How SOPs for Retail Business are helping Expand Retail chain Stores

The credit for growth and expansion in business is often attributed to marketing strategies. Being in the field of retail consulting, we always maintain that operational planning also plays a significant role here. If the existing state of operations is weak, it restricts businesses in many ways from reaching their full potential. But when a business is operated via well-planned processes, it strengthens the execution abilities of an enterprise empowering them with the confidence to scale operations. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have proven to be one of the best tools to define business processes and operations. As retail consultants, we often stress that the merits of SOPs also touch on helping retail businesses in their growth and expansion.

Proof of Operational Precision to Attract Funding

For many retailers, a big hurdle in business expansion is securing investments.? Even if the funding sources are available, it is difficult to win the confidence of investors. They see hundreds of business ideas every month. But ideas alone are not sufficient. People need to see proof of performance on the field. This is where robust operations management proves to be helpful. Investors need not see the strategic operational details or the SOPs. But it is good to showcase to them the strength of the existing state of operations. When SOPs are in place, the chances of any intricate operational question going unaddressed are slim to none.

Replicable Operational Planning

You can replicate something with surety only if you know that it always worked for you and the required background circumstances are present. Retail businesses which know that their operational planning is sound and extremely unlikely to fail in a similar business environment are more confident about replicating them elsewhere. For instance, a retail electrical appliances store that has a planned and proven process for the home delivery of refrigerators, the store will be more confident about replicating the same process in another market region. Minor improvisations may be called for, but it is the soundness of the process that steals the show here.

Facilitates franchise Expansion

In many forms of franchising, the franchisees are required to maintain the operational standards set by their franchisors. But franchisees need not necessarily be adept with the operation style of the franchisors. In such a situation, providing franchisees with operational guidance becomes a necessity. The solution for this is franchise manuals. But before that, the franchisors must also follow SOP manuals for their operations. If franchisors themselves are uncertain of their operations, how will they prescribe the same to their franchisees? The SOP-defined operational planning followed by a franchisor becomes the foundation of developing the operational manuals for its franchisees.

Adjust Operations more Easily

Although having a planned and proven set of operations provides certainty, such planning is never final and forever. From time to time and place to place, the operational roadmaps may have to be changed. Say the introduction of a new statutory requirement may require retailers to alter certain areas of their operations. As retail and eCommerce consultants, we have witnessed it so many times that making such changes is much easier when an operational roadmap already exists. With SOPs, it becomes easier to identify the operational aspects that will be affected due to the proposed changes. If there is no SOP-based operational planning in place, even a small change will have unidentifiable and unpredictable consequences.

About YRC

Your Retail Coach (YRC) is a decade-old retail and eCommerce consulting enterprise with a growing international presence. We have delivered business solutions to 500+ clients in 25+ verticals.

SOP development for retail and eCommerce businesses is one of our core areas of expertise. For service design and delivery, we deploy a team of experienced retail SOP consultants.

For any service-related queries or to have a quick dialogue with one of our SOP experts for retail and eCommerce, please drop us a message.

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