Specialty Store Expansion
The Situation
A unique specialty store focused first on providing an authentic experience and serving as a community gathering place was looking to grow through value-added products and services that augment their niche.
One of the primary challenges was that while the store had been around for a century, the owner was relatively new to the retail market. In addition, he was seeking to enhance the brand by creating an educational non-profit but was unaware of the complexities of non-profit and for-profit organizations being run by the same entity.
Your research provided valuable insights into some of our expansion opportunities.
Our Unique Approach
When your main product surrounds the customer experience, Access/Information understands that it becomes the focal point of all strategic decisions. To assist in developing a strategy to sell more merchandise, we provided the owner with best practices and case studies involving specialty retail stores that concentrating on merchandise, the customer experience, and technology efficiencies. This not only assisted in developing a plan of action, but improved the owner’s knowledge of the industry.
When for-profit entities create a non-profit organization, challenges and conflicts of interest can arise. It is important that companies are fully compliant with current regulations, as well as develop innovative models to balance the risk of the mission with that of a for-profit model. We were able to identify information about the complexities of a non-profit/for-profit hybrid model and deliver documented strategies for success, including case studies of similar organizations.