Establishing your first store takes a ton of work, a vision, and courage. However, its success is nothing compared to what’s ahead as you scale and grow your retail footprint. A professional retail build can be of immense value during this journey.

Congratulations! Your retail business is a success, and you’re now ready to open your next store. Expanding to a second or third store is, of course, a very different thing to do than your original startup. If you go with the do-it-yourself approach, you won’t be able to have all hands on deck this time, because chances are your small team is already busy running your existing store. As for yourself, you can’t really bring your best to every aspect of your business if you’re spread too thin. The expertise of a professional retail build team is essential to fuel your retail growth.

This calls for a bigger team – experienced people who have your back.

The good news is that you can fully realize your vision, with all its character and expertly polished design, by having the right team on your side for developing a retail space.

Let’s be honest, construction management sucks

Retail construction is a labyrinth of regulations and rules and myriad other project management matters. And having worked with thousands of retails one thing is clear, the very best retailers do not make very good construction managers.  And that’s fair, because our retail construction managers would make terrible entrepreneurs. So there’s no doubt that your retail store design plans and timeline are safer with help from experts.

Professionals come equipped with both the full scope of your project-specific information and the broad retail building industry knowledge needed to achieve the top-quality retail construction outcome you need. 

When it comes to the construction phase of the build, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Commercial construction is a process inherently fraught with inconsistencies. Every site has its unique layout and characteristics, such as uneven floors, misshapen walls, leaks, electrical issues, code violations, and so on.

2. There are virtually endless possibilities for emergent issues involving environmental circumstances, safety factors, or co-tenant, and neighbourhood difficulties.

3.  To most efficiently manage today’s retail building processes requires updated approaches to coordinating contractors and other activities, collaboration between parties, reporting, communications, tracking, and all project management elements.

4.  Reportedly, as high as 90% of construction projects encounter complications with landlords, sometimes ending up in negotiations and/or legal settlements. Agreements are needed on all fine points of logistics planning, schedules, scope, etc..

5.  There’s a lot at stake. Delays due to inefficiencies can cause missed dates for the grand opening, serious revenue losses, capital waste, reduced morale, loan defaults, etc..

Design-building successful retail stores

Having built thousands of retail environments for hundreds of North America’s largest and smallest brands, at CBSF we know what it takes to grow a retail business from their first location to their second, or from their third to their twentieth, or even from their 100th to their 1000th.

Frankly, a professional retail build team like ours enables you to step around the common issues that most retail business owners face.  You’ll receive a thoroughly detailed plan and view of precisely what you’ll have when your project is complete. So, with a team like ours, you know that your new retail store design and build-out will be exactly what you envision. 

A professional retail build team will:

·      Perform the most reliable estimates of material and labor costs.

·      Provide the most accurate timeline projections.

·     Provide real-time project oversight and guidance for stakeholders.

·      Collaborate with you on design, planning, engineering, and construction, to achieve solutions faster and move forward more efficiently.

These efficiencies mean than your build-out is maximizing your ROI while reducing stress and risks. Meanwhile, you and your retail operations team can stay focused on maximizing your customer service and sales at your existing store location.

What’s it Like Having Your Own Professional Retail Build Team?

Of course, professional solutions mean an additional upfront investment. However, having the right project team more than pays for itself. For one thing, around 30% of a typical construction project budget is wasted by not controlling material waste, mistakes, oversights, or delays. By simply doing some tasks more efficiently, you can save a lot of money. Working with your own CBSF retail store design and construction team means that things will go more smoothly and costs will be better controlled.

Advanced methods of visualization and presentation of your design enable you to identify and resolve design concerns, minimizing the risk of costly reworks due to misinterpretations, errors in construction documents, or other causes. This gives you much stronger control over your project timeline and the overall end result.

Developing a new retail store is an exciting way to grow your business, but managing the project is a big undertaking for a busy business owner. Your project management team handles:

Design	Inspections	Structural and other issues
Planning	Installations	Debris Disposal
Engineering	Licensing	Compensating for Surprise Landlord Issues
Construction	Permits safety requirements	Deliveries
Project staffing	Timeline management	Construction insurance
Suppliers	Communications	Change requirements
Subcontractors	Traffic and Parking	Validations
Manufacturers	Construction supervision	Issues in adjacent spaces, external operations
Budgeting and budget management	Utilities compatibility and modifications	Many other details
Funding Allocation	Contingencies

So with the right team, you can simply gather ideas and needs and then, bring your concepts to our team here at CBSF. Your project team will help you develop additional more creative ideas, and when you’re ready, we can manage the planning and construction processes for you, to ensure that your vision is fully realized.

Our approach to custom retail store design will enhance the customer experience as your business grows.  It showcases what makes both your brand and the communities where your stores operate special.

Really, let’s just come out and say it, Canada’s Best Store Fixtures is your team.

We know what retail businesses need in order to grow by expanding to one new location. Contact CBSF at (800) 535-2279 to discuss your vision for your next location.