, your business’s address and other contact details.
The design of your e-commerce website to sell cosmetics products online must be appealing, useful and impressive. Hire a professional designer who knows your target clients by designing a website that attracts the attention of viewers.
- Get involved in Social Networking.
Social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are like new platforms where you can sell your beauty products aggressively. Such virtual markets are perfect for targeting a growing number of potential customers.
All you need to do is post interesting content and videos regularly to build a dominant presence of your business on all platforms. Make sure that your small business has a dedicated page for your beauty products on all standard social networks.
However, the social media account needs to be appealing in terms of its integrated use of text and pictures. Your small beauty business can afford to provide a professionally built social media platform and Crowdsourcing services. Designhill is one of the leading Crowdsourcing markets where hundreds of designers can give you many fantastic design ideas at a low price for your small start-up.
- Get a Fantastic Logo
Every global brand has one thing in common: distinctive logos. Their iconic logos know Google, Samsung, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nike, Starbucks and many other world-class brands. This points out the value of logos for business promotion.
When you start your cosmetics company, think about getting a distinctive logo. A logo design that catches the eye of your rivals is a visual gift to your audience. Your logo will say volumes about your brand identity, your beliefs, your brand message and your professional approach to your company.
Remember that your logo will be present everywhere on your advertisements and marketing plans. So, create a memorable cosmetic business logo that is worthy of representing your company in a competitive market.
- Network with Independent Sales Representatives
Some small business owners seek to sell their products on their own but struggle to do so because they are not marketing specialists and thus have no experience in direct sales.
Some individual sales agents can do the work. Contact the people who make their money by selling the goods of a business. Many of these reps have contacts with different retail stores so they can help you place your items in big stores.
Several sales reps work on a contract basis while some work on a commission basis. Contact these salespeople and speak to them about selling your goods when you start your cosmetics company.
- Participate in Trade Shows
It could be that some beauty conventions or cosmetic industry activities take place in your city regularly. Such trade shows offer an incredible opportunity to promote your small business amid prospective customers, such as wholesalers, distributors and individuals. The cost to the exhibitor booths at these shows may be expensive, but you will eventually reap the benefits. Your business’s innovative products are coming to the fore as retailers from all over the world see your products.
Until you participate in the trade show, have your company’s business card ready. Your business card design must be no less than outstanding and professional. Your contact details will be given to the card, which must have a memorable appearance. So, create a card that forces the receiver to make a business question about your items.
- Have Beauty Experts Review Your Product Offering
Another way to market your cosmetic brand is to ask industry experts to study your new products. Many experts or gurus have their own YouTube channels with thousands of subscribers and viewers. Ask them to include your new beauty products in their list of product reviews. If they approve, your work would easily reach the large number of followers that they have.
- Distribute Flyers
Flyers are flyers that are a single sheet of paper with a lot of information, such as your product photos, some price promotions, and contact details for your company. The cost of making a flyer template is minimal for all marketing materials.
If you’ve got the flyers ready in your hands, stand at one location on the market and distribute them to the passersby. This is an efficient way of promoting your small business among your prospective customers.
- Offer Mouth-Watering Deals
People are naturally drawn to deals that are appealing to them. For instance, if your beauty brand offers a fair value of your products, people would think about purchasing them right before the end of the offer. So, you can attract them with significant discounts on your main beauty items to inspire them to buy.
Think about giving some offers, such as buying a free one or a gift to purchase an item, and so on. Marketers usually use these strategies so that you can use these techniques to market beauty products actively.
Can You Make Money as a Beauty Supply Store Owner?
Sure, you’re so much interested in running your beauty supply store business, because you wouldn’t be on this page if you’re not interested in doing that. The truth is that quite a sizeable number of men and women who love the beauty and fashion space often fantasize about running their supply store.
Unfortunately, people falsely assume that the dream is too complicated to transform into reality. Yeah, starting your beauty supply store and making it successful can be a long and complicated mission, but it’s more than possible to do it. As you probably already know, Beauty Supply Store owners are individuals in charge of operating and sometimes maintaining a Beauty Supply Store.
Beauty supply stores come in a variety of different formats, but most of them are designed to give easy public access to a certain standard and well-known beauty items and supplies. Such items and services also include hair care accessories, skincare products, nail care products, lipstick, and so on.
Since items sold in a beauty supply store play a significant role in one’s success, you might be interested in learning more about what kind of beauty supplies and products you should be selling and where you can get them from.
The excellent aspect of starting and running a business is that you’re in control of all your decisions. So, you can choose to sell any beauty products you want. For example, if you wanted to concentrate on African Americans, you could do that.
If you decided to concentrate on beauty supplies and cosmetics for men or only women, you might do that as well; it’s all your choices to make.
As for selecting the items to be sold in a beauty supply shop, you have a range of different choices. If you want to start low, to reduce the costs you incur, you might want to think about placing small orders.
Although this is more than reasonable to do, you may do want to look at wholesale beauty product vendors and distributors. Such individuals and businesses also provide you and other consumers with discounts on the purchase of their goods in large quantities.
Of course, you can always purchase the beauty supply items and equipment that you like, but you should know that most beauty supply store owners prefer to go for wholesale goods.
Another option that you have, when looking to make money as a beauty supply store owner, is the type of format that you would like your business to be in.
A large number of beauty stores have local, storefront locations; however, many are also operated online. With the recent increase in the popularity of online shopping, you might also want to think about opening a storefront retail location as well as an online beauty store.
If you’d like to run a boutique beauty supply shop, you’ll note a spike in start-up costs, because you need to pay for storerooms, as well as buy a lot of store supplies, such as shelves and cash registers.
Speaking of start-up costs, the start-up costs associated with opening your beauty supply store, particularly the local one, can be very high, however, you don’t always have to come up with the money on your own.
With a good credit score and a solid business plan, you will be able to obtain financial support from financial investors as well as financial lenders, such as your local bank.
This is important to note because many aspiring beauty store owners only write off the idea of becoming one because they think it’s too much money for them to afford. All is possible with the right financial assistance.
In essence, it’s more than feasible for you to make money as a beauty store owner. Besides making money, you might also find it an exciting and entertaining adventure. Also bear in mind that before opening a beauty supply shop, either locally or online, you’ll want to take the time to get acquainted with all local, state and federal legislation.
Here are the three most essential costs to consider when starting your beauty supply store business
Built – Out Cost
Build-out costs are all the associated costs with the structural construction of the store. All the costs involved, from flooring to lighting to custom shelves and labour costs are included in this calculation. In most cases, cost building is the most costly thing to open a beauty boutique. The deciding factor for these costs would be based on two factors.
- Size of your store
- Scope of your store
The more prominent the store, the more you will spend on customizing the store; typically, a contractor will quote you by the square footage. The scope of the work will also play a role in the price. If you want to have a minimalistic type of beauty boutique, you may only paint the walls.
If you’re focused on creating a customer service experience, you can place a lot of emphasis on custom fixtures, building wall units, and so on.
If you’re going to provide some service in your beauty store that might theoretically increase the cost dramatically.
Cost of Inventory
Inventory costs are usually the second highest; if not the largest. Next, you need to determine what kind of product mix you’re going to have. Talk of the brands and product lines that you want to carry? The size of the store will play a part. The larger the shop, the more inventories are required.
Inventory is perhaps the hardest to figure out while starting a beauty supply store because production costs are not readily accessible to new entrepreneurs in beauty supply. You can find a mentor to help you out on this aspect.
Working Capital
Working capital is funds put aside to help you meet the running expenses in the early stages of the beauty supply business. Having working capital is crucial as your store is brand new, and you might not produce enough revenue to pay for all your expenses as you build your customer base.
The SBA (Small Business Association) says that you will need funds to cover your business expenses for the first 6-12 months of your business. Take your estimated average monthly operating cost number and subtract it over six months to get your working capital number.
In conclusion, we hope that you find this short guide useful and as such, it provides you with a direction on how to set up your beauty supply store.