First of all, you need to spend a lot of time thinking about the development of retail business: the initial investment of funds and the corresponding financial goals, time, manpower investment, management, necessary social activities and so on.

If you have never worked in a bookstore, you might as well start by accumulating practical experience. You can go to the bookstore to apply, even if it's just a temporary helper. Your goal is to do the most trivial things in the daily work of the bookstore, including receiving goods, unpacking, shelving, managing inventory, selling, operating the cash register, packaging gifts, building and dismantling displays, and cleaning. If you don't want to experience it yourself, you may have to think twice about opening a bookstore.

2. How to judge which areas are suitable for opening bookstores?

First of all, we should investigate the distribution and operation of existing bookstores in this area. You have two choices. One is to follow the trend, that is, to choose the area next to big bookstores or other bookstores, and the other is to choose the blank spots where bookstores are distributed. If the bookstore is located in an area with a good business atmosphere, it will be better if the industries operated by adjacent stores and the customers of the bookstore can promote each other. If the shops around this store site are not in harmony with bookstores, such as professional street, it is generally not suitable. Generally speaking, there are cultural and entertainment venues, commercial office buildings, mature residential areas, university areas, commercial areas and other places nearby, which are all optional places to open stores. Bookstores with individual venture capitalists are generally small in scale, and both mobile and fixed passenger flow are very important. Therefore, it is best to choose places with many people around the community or university area, such as stations, fast food restaurants, theaters, etc., and rely on stable community readers.

3. How should I locate my bookstore and what factors should I judge?

This is the most important problem faced by shopkeepers. To open a bookstore, we must have a clear market positioning, and the characteristics are the life of the bookstore. For example, the store first defines the positioning of the bookstore and then seeks the store address purposefully, striving to maximize the target customer group; If you already have a specific store, you need to choose the business category according to the location of the bookstore and the existing and potential consumer groups around you, and at the same time establish your own characteristics according to their consumption habits and tastes. For example, when Shanghai Jifeng Bookstore opens a branch, it will locate the bookstore according to the regional characteristics. Lotus Shop is designed as a community bookstore near the community, and books such as children's books have become the main projects. The art store has added more books on movies and dramas according to the characteristics of nearby drama colleges and opera houses. Bookstores in university areas try to avoid too many bestsellers, and books that are too academic near office buildings will not sell well. If you open a professional bookstore near the relevant place, you will get twice the result with half the effort. In the neighborhood of residential areas, it is also popular to open a bookstore mainly for rent, supplemented by leisure and entertainment magazines; In supermarkets, life books such as beauty, diet and leisure are often favored; In the areas where migrant workers gather, most of them are magazines, martial arts and romance books. Around colleges and universities, academic books on humanities and social sciences can be the main ones. In addition, unique content positioning can often attract good business.

4. What aspects should be considered when choosing a good store?

Location affects the difficulty of future business, so it is very important to choose a good business location. In the internal conditions of the store, the store must do the following key points to understand;

Area size: whether the gap between the expected business area and the actual area is acceptable, too small will limit the characteristics of the bookstore to be operated; Too much will cause waste, pay rent falsely, and make consumers feel that the goods are empty and not full enough in the future. At the same time, it should also be noted that the smaller the gap between the rental area and the actual use area, the better. Many high-rise buildings occupy too much commercial space, which makes the actual rent per square meter rise a lot, which is not in line with economic benefits.

Floor: If the location chosen by the store is not on the first floor, will the floor level limit consumers' willingness to come to the store? For example, if they want to open a theme bookstore, this restriction has little impact, but if they want to open a general bookstore, the impact will be great. In addition, it is very important to consider the influence of the business types and business forms downstairs on the bookstore.

Floor division: As far as bookstores are concerned, those whose floor area is below 1000 square meters should be on the same floor as far as possible, and those with divided floors should not exceed three floors. If you can choose floors, the order is the first floor, the second floor, the first floor underground and the third floor. Because when the bookstore area is not too large, there are too many floors to distinguish, which will make the store feel fragmented and incomplete, and it will also make people feel oppressive to the narrow space, and the management cost will increase.

Building structure: the state of the building itself often affects the decoration cost and future maintenance cost. If the building in the location is an old building, we must first understand the safety of the building itself and whether the decoration design will make the building unbearable; And what its supporting facilities are, whether they need to be repaired or replaced, and the situation of sewers, sewage pipes, circuit pipes and capacitors should be thoroughly understood.

Location modeling: the modeling of the internal use area should be as square and complete as possible, because irregular modeling may cause more idle area in the design and cannot make full use of the business area; Secondly, it is easy to produce a dead corner of the shop, which makes the moving line not smooth enough, increases the patrol frequency, increases the load of personnel and increases the turnover rate of goods. These will be reflected in the operating costs, and the store needs to think twice.

Neighborhood status: whether neighbors are easy to get along with will also be related to the amount of non-operating costs; In addition, if the adjacent business forms are incompatible with the bookstore, or most of them belong to the evening entertainment business, it will often bring a lot of trouble to the operation of the bookstore, even if a lot of publicity is spent, it may be futile.

Everyone is saying that it is necessary to do research when opening a shop. What research should I do to get the necessary information? How can we determine the size of the business circle?

Research is actually a process of collecting relevant information. You can do it in various ways, such as asking relevant companies to do it or doing it yourself. Business circle subdivision research can be divided into field research, business circle research and market research.

(1) field survey: It is a survey that focuses on business location, that is, to understand the location you want to choose and its relevance in the nearby geographical location. We can deeply understand and analyze the business form around the bookstore's business location, the crowd flow in front of each time, the age of the crowd, the purpose of the crowd, the direction of the crowd, the traffic flow at each time, the purpose of the traffic flow, the direction of the traffic flow, the convenience of parking, the stopping distance of public transportation, the starting and ending points of each line, the time of the first and last shifts, and other factors that affect the business location.

(2) Business circle survey: It is a circle with a certain distance as the radius, which is called business circle. The scope of business circle is related to the size of the store, business content and consumption habits, that is, it is defined according to its influence scope. Of course, the business circle where the bookstore is located can also be a business circle. For example, if you open a beauty salon in a certain district, all or part of that district is the business circle of the owner.

(3) Market research: to investigate specific targets or things. These goals or things are not necessarily in the business circle, but they are often representative, topical and even trending.

6. What key elements should I pay attention to in my research to get useful information?

(1) competitors in the same industry: competitors' geographical location, business area, product structure and business characteristics (prices, activities, etc.). ), the influencing factors on yourself, the ranking of peers (including yourself) in the business circle, etc.

(2) Other commercial storefronts: location, business area, business characteristics, influencing factors on themselves, customer gathering ability, etc.

(3) Other non-commercial gathering places: parks, religious sites, hospitals, schools, military institutions, government agencies and other related influencing factors.

(4) Business circle residents: including permanent residents and working population, their age, education, religious beliefs, work, income, consumption habits, etc.

(5) Others: government policies (such as policies to encourage demolition, etc. ), list the factors that may affect the business.

7. Is it difficult to apply for a shop license now? What are the procedures and what should I do?

At present, the threshold for operating retail books in China is very low. You only need to get a cultural business license from the local press and publication bureau or the cultural department, and then register with the industrial and commercial bureau. There are no restrictions on the place of business. The specific procedures are as follows:

First of all, the staff of the Cultural Bureau should conduct on-the-spot inspection of the applicant's storefront to confirm that it complies with relevant regulations; After passing the inspection, the applicant shall prepare the following documents: 1. A capital verification report of 654.38 million yuan issued by an accounting firm; Two, a copy of the store, if the store is a rental house, it should also be attached to the housing lease agreement; Three. Application Form for Permit Applicant (Note: The application form and house lease agreement should be printed on B5 paper). Applicants can get a "permit" within about one week after submitting the above documents. The fees for holding a photo include inquiry fee (40 yuan), photo holding fee (30 yuan) and membership fee (60 yuan/person).

8. How can I get the publisher's junior certificate?

To apply for permission to open a bookstore now, a legal person must have a nationally recognized issuance qualification certificate. The Information Service only holds qualification examinations twice a year, and each witness has to study for one week at a cost of 600 yuan/person. After the completion of the study, those who take the exam and pass the exam can obtain the qualification certificate. The specific time and situation of the exam can be found on the news and publication websites of various provinces and cities, such as the websites of www.bjppb.gov.cn and Beijing Press and Publication Bureau.

9. For newly opened individual bookstores, how to calculate the budget and arrange the funds reasonably?

Before opening a store, not only should the funds be prepared adequately, but also the sources of funds should be reliable, and there should be no pressure to repay at any time. Only in this way can we ensure the smooth operation in the future.

In terms of fixed investment, there are expenses such as storefront decoration, bookshelf production and business equipment purchase. Experts suggest that the working capital of the first phase of goods distribution should be calculated at about 3,000 yuan per square meter, and sufficient working capital for temporary procurement in the local market should be prepared according to its own situation for the necessary expenses related to opening.

According to the current general situation, the total investment is from 300 yuan to 400 yuan per square meter. If the indoor floor, wall and ceiling of the existing store have been renovated, then this part can save some money. Bookshelf: Generally, it is one per square meter, and the production of fireproof boards or particleboard is about every 320 yuan on average. Costs of in-store equipment such as telephone, fax machine, computer, cash register and calculator.

In addition, the budget for advertising and promotion needs to be arranged separately, including some consumables such as bags, wrapping paper, advertising sheets (DM sheets) and so on.

Of course, the situation is different in different regions. Doing more peer surveys can reduce your mistakes.

10. Besides books, what other business forms can a bookstore involve?

According to the location of the bookstore you choose, the owner can determine his other business forms:

According to the size, location, relevance and operating characteristics of its own stores, the types of business that bookstores want to operate, such as books, periodicals, stationery, gifts, audio and video, are the most common business forms related to bookstores; In addition, software, computer hardware, peripheral consumables, digital products, movie posters and even catering can all be considered in your business scope.

1 1. What is the store rent to ensure that my business has profit space?

Store rental costs vary from place to place, and book retail is a meager profit operation. The rent is not easy to be too high.

Under normal circumstances, the maximum monthly rent of a bookstore per square meter does not exceed 100 yuan, and the risk of operating beyond this standard is very great. It is more appropriate that the owner can still charge the transfer fee if the store lease expires or the rent is withdrawn halfway. If not, it is equivalent to an increase in rent.

12. What should I pay attention to when renting a storefront?

Whether there are legal disputes in the store, who owns the property right of the store, whether it is detained by the bank or court or auctioned by other institutions, etc. To avoid property disputes when renting a house; If someone sublets it to you, you need to find out whether he has signed a contract directly with the property owner, the specific starting time of his lease, the rent and so on; Old storefront, consult whether to tear it down in the future. The hidden building quality problems should be considered in the new storefront, and who is responsible for the problems in the future should be reflected in the storefront rental agreement.

13. how should the pre-planning of bookstore stores be carried out?

After the store determines the varieties it operates, it should divide the area occupied by each variety according to the area of the store and think about the proportion of each book category; After these actions are completed, the shopkeeper will make reasonable arrangements for the positions of various varieties and special categories in the varieties and make written materials. There are several points to pay attention to when planning: generally, when two people pass face to face, the customer passage is not crowded, generally not less than 0.8 meters; In general, for stores below 100 square meters, the cashier's floor space should not exceed 1.5 square meters, which is too wasteful. The height is about 0.75 meters, which is too high to give customers no intimacy; In terms of store supervision, it is best to look at the whole store alone. Therefore, in addition to the location of the cashier, consider this as much as possible, and don't put high bookshelves in a place that blocks the line of sight; The shelf span is about 0.75 meters. If it is too wide, the partition is easily bent by books. The arrangement of the middle bookshelf is arranged according to the trend that the bookshelf can be gradually increased as it goes in, which gives customers an open feeling, good visual effect and can store more books.

New books and bestsellers are the focus of a bookstore to attract customers, and they are usually located at the front of the book area or closest to the door. The design style and height of new bookcases and best-selling bookcases have their own functional requirements.

14. What problems should be paid attention to in the design of commodity shelves?

Shelf design is a science, well designed, which can make full use of space, increase the display volume of goods, and make customers choose comfortably and conveniently, thus making the whole bookstore neat and rich in display and arousing customers' desire to buy. Therefore, the store mainly considers the dimensions, display characteristics, buying habits and even ergonomics of various industries and commodities in the industry to design the style of shelves. In addition, the store should also pay attention to the height of the central cabinet and the wall cabinet. The height of the central cabinet should not block the line of sight, and the height of the wall cabinet should not be too high, causing inconvenience to customers and staff.

The appearance of the bookstore is a very important propaganda to show the style. In this part, besides the signboard being clearly marked, the window display is more attractive to customers, which expresses the latest information of goods and changes the window display with the changes of time, season and various subjective and objective factors. Therefore, in the period of design and decoration, if the store conditions permit, there should be window planning. Security Door Spacing: The newly designed security door spacing is1.8m. Many bookstores use 90cm, which is different. 1.8m is a little expensive, but we should consider leaving enough width for readers to enter the door. If you use security doors, try to use wider spacing and better materials. Don't use anything with heavy wooden structure, the visual effect is very bad.

15. What else should I pay attention to in the decoration details of the bookstore?

Due to the characteristics of the bookstore, the owner should also pay attention to details such as cylinder design, POP post bar design and brightness design.

If there are some pillars in your shop. From the visual point of view, the existence of columns is a visual obstacle, but at the beginning of design, we should pay special attention to the combination of columns and bookshelves. Cylinder is not only simple beautification, but also closely related to performance, otherwise it is the loss of storefront area.

POP Post Bar is designed to standardize the posting of posters in the future. For example, the wall behind the cashier can be used as a post bar, and the posting content is mainly based on the application method of members or other long-term activities. Cylindrical columns can also be designed with posting columns, the contents of which are mainly single items or small book exhibition counters, so it is best to have a small number of display shelves or platforms below.

The brightness of the lights in the store will first affect the customer's willingness to come to the store, and secondly, whether the customer is easy to get tired when choosing goods. So the shopkeeper had better measure the brightness when designing the storefront.

16. How to make a reasonable budget for the first delivery?

For the newly opened bookstore, the first purchase, regardless of the type and quantity of goods are relatively large; However, the purchase time and arrival time are also very tight, so the store should make planned and step-by-step arrangements, so that the procurement and logistics operation can proceed smoothly and avoid the situation of hanging a leak.

According to the plan, the number of shelves required for each kind of goods can be calculated as 1 square meter according to the book budget of 3000 square meters. According to general experience, the purchasing budget of new stores should be conservative. It will be better to make inventory a little tight and replenish it in time, but it is also important to have sufficient inventory during business hours. Make sure that the customer has been to the store once, and then find the reason to visit again next time.

17. What are the channels for purchasing books? Which channels are suitable for me to purchase goods in the early stage?

There are basically three channels to buy books: one is to buy directly from publishers, the other is to buy directly from booksellers, and the third is to buy directly from wholesale markets. As an early small bookstore, buying goods from the wholesale market is the most extensive practice, and cash transactions in the wholesale market can reduce the discount on getting goods. In addition, when many new books were sold in the first round, the publishing society contracted some booksellers and gave them great discounts. If we maintain a good cooperative relationship with the powerful regular booksellers, we can take the lead in this market. What needs special attention is that both publishing houses, booksellers and wholesale markets basically adopt an irreversible book supply model.

18. What should I pay attention to in the variety and purchase price for the first time?

Bookstores should be cautious in distributing goods, with one-time investment, low purchase price and good content. There should be many varieties, but they should be affordable. Don't pursue varieties from the beginning. Varieties are gradually formed according to the actual situation. If the price of good books is low, we should make more progress, be the leader and attract readers.

In the way of purchasing, first purchase the books needed for bookshelf display. Because this purchase is based on the catalogue of the publishing house, there are many kinds, few copies and long processing time after acceptance, it is listed as the first purchase. The second purchase is mainly new books and bestsellers. For the part of new books, publishers or publishers can take the initiative to recommend them, and then deal with them according to the number of copies ordered; At the same time, it can supplement the insufficient part of the first purchase.

19. How to judge the quality of a book? What are the purchasing principles for opening a new store?

To make a preliminary purchase judgment of a book, there are several concerns: whether the publisher of the book is famous, whether the cover is enough to catch people, who is the author, whether it is authoritative and infectious, what is the whole content of the catalogue, what the preface and introduction tell us, what the book cover and coat recommend, and so on. These are the sources of "selling points", and buyers must first have their own "statements" that can impress themselves as readers.

The purchasing principle is: the publishing time of books should give priority to newer products, the popularity of writers or books themselves, the publishing quality of books, the complete variety and the low discount.