This article is not intended to be read by persons under the age of 18. Please read to minor readers for articles on any other type of business - we comply with the laws, primarily the Federal Law of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2010 N 436-ФЗ "On the Protection of Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development." But for novice entrepreneurs who decided to open an adult goods store in their city, you need to familiarize yourself with this law in the first place. And not because it became difficult to open a sex shop because of some new restrictions, but because regulatory acts provide for the restriction of visits to intimate stores by children. Otherwise, no one forbade retail sales of this very specific product. Anyway, bye.
To start the activity, it is necessary to register a business entity in the local tax office. There are no restrictions on the form - you can become an individual entrepreneur and register a legal entity. When determining the code of activity, questions may arise, but the code (OKPD 2) is best suited 47.78 Other retail trade services in specialized stores. However, you may need to specify and (OKPD 2) 47.75 Retail services for cosmetics and personal hygiene products in specialized stores (because similar products will be sold in an intimate store), and (OKPD 2) 47.73 Retail drug trade services in specialized stores (because sex-shop is a trade not only in “toys”, but also in useful medicines to maintain not only sexual, but also general health). It is likely that the easiest way to enter the code is (OKPD 2) 47.7 Retail services of other goods in specialized stores - it includes many groups of goods that will be sold in an adult store.
But a special license for such activities is not needed; some special permissions will not be required. However, it is best to familiarize yourself with local laws that may impose restrictions on the retail sale of intimate goods. For example, it is likely that local law prescribes the impossibility of shopping for adults by people under the age of 21, rather than 18. Or there are some special restrictions on the location or sign. Yes, it is highly discouraged to base near schools and other educational institutions - local authorities may regard this as an attempt to adversely affect the growing youth. The only thing that almost certainly will not be a complaint even with local authorities is the range.
Now you can go to the search for premises. And here, almost the only right decision will be the location in the central areas of the city. Firstly, this is a large cross-country ability, in this type of business it is very important to attract a client with only a sign, and the flow of people should be large. Secondly, to be located in sleeping quarters means to give a person doubts about his anonymity. To understand this, one can imagine a situation where a sex shop is opened near the housing estate and people don’t go there because neighbors and acquaintances in the area where the client lives will begin to condemn him or laugh at him if they see that he comes in there. The city center gives some anonymity - the customer enters the store without a name, who after the purchase will leave for the other end of the city in his apartment.
Unfortunately, Russian society is not spared from remnants of tradition and unnecessary morality; the majority of the population perceives the freedom of their sexuality as debauchery and sodomy. At the same time, if you recall the psychologist Maslow, then according to his pyramid, physical needs for a person are of paramount importance, and sex is such a need. Based on this, we can say that the demand for products of intimate stores will always be, and the only restriction for increasing demand is stiffness caused by public censure. This must be taken into account when working with a client who has decided to purchase.
As for the size of the future store, for rent it is better to look for a room of 20 m2, but in view of the increased level of competition in recent years, such areas will not provide the consumer with the whole list of goods that he can buy in another such store. Therefore, you need to consider premises with an area of 50 m2 or more, this will allow you to make several departments at the outlet and provide it with locker rooms. The cost of rent - from 60 thousand rubles in large settlements, in cities of federal significance will be significantly higher - the city center after all. The room will probably have to be equipped, because it is unlikely that it will be possible to rent a former sex shop, so you need to have at least 150 thousand in stock to make the necessary repairs and purchase commercial equipment - furniture, cash registers, computers, shelving and display cases, as well as equipping partitions between branches and make a fitting room.
As practice shows, visitors don’t like imitators of human genitals hanging on the walls, frivolous pictures are also unlikely to appeal to them, and soundtrack in the form of languid moans will scare away the last customers and make the stay in the store unbearable (although some people dream of such an atmosphere) . All this, of course, creates the appropriate surroundings, but it is better to limit yourself to mannequins in erotic lingerie and a demonstration of packaged products in display cases. The client should not receive information about the product not by openly demonstrating it, but in consultation with the seller - this is a sensitive issue nevertheless.
A neutral section should be located at the entrance - the trading area with medicines, dietary supplements, lubricants and contraceptives is best suited for this. That is, for the first time a buyer who has come in should be in a pharmacy, albeit of an intimate orientation; this will give him time to get used to the room itself, to get accustomed and after that to head deeper into the store for goods of a slightly different specificity. The location of drugs at the very beginning of the outlet will give the realization that sexual health, its treatment and prevention are an integral part of a normal life, while the client will not be confused by more “vulgar” products.
An important part of the business is the staff. Optimally, if the entrepreneur himself goes to the counter, while working with suppliers, he will receive the necessary information about each position and will be able to properly advise the client. But the peculiarity of an adult store is the need for two sellers to work. Of different gender. Due to many factors, the client may be shy about representatives of his or her opposite sex. At the same time, you cannot hire former grocery store employees, a sales assistant should be considerate, accurate and be able to communicate with any visitor. Here, an individual approach to the client is important like nowhere else. The employee is simply obliged to understand all the subtleties and features of the product (no matter how ambiguous this sounds), be able to prompt and even use his polite treatment to remove the shyness or embarrassment of the client. Of course, not all visitors will blush at the entrance to the store, a certain contingent will go to the outlet as a home appliance store. But to be able to work with a person who is about to run away, one must be able to, and brawlers or amateurs to laugh as employees are not needed here.
We must not forget that the employee himself must not know what embarrassment is, while being tolerant of people of different sexual orientations. Funny statistics say that a certain percentage of visitors are actively asking for advice and asking for advice while trying on erotic clothing or underwear. Sometimes without even closing the curtain.
Not yet in such distant days, a lot of people came into the sex shop to just laugh or gawk, today the percentage of such people has decreased significantly, people are gradually accustomed to such specific shops. But at the same time, someone will have to almost force someone out of the outlet. You can talk for a long time about morality, the decline of morals and other philosophical considerations, but minors cannot be in an adult store by force of law. This is similar to the sale of tobacco or alcohol products, only for intimate goods to those who are not 18 years old, you can’t even look. It is quite normal if employees ask at the visitor's entrance to show a passport if they doubt his age. It will be worse for the entrepreneur, who may be fined or even banned from his activities in the event of the discovery of the fact that minors have visited an intimate store (not to mention the purchase of goods by them). And, again, it is necessary to discard young inquisitors tactfully and accurately, without shouting and rudeness. In general, you can even seriously think about hiring a security guard.
The protection of children from information extends to advertising of intimate products or intimate stores. Anyone could notice that it is nowhere other than the Internet - but you can find a lot of prohibited content on the World Wide Web. Therefore, to advertise your store will not work, and this gives an advantage to competitors who already have their own clientele. It is necessary to win part of the market only thanks to a good location and the corresponding sign. At the same time, the sign should not be too frivolous; it is generally not recommended to use the word “sex” in the exterior of the building. It is better to limit ourselves to the words "intimacy" or something hinting, but not speaking directly. Many adult shops make up the entire facade of the building - this attracts the consumer, and allows him to remember the location of the store for the future. An important detail is the large 18+ pointer.
But if you think about the Internet, you can create your own website, which will present a full range of products and prices. Your Internet portal will be a good information and advertising place that will be visited by the target audience (and, in addition, journalists who write about intimate stores, but this is true, by the way). On the site, the list of products may be larger than in the store itself, and then people can order goods for personal delivery. Typically, customers are willing to wait a few days before the goods arrive, for them the main thing is anonymity. Supporting your own site will significantly increase sales and win the appreciation of consumers. Moreover, the client rarely moves from one seller to another, and this is especially true for shy people.
The biggest expenses are associated with the purchase of goods. This is not to say that the warehouse must be clogged with goods, the point is the relatively high cost of production. The vast majority of products are purchased in China - this country, despite the political ideology, is the undisputed leader in the production of intimate products. At the same time, it is best to go to a direct producer who can offer the goods at a low price, while for Russian dealers, the markup can amount to more than one hundred percent. Stores themselves install it depending on the situation on the market, and there are times when the final consumer purchases a product several times more expensive than its cost. But the sex shop has a large list of diverse products, and the margin for different products can vary greatly.
In general, there are three categories of goods - clothing, toys and drugs. Often also in intimate stores they sell appropriate souvenirs, and in some they even sell erotic literature or films. To trade in medicines, you will need an appropriate license, but oils, lubricants, pheromones, dietary supplements, aphrodisiacs, and other similar products are not needed. It is in these three categories that the division of the premises into departments takes place. Goods are purchased for the amount depending on the size of the room, and for 50 m2 you will have to allocate about 300 thousand rubles for the purchase. Thus, the amount of starting capital will be:
Registration - 20 thousand rubles.
Rental of premises - 60 thousand rubles.
Equipment, external and internal repair, signboard - up to 200 thousand rubles (it can be much lower depending on what kind of room you managed to find).
Salary - an average of 40 thousand rubles for both employees.
Registration and website creation - from 20 thousand rubles.
Purchase of goods - 300 thousand rubles.
Outsourcing, security and utility bills - 10 thousand rubles.
Total: 650 thousand rubles, monthly expenses - 110 thousand rubles. Outsourcing includes bookkeeping, because hiring a specialist for reporting is very unprofitable, cleaning the premises and, possibly, the content of the site. The main clients will be people aged 25 to 50 years old, while you do not need to think that only perverts or losers visit the sex shop; on the contrary, the main income comes from well-established and well-educated people and couples - these are the categories that prefer to make a difference in your sex life. Moreover, only souvenirs of an erotic theme are relatively rarely bought.
Most often they come for erotic clothes and lingerie, it accounts for almost a third of all purchases. Then come all kinds of toys, moreover, “women-oriented” are bought much more often than “men-oriented”. They are less likely to seek drugs, and the most sought-after products are aphrodisiacs, and they are more often turned to pharmacies for direct treatment and contraceptives.
It should be noted that most of the customers who visited the store for the first time come back again and become regular customers. The main thing for the consumer is to finally make the first purchase, in the future he becomes more decisive and does not hesitate to visit the adult store. What else needs to be noted is a certain seasonality of sales, their number is much higher in the winter and cold season (I think there’s no need to explain what this is connected with), it falls sharply during the first warmings and keeps relatively stable in the summer. If you evaluate the general situation in the market, then it is far from saturated despite a fairly large number of players. At the same time, they do not always organize the service properly and have an unoptimized procurement plan, so competent business management can quickly gain popularity among the population.
The famous and relatively long-running sex shop is visited by up to 10 people a day. Attendance increases in the evening and on weekends, so it makes sense to think about the late start of the working day (no one goes to the adult store on the way to work) and the corresponding late end - for example, from 11:00 to 20:00. Work on the weekend is also desirable, and it is quite possible to make some weekdays non-working for the sake of work on Saturday and Sunday.
The average bill is about one and a half thousand rubles, provided that half of them goes to the cost of the goods, a monthly income of 165 thousand rubles is obtained. Operating profit in this case will be 55 thousand rubles, that is, profitability has an indicator of about 30%. The payback period of such an initiative is from one and a half to two years with the condition that in the first months there will be not a very high level of sales, and it will take time to attract customers.
Matthias Laudanum
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08/18/2019