Provision Stores

Posted by Felix Okoli on Thursday October 4, 2012 at 6:58:50:

Although there is a growing number of large shopping malls opening up in big cities like Lagos, Enugu and Abuja, there still remain unique opportunities for retail provision stores to make a good profit from engaging in business.

Provisions are those things that households need on a daily basis. They are necessary stuff that people frequently buy most of the time. Things like sugar, coffee, bread, toothpaste, soap, packaged food, body cream,

If you run a provision store or want to invest in that sort of business, then you should know that it is a profitable one as you just need to know how to break even, how to source for supplies, set prices and sell your items.

Small provision stores as opposed to large shopping malls have their marketing advantages such as being able to be more closely located to residential homes, better customer service and cheaper running costs.

People who engage in provision business can grow their capital over a short period of time if sales are high. Their focus really is in getting goods from wholesalers and then reselling to end users for a profit. You would need to know how to source for your good from local Nigerian producers as well as imports and then setting your selling price. The more turnover you make, the more your capital grows.

One thing about running a provision store is that it comprises of a lot of goods and so knowing the price of every item can be a burden so it's best to price tag your goods and then use price tag readers and a computer based system for billing customers during their checkout.

Emerging provision stores in Nigeria now make use of such computer based system and even POS machines for accepting payments from customers in addition to accepting cash too.

Banking your daily cash is also important for security reasons. You should decide on the daily cash limit that ought to be banked rather than leaving them in your store which may not really be safe. So you can set a limit of say N50,000 to N100,000 depending on how much capital is involved in your business.

How about having employees? You can employ one or two staff depending on the size of your provision store and business. A small store can easily be run by 2 people and if larger, you may need more. You can also install security cameras or CCTV for larger stores to to protect your business from shoplifters.

Stocktaking and accounting for sales should be done on a periodic basis such as monthly or quarterly or as you please. This is to ensure that your stock pr provisions which have been depleted have actually been from sales alone and not misplaced or stolen. You should also compare your sales and purchases to know how much profit you've been making over that period of time and know whether to change prices or focus more on more profitable stocks.

What you need for a Provision store business
- A store
- Staff
- Accounting system
- Contact of Suppliers
- Stock
- Capital

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Re: Provision Stores Reply by Kerry on Wednesday October 17, 2012 at 1:1:44:

Thank you for making your ideas available to us freely. You are indeed a blessing to most of us here. We run a small provision shop, a mini mart if u like, its situated in a neighbourhood near a general market. The shop started running since Dec 1st 2011. The Patronage is not as expected though our personal contacts, friends and families are our regular customers. I wish to take the business to the next level as it completes a year in that neighbourhood. Though our prices are not significantly different from what is obtainable in the market,people around us patronize us minimally and Sales are relatively poor. We wish to know what best to do to drag customers to our shop with a view to increase in Sales. We also wish to know the requirement in becoming major distributor to companies like indomie,viju, Lacasera, and range of Nestle Milo products. Waiting to get a reply from you soon. Thank You.




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Re: Provision Stores Reply by Felix Okoli on Wednesday October 17, 2012 at 1:1:44:

Nice to know you already have an established retail store. You can try mobile and web marketing to increase sales especially if you sell specific products all the time


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