Open Clearance Store

Due to anti-wasting laws and changes in domestic consumption, clearance stores are on the rise. Does this particularly profitable field interest you? Find out all the useful information for opening a destocking store in this guide.

Why Open a Clearance Store?

Clearance stores are becoming increasingly popular among consumers. Customers, often with limited purchasing power, can access new products, usually branded products, at lower prices. Fashion, home, hi-tech, sports equipment, DIY,… all sectors benefit from this.

Major brands and commercial brands are also interested in this. Since the Anti-Waste and Circular Economy Law of February 2020, it is now forbidden to destroy non-food unsold items with effect from January 1, 2022. Therefore companies have to find other solutions to dispose of their unsold stock. But food companies are equally concerned and often try to resell their stock at bargain prices rather than lose it.

As the manager of a clothing or food clearance store, you buy products in large quantities, often by lots or kilos, at cheap prices. To attract customers, product lines must be varied and frequently renewed and resold at attractive prices. It is therefore a thriving market, although it is undervalued, and one that is not prone to crisis.

No training is required to open a clearance store. Of course, consideration or experience in business management and commerce would be a plus.

What is the legal status of opening a clearance store?

The legal form most appropriate for your destocking store is based on several criteria: initial investment, number of partners, number of employees, taxation, project development, and more. Some start out as auto-entrepreneurs or individual entrepreneurs, with limitations involved, while others opt for societies.

It is also possible to open a destocking store as an independent or as a franchise.

Choosing a legal form is an important decision that has many consequences for you and your business. It is therefore recommended that you stick with when selecting a position by calling a legal professional on legal technology for example.

What are the rules for opening a destocking store?

So how do you open a clearance store? The rules for opening a food or clothing clearance store are the same as for most other businesses. To create your destocking store, you must first complete the administrative procedures. It is a question of registering your company, declaring your activity and subscribing to compulsory professional insurance.

Then, when opening your business, you need to make sure:

• Obtain a commercial operating license if your premises are larger than 1,000 m2;
• to comply with your premises’ accessibility and security standards;
• to comply with health standards;
• clearly and clearly display the prices of goods;
• Contribute to SACEM if you play music in your store.

4 Tips for Opening a Clearance Store

Study the market and create a business plan

The first step is to study the market according to the location where you want to establish. What shops exist, both classic and destocking? What are the types of customers? Realizing a business plan allows you to first know, understand and define the needs of the market in order to propose an offer in adequacy.

But the business plan proceeds by doing a financial analysis of the project. Your project should be viable and sustainable. Studying the financial requirements and income required will assure you if you apply for professional loans and are required by the banks.

choose a concept

Clearance stores are plentiful. Soldier, Bazaar, Disstock, Discount,… All these names ultimately hide a similar activity. But concepts differ between stores.

There are a few major destocking brands, but there are also independent shops. The products sold can be general or specific, for example in food or clothing. To be successful, you need to define the concept of your clearance store. This will of course depend on whether you are just starting out alone or whether you choose to franchise with the backing of a major brand. The first option gives you more freedom, the second the notoriety of the name.

Find the right suppliers

The key to the success of your activity is to find suppliers and also to have sufficient stocks of products that you can easily resell.

Suppliers of major luxury brands are sometimes reluctant to sell their unsold stock to disstockers for fear of tarnishing their brand image. You will need to use persuasion and strong bargaining power to buy goods in adequate, attractive and low-priced quantities.

develop a communication strategy

Like any business, you need to promote yourself to attract customers to your store. Your communication strategy begins before your store opens. Word of mouth, social networks, flyers and posters, … are all good means to communicate the opening of your destocking store.

Your communication should also be based on the concept of your shop. The idea of ​​a destocking store is also to offer short-term stock, new products, limited quantities, renewal of product categories, etc. And of course to communicate about these events. The goal is to bring back consumers who don’t want to miss out on a bargain and encourage impulsive buying.

What are the other obligations for opening a destocking store?

You need to have a business bank account to run a food clearance store. It is up to you to choose an online bank or a traditional bank, based on our comparison of banks for professionals.

You can also use accounting software to help you meet your business accounting obligations. And if you’re not comfortable with accounting why not hire an online accountant to meet important deadlines!

Collection of customers is ideally done using a payment terminal connected to the cash register software. A stock management tool is also useful for optimizing your business.

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