Watch trade is a business that you need to start planning for decades. Trading Swiss watches will not bring quick money. In Primorye, for example, the watch business began to develop only two years ago, but today the market is already oversaturated with shops.
Today, the pace of sales of Swiss watches in Russia is stunning the whole world. In 2000 alone, according to official Swatch Group data (it unites 14 well-known watch companies), the sale of watches in Russia reached 4.2 billion Swiss marks. At the same time, Russia jumped from the last to the 16th place in the sale of watches in the world. Analysts at Swatch Group promise Russia soon a solid place in the top ten major consumers of Swiss watches ...
The Moscow distributor of the Swiss corporation Swatch Group is Mercury, all stores work with it. The exception is Geneva, whose partner is Eurotime SA. Typically, the distributor sets a price for each watch model, and stores do not have the right to reduce it. The price in Russia is set the same for all cities (price fluctuations can be about 500 rubles, but for watches costing 1.5-2 thousand dollars this is insignificant). Watchmakers are very tough on the issue of price. Competitors, in turn, at the slightest attempt to dump will tell where they should be. So, the right to lose distribution is not difficult.
Still, in different countries, watches of the same brand can be sold at different prices, depending on the tax system of the country and the policy of the watch company. The higher taxes, the more expensive the watch. For example, in Japan they will have the highest price, and in the UAE, on the contrary, the lowest. In the era of unorganized trade, watches came to our country from the UAE precisely for this reason. At the moment, stores independently order watches from manufacturers or buy from Moscow distributors.
Updating the assortment, namely the appearance of watch novelties is one of the main problems of the watch business in the regions. An exhibition is annually held in the city of Basel (Switzerland), which sets the trends in watch fashion. Distributors from around the world gather there. Based on the results of this exhibition, a decision is made on the serial production of a particular model. Moreover, in the first place, watches are manufactured for the main importing countries (Russia is not included in their list yet). In Russia, new items, as a rule, arrive by the fall.
How much money is needed to set up a watch store? Only a collection of watches for sale will cost you $ 100, 000. The remaining costs depend on many factors and therefore everyone has different.
- Premises (own or leased);
- Repairs;
- Advertising;
Equipment.
The distributor will strongly recommend you what equipment to buy, but it is cheaper to order it according to your own designs. Furnishing a trading floor will cost from $ 20 to $ 50 thousand. Only coordination of equipment can take 6 months. Store owners in the regions are likely to have to purchase equipment outside of them.
You cannot open a store until it is verified by a distributor or watch company. The latter look: at the area where the store is located, at the building - a modern building or old architecture, especially carefully at the interior, every detail is important. Without all this, the store will not receive authorization and will not be able to trade watches of these brands.
Basic requirements for opening a Swiss watch store:
location in the city center;
lack of nearby competitor stores with a similar assortment; original or company-style equipment;
preliminary staff training;
Authorization of the store by the distributor or manufacturers.
Most of the customers of watch boutiques are foreign and Russian tourists, many of whom are politicians and businessmen. The client of such a store is a person who can spend up to 100, 000 rubles on the purchase of watches. Now many people realize that a watch is a good gift, an offering. With the help of watches, you can beautifully thank for the service and thereby promote your interests in power. Cool watches are said to cost as much as their lucky owner earns in a month ...
Based on materials from an article by Alexander Petrov for the Business site of Primorye Competitor. ru
* The article is more than 8 years old. May contain outdated data