Wedding Shop
I have two reasons personally for covering this subject now. I read and contribute to several business forums, and have agreed to cover this specifically for someone who would like to start this business but more topically for me; I will get married on the 23rd Feb so it is very much on my mind.
More rationally however, it doesn't seem to matter how much press there is about the divorce rate, how many celebrity couples break up etc. People keep getting married, around the world we all believe in the dream of one man and one woman growing old together and supporting each other through sickness health, richer, poorer and so on.
This is a retail business, as opposed to wedding planning which is a service. Primarily you will need to find appropriate stock and then distribute it to your customers. Will you provide a full range of Wedding dresses and accessories, or will you specialise in a particular line? Items that you might carry apart from dresses include tiaras, jewellery, underwear, veils, garter belts, shoes; I could keep going.
If you are not clued up on this then you can make your own list, visit some wedding shops in your own town, or ideally go to a few wedding shows. Most large cities will hold them at least once a year.
Having established what you would like to sell then you can think about distribution.
The obvious choice is to open a shop, however it is possible to set up in other
manners, or to use alternative distribution channels alongside the shop. Possibilities
include: -
EBay
Website
Catalogue
Direct Response
Trade shows and Conventions
Shop
I remember very clearly from a few years ago, a jilted groom who sold his ex fiancee's wedding dress on EBay. This guy got massive press coverage not just because of what he was selling, but because he wore the dress in the picture and wrote about what had happened to him in the description. It was brilliant marketing and he made a big profit but more importantly it shows that even in a crowded market it is possible to differentiate what you are selling on EBay. Remember to brand everything and link back to your own website.
There is huge competition for wedding related merchandise on the internet. Similarly to our guy with the dress you need to find a way to stand out. Google has 46 million hits for the words wedding shop, even keying in <wedding shop Knoxville> will get you 400,000 hits. You will need to optimise on the right keywords with the search engines, and find other ways to promote your site if you are going to get much traffic. Focus on getting links from wedding related sites and blogs, and on offline marketing.
Printing a catalogue may be a good way forward here. My intended has a British Home Stores catalogue with her. We are in America and live in Taiwan, neither of which has a British Home Stores presence. I believe the catalogue came with a wedding magazine and has obviously exceeded BHS's intended circulation. You can replicate this by handing out your own brochure to friends and colleagues, by offering it free from your website, and by asking local shops, bars, restaurants etc if they would carry some for you for a limited time period. Of course if you have sufficient money you could try persuading a wedding magazine to bundle your catalogue like BHS did!
Direct response might be a good tie in with a catalogue. Advertising a free catalogue may get a different response to advertising a single item, or even a couple of items. You can use the usual advertising media, such as local newspapers, and Yellow Pages but you could also put flyers on car windscreens in tactical locations such as outside Churches, Jewellery shops, courthouses etc. Include website, shop address, phone number in short make it easy for customers to contact you and ask for their free catalogue.
Large Bridal Trade shows and conventions tend to be very high profile and therefore very expensive, but more local ones are cheaper and if you are prepared to travel to neighbouring towns maybe more frequent. If you live in a small community you may even consider holding your own in the town hall or community centre once a year. Invite several shops or suppliers to participate and provide some refreshments. You are bound to get some enquiries and everyone can have a fun day out. Even if you can't afford a stand at a large show do not despair though, there are plenty of Guerrilla style tactics that may get you noticed. Make yourself a costume, or sandwich board that you can put on once you are inside the venue, it will help to get people to talk to you. Carry some catalogues and business cards in a bag ready to hand out, and of course keep your eye out for suppliers who may help you improve your stock, or service.
Given that you will need to carry specific stock this is a relatively expensive business to start in, and a shop probably makes the most sense. Don't ignore the other channels once you have your shop up and running though. You can read about setting up a shop in our finding customers section using the link to the left of this page. I would think about location and try to get close to a wedding venue or other related shops. Being in the centre of town is great for browsers but for real brides you want to make their lives easier and be close to the chapel, courthouse, florist, or reception so that they can stop by your shop whilst organising other aspects of their special day. These locations may also be B or C locations in many cases which mean that you will pay a lot less rent than a town centre spot.
Think about the comfort of your customers they will often be harried, stressed and maybe even distressed. At a minimum keep Tea and Coffee making facilities and a comfortable chair onsite.
If you plan to sell dresses as opposed to just favours then you will need to think about tailoring. Carrying standard sizes is fine but you may want to partner with a local dressmaker to ensure that the dress really fits perfectly on the day. You can have your dresses manufactured overseas in a similar way to when we discusses Tailoring in idea #016 (check the archive) but mainly due to time constraints you will want any alterations made locally.
www.alibaba.com has 2400 suppliers of items under the general heading of Wedding and you will find more if you search in Google either under a specific country such as India or Philippines, or using words such as Wholesaler or Supplier.
Your customers are likely to be emotional at some point in the buying process, you must be sympathetic.
You can differentiate, maybe by becoming "Bigger Brides", or how about "Gay Brides" if your country or state allows gay marriage?
This is a great business with high profit margins, but because of the stress that your clients are under it will involve a fair few headaches.