From "Clicks to Bricks":Your Store Opening Playbook

Avoid costly mistakes, speed up your launch, and scale smarter. Follow our step-by-step guide to opening and optimizing stores—or get expert support along the way.

Our side-by-side guides are designed to help you understand who should be doing what and when. While this certainly isn't the only way to roll out stores, it's a tried and tested framework that will set you on the right path.
Book 1:1 Support

Strategy &
Finance

A strong retail foundation starts here. Learn the key financial principles that drive successful store openings— from budgeting and forecasting to understanding profitability. Master these essentials to make data-driven decisions as you scale from clicks to bricks.

Project finance helps you assess store investments, forecast costs, and manage risk. Master these principles to ensure each location is a smart, scalable investment.

Retail finance has its own rules— from lease accounting to store unit economics. Learn the key differences that impact profitability and long-term success.

Financial modeling turns strategy into numbers. Build store P&Ls and pro formas to forecast revenue, control costs, and ensure profitability before you open.

Small financial missteps can have big consequences. Understand the true cost of mistakes in store planning and how to avoid them.

Set up financial systems built for retail. Ensure your chart of accounts, reporting, and controls are ready to support store operations.

Every store carries risk. Define your risk tolerance, assess potential downsides, and plan for worst-case scenarios before committing.

Accurate sales forecasting is key to store success. Learn how to predict revenue, plan inventory, and set realistic growth targets.

Lease accounting impacts your bottom line. Understand key rules to properly account for rent, liabilities, and financial reporting.

Capitalizing spend will preserve your EBITDA, so it’s beneficial to do so where you can.

Running stores requires cash management strategies. Research the basics of managing “petty cash.”

Know the deal as you build the model. Understanding LOI terms helps you assess lease economics, capital commitments, and EBITDA impact.

The pro forma model has so many moving parts; if the deal’s rent goes up, you need to offset it with lower construction or operating costs – and vice versa. Keep it updated with the estimates other teams get as they continue their research.

The pro forma model has so many moving parts; if the deal’s rent goes up, you need to offset it with lower construction or operating costs – and vice versa. Keep it updated with the estimates other teams get as they continue their research.

While it’s the Real Estate team’s responsibility to run the RECOM meeting, the Finance team should be fully (pre-)aligned with the business case that is presented.

After the RECOM meeting, it’s “all systems go.” So right before everyone starts mobilizing around the new deal, set up your administrative platform for scale.

At this point, you’ve probably wondered how to allocate expenses like Marketing. Read this post before you make the common mistake of allocating spend as a percent of revenue. 

As you think about scaling beyond the first deal, be sure to consider the diseconomies of scale that can happen with stores.

How you define and measure success will change between comp and non-comp stores. Read these posts to learn the difference.

Achieve scale with our next guide: “From Popup to Program: How to build a national multi-unit expansion program”

Join our network to get exclusive early access when our next guide releases! The below topics will be covered: 

  1. Adjusting unit economics expectations
  2. Quantifying the value of a new market vs doubling down in an existing one
  3. Quantifying cannibalization
  4. Omnichannel forecasting

Real
Estate

A strong retail foundation starts here. Learn the key financial principles that drive successful store openings— from budgeting and forecasting to understanding profitability. Master these essentials to make data-driven decisions as you scale from clicks to bricks.

Choosing the right location is everything. Learn how to find the perfect site.

Site selection actually starts a level higher: market selection. Use your own 1st party data, and leverage 3rd party data, to identify where the opportunities are.

While the Finance team will typically own the store P&L and modeling, it’ll benefit you to understand the mechanics and how your decisions will influence the go / no go criteria.

Small financial missteps can have big consequences. Understand the true cost of mistakes in store planning and how to avoid them.

Cross reference what your first party data says and what your customers tell you.

Also establish a clear set of roles and responsibilities across timelines.

Great store design starts with smart collaboration. Support the design process by aligning layout, branding, and operational needs.

A great broker is your inside track to the best locations. Find local experts, gather market insights, and start vetting partners.

Create your brand’s real estate pitch. An intro packet outlines who you are, your expansion goals, and site criteria for landlords and brokers.

Formally kick off site searches with brokers by sharing the Intro Packet and setting up a “Pipeline Tracker” to help you manage deal flow.

After your broker compiles a site list for your consideration, you’ll want to visit them. Take this checklist with you.

Learn what standard terms are, and when to include/exclude them in the LOI.

Be sure you’re working with the Finance team to ensure that the economics you negotiate are in line with Pro Forma model feasibility.

The Construction team is likely beginning communications with vendors, such as GCs. Be sure to check in with them and offer support where you can.

For every deal you want to close, you’ll need to chase at least three.

RECOM = Real Estate Committee.

Learn how to best “pitch” a new opportunity internally, and what good governance looks like.

The pro forma model has so many moving parts; if the deal’s rent goes up, you need to offset it with lower construction or operating costs – and vice versa. Keep it updated with the estimates other teams get as they continue their research.

The pro forma model has so many moving parts; if the deal’s rent goes up, you need to offset it with lower construction or operating costs – and vice versa. Keep it updated with the estimates other teams get as they continue their research.

Once you’ve worked through a few LOIs, be sure to go back to your template and modify it for the things you find most important, and/or the things landlords tend to care the most/least about.

Most of the hindsighting process is driven by Finance – they determine the definition of (financial) success.

But you can support them with insights from geospatial tools, and re-examining how you picked the site to begin with.

Achieve scale with our next guide: “From Popup to Program: How to build a national multi-unit expansion program”

Join our network to get exclusive early access when our next guide releases! The below topics will be covered: 

  1. Adjusting unit economics expectations
  2. Quantifying the value of a new market vs doubling down in an existing one
  3. Quantifying cannibalization
  4. Omnichannel forecasting

Design &
Construction

A strong retail foundation starts here. Learn the key financial principles that drive successful store openings— from budgeting and forecasting to understanding profitability. Master these essentials to make data-driven decisions as you scale from clicks to bricks.

This functional area manages one of the largest vendor networks of any team. One of the best ways to get familiar with this domain is simply by talking a bunch of vendors and seeing how they solve retail problems.

Design and development timelines are long and full of complex challenges. As teams mobilize around an anticipated opening date, it’s important to communicate and model them after some prototypical expectations.

While the Finance team is building the overall store budget, it’d be helpful to share an “archetypical” budget placeholder.

Small financial missteps can have big consequences. Understand the true cost of mistakes in store planning and how to avoid them.

Save yourself time and money by compiling preliminary thoughts on what your leadership team likes and doesn’t like in a store’s design and experience. 

Everyone at the company will want to weigh in on design and FF&E decisions. Establish clear roles and responsibilities with RACI frameworks. 

Stores are grounded in the real world, so it should come as no surprise that many vendors are tend to best serve their locality; and localities are best served by local vendors.

Find the best ones here on 1REC.

The Real estate team is assembling an “Intro Packet” that will be sent to brokers and landlords. Send them your Design deck so they can include aspects of it in their communications with 3rd parties.

Designers and Architects may be able to help you here, but be aware of misaligned incentives (kickbacks). Explore other critical vendor types that materially influence your timelines and budgets: millwork (custom fixtures) and permit expeditors.

While it’s not critical to attend the market and site visits with the real estate team, it may be worthwhile to do so as an effort to ensure everyone is viewing spaces with the same lens.

While the Real Estate team is negotiating deals, they’re collaborating with the Finance team to ensure the numbers they’re offering make sense for the economic profile of the new store. You should do the same re: buildout costs using what you know from the design thinking and site tours.

Construction and millwork tend to be the largest buckets of cost for buildouts, so it’s beneficial to bid out the projects to get the best price possible.

As you learn more information from the RFP process, be sure to keep everyone in the loop with your budget changes.

You should also always be on the lookout for value engineering opportunities. 

RECOM = Real Estate Committee. Support the Real Estate team by ensuring you’re aligned with what they’re presenting for timelines and buildout costs.

Assuming the RECOM meeting ended with an approval, you can now commit to vendors and sign contracts. 

Once a project has started, your focus should be on ensuring it’s completed on time and on budget. 

Once constructions is (nearly) done, you’ll want to walk the site and create a punch list of items that need to be addressed before opening.

Most of the hindsighting process is driven by Finance – they determined the definition of success.

But you can support them with insights on the buildout process and budget, especially if there were hiccups!

Achieve scale with our next guide: “From Popup to Program: How to build a national multi-unit expansion program”

Join our network to get exclusive early access when our next guide releases! The below topics will be covered: 

  1. Adjusting unit economics expectations
  2. Quantifying the value of a new market vs doubling down in an existing one
  3. Quantifying cannibalization
  4. Omnichannel forecasting

Field &
Operations

A strong retail foundation starts here. Learn the key financial principles that drive successful store openings— from budgeting and forecasting to understanding profitability. Master these essentials to make data-driven decisions as you scale from clicks to bricks.

There are SO many vendors in retail, and it’s impossible for anyone to successfully and blindly tell you which ones you need. 

So we recommend talking to a bunch, seeing what’s out there, and learning from what they all do!

Labor is one of the largest categories of expense for a retail store. Do some initial research on labor laws and wages to ensure you have realistic expectations and compliant wages.

While the Finance team will typically own the store P&L, they need your inputs! 

Check out a few of our frameworks.

Small financial missteps can have big consequences. Understand the true cost of mistakes in store planning and how to avoid them.

One of the biggest operational considerations for stores is your inventory model: will you be cash-and-carry or a showroom?

Learn why we advocate strongly for a showroom model where possible.

Great store design starts with smart collaboration. Support the design process by aligning layout, branding, and operational needs.

Most design teams focus their efforts on the customer experience, and in retail it’s just as important to consider the employee experience!

The Real estate team is assembling an “Intro Packet” that will be sent to brokers and landlords. Send them your operational requirements (eg loading docks) so they can include aspects of it in their communications with 3rd parties.

Your first retail channel hire is the most important, as their strengths and weaknesses will dictate how the rest of the team is built and where they will inevitably excel and make mistakes. 

Read a bit on how we like to think about the first hire.

While it’s not critical to attend the market and site visits with the real estate team, it may be worthwhile to do so as an effort to ensure everyone is viewing spaces with the same lens.

While the Real Estate team is negotiating deals, they’re collaborating with the Finance team to ensure the numbers they’re offering make sense for the economic profile of the new store. You should do the same re: staffing and labor costs using what you know from your research.

Now that you’ve iterated on design, and labor models, and have a stronger idea of what cross functional partners are expecting, start vetting the vendors you actually need – but don’t sign contracts until RECOM approval is given (just a few more steps away).

Continue iterating on this as you learn more, and keep Finance updated with any changes to cost of labor or vendors.

RECOM = Real Estate Committee. Support the Real Estate team by ensuring you’re aligned with what they’re presenting for the labor model and costs.

After RECOM approval, you’ll want to post the job listings for the store team – but be discrete if needed.

If a landlord finds out you’re already hiring a team before the lease is signed, they may end up leveraging your public and premature commitment as a way to re-trade knowing that you’re already committed. 

Time to post job descriptions! 

While this may seem like overkill for a single location, this step is absolutely critical when opening multiple locations in the same year. 

Leverage our templates to enable more scalable project management strategies.

Most of the hindsighting process is driven by Finance – they determined the definition of success.

But you can support them with insights from, and even solve the problems with, vendors!

Achieve scale with our next guide: “From Popup to Program: How to build a national multi-unit expansion program”

Join our network to get exclusive early access when our next guide releases! The below topics will be covered: 

  1. Adjusting unit economics expectations
  2. Quantifying the value of a new market vs doubling down in an existing one
  3. Quantifying cannibalization
  4. Omnichannel forecasting

Achieve scale with our next guide

"From Popup to Program: How to build a national multi-unit expansion program"

Join our network to get exclusive early access when our next guide releases! The below topics will be covered: 

  • Adjusting unit economics expectations
  • Quantifying the value of a new market vs doubling down in an existing one
  • Quantifying cannibalization
  • Omnichannel forecasting
Join now

The 1REC Directory helps brands, brokers, and others by providing location intelligence and transparency

Get in touch
About

© Copyright 1REC 2024. All Rights Reserved.