Hardware stores are a sub-sector of the trillion-dollar construction industry. However, despite being a sub-sector, hardware stores earn one of the highest revenues in the industry. It’s been reported that the sub-sector has grown into a 30 billion dollar market with huge room to grow. However, not many entrepreneurs grow to be successful businesses in this market. But with enough research and determination, you can start a good hardware store that has a lot of potentials to grow in the future. Here are some trends that make some hardware stores successful.
Choosing Your Target Audience
Before starting a hardware store, you’ll have to think about your target audience. For example, do you want to be a hardware store that primarily sells construction equipment to contractors? Or do you want to be an all-around hardware store that sells to dads and the common folk alike?
Finding the right target audience for your store is already one way you can reach success early on. Thankfully the realm of hardware isn’t too strict or too niche only to choose one target audience. Some hardware stores are even adapting to sell tech and home appliances to appeal to modern consumers. This can also be an attractive choice for you, considering that millennials have a spending power of over one trillion dollars. Be creative in choosing your target audience and do your research beforehand.
Invest in Cost-effective Marketing and Branding
Eventually, you’ll find that marketing will play a big role in your business growth. Many big hardware companies have a huge emphasis on marketing and branding, and you should too. It’s how you can dominate your side of your market and own a piece of the trillion-dollar pie. But what are some cost-effective marketing strategies in the industry?
One good cost-efficient marketing strategy is digital marketing. There are many ways you can digitally market your brand. If you want a cheap way to do it, concentrate on social media and blogs. If you have some money to spend, go for online content marketing and give your brand to marketers who know what they are doing. Many big companies are utilizing the digital world to drive sales and market themselves to consumers. If you want to succeed, you should give it a try.
Expansion and Co-op Franchising
One key strategy in the realm of hardware is to keep expanding. There are many ways you can expand as a business. For example, if you want to expand aggressively, you can do co-op franchising. It’s a franchising model that requires people to buy company shares before they can apply for one. This kind of franchising means that even if a franchise owner fails to gain any profit in the company’s physical store, it can still gain it from its stocks. This makes your franchise attractive in the eyes of many new entrepreneurs.
If you want to control the quality of your franchise, you can always go for a conversion franchise. Conversion franchising is a kind of franchising in where you buy other small businesses to join your own. This is a more conservative way to expand, as you look for a business that needs help growing and you give them that opportunity by joining you. These businesses you purchase adapt your brand, the way you work, and the products you sell. Since converting a business is much easier because these businesses already have some experience in hardware, you can concentrate on quality instead of quantity.
There are many other ways you can expand your business through franchising. It’s up to you to choose which kind of franchise opportunity fits your business.
Variety of Products
Generally, it’s good to have a variety of products in your retail store, and it’s good to expand to other categories if you can afford it. One of the categories you should concentrate on is technology. Many retailers are selling technological equipment in their stores, even if it’s not their niche. Why is that? Tech is a multi-billion dollar industry, and they want to get a piece of that ever-growing pie.
But you might think that tech equipment is not expensive if you apply for a multi-unit tech franchise model. This particular franchise model is effective and efficient for those who want to own multiple retail tech stores at once. This widely diversifies your business portfolio and grows your inventory to include technological goods as well.
The Bottom Line
Hardware stores are growing despite the pandemic, and it’s certainly good to know that. However, the growth of the industry shouldn’t be the only reason why you should join it. You should be determined and bet on your company if you want it to grow. Do your research, choose an appropriate target audience, invest in your brand, expand both your stores and products, and by the end of five years, you have nothing to fear. So start your hardware store with these ideas in mind, and become successful tomorrow.