With decades of experience and more than 1,250 franchise locations, we at Winmark have invested in proven business models and support structures that have made us leaders in the resale franchise segment. Our brands’ unit-level economics are often 50 percent higher than competitors in the same space. In fact, unit for unit, we frequently outpace our competition three-to-one.
All of our brands achieve average gross margins greater than 45 percent, with Once Upon a Child® and Plato’s Closet® achieving 63.98 percent* and 61.69 percent** average gross margins respectively.
So, how do we help franchisees succeed and achieve higher average unit volumes than any of their competitors? All of our processes and procedures – from greeting the customer to sorting through their merchandise and making an offer, all the way to putting inventory into backstock and replenishing the sales floor – are designed to drive sales and profits for franchisees. Here’s why our brands outshine their competition time and again:
Buy the Right Inventory at the Right Price
As a resale franchise, buying is our top priority. At Winmark, we ensure all of our marketing, training and operational support is geared toward helping franchisees buy more of the right inventory at the right price. The first way we do that is through our buyer certification program, which trains and certifies employees on our best practices for purchasing inventory.
Franchisees and their staff inspect tens of thousands of items to buy each month, so they need a system that can handle that volume of work as expeditiously as possible in order to function at a high level and generate much higher average volumes and profits than our competitors.
We equip our franchisees with a state-of-the-art, fast and efficient POS system to help them identify items in the system, decide what to pay for those items, and set the retail price for those items. Our POS system generates a quote to the customer and ultimately a buy ticket should the customer want to go through with the transaction. This makes transactions quick and easy for both franchisees and their customers.
Expert Inventory Management
In addition to acquiring merchandise, inventory management support is also critically important for franchisees. Once franchisees are buying more inventory than the prior period on a consistent basis, they inevitably end up with excess inventory. This requires a disciplined approach to inventory management, keeping inventory turnover high and utilizing various markdown strategies to address aged inventory.
At Winmark, we provide franchisees with the support and training they need to ensure that buying more does not turn into too many dollars tied up in dead inventory.
Our POS system helps franchisees contains a variety of inventory management reports, allowing our franchisees to identify and price items appropriately and better manage their inventory throughout the entirety of the process.
Positive In-Store Experience Builds a Loyal Customer Base
The last crucial piece for franchisees is delivering a top-notch customer experience for every guest. That includes creating the right environment in the store by ensuring all inventory is organized, merchandised well and easily shoppable for the customer.
At Winmark, we impart on franchisees the importance of delivering on their customer experience and making each guest experience a positive one, whether they are buying or selling merchandise. Since many of our customers are typically buying from us as well as selling to us, the entire experience in-store must be positive in order to build a loyal customer base.
We extensively train all franchisees and their staff on buying, inventory management and customer experience so they can run their business efficiently and effectively, and ultimately achieve higher average unit volumes than other brands in the resale space.
That’s why many of our brands are repeatedly recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500 list. For the fifth consecutive year, Once Upon A Child® was named the top children’s retail franchise and Plato’s Closet® was named the top apparel and accessories franchise in the nation in 2019. Those two brands ranked on the overall list at No. 129 and No. 187 respectively, while Play It Again Sports® made the list once again at No. 381 and Style Encore® made the list for the second time, ranking No. 487.
Are you interested in a business with the leading resale franchise? Contact us today to learn more about franchise opportunities with Winmark brands.
*The Average Store numbers are the 2018 Average Gross Sales and Average Gross Profit amounts stated in Item 19 of the 2019 Once Upon A Child® Franchise Disclosure Document (as reported by the 341 stores that had been in operation at least one year as of December 29, 2018). Of the 341 reporting stores, 149 or 44% of the stores attained or exceeded the Average Gross Sales and 147 or 43% of the stores attained or exceeded the Average Gross Profit. The Top Quartile Average Gross Sales and Average Gross Profit only relates to 85 of the reporting Once Upon A Child® Stores who ranked in the top 25% of the gross sales range. Of the 85 reporting stores in the top quartile, 36 or 42% of the stores attained or exceeded the Top Quartile Average Gross Sales and Average Gross Profit. A new franchisee’s results will likely differ from these results.
**The Average Store numbers are the 2018 Average Gross Sales and Average Gross Profit amounts stated in Item 19 of the 2019 Plato’s Closet® Franchise Disclosure Document (as reported by the 443 stores that had been in operation at least one year as of December 29, 2018). Of the 443 reporting stores, 189 or 43% of the stores attained or exceeded the Average Gross Sales and 191 or 43% of the stores attained or exceeded the Average Gross Profit. The Top Quartile Average Gross Sales and Average Gross Profit only relates to 110 of the reporting Plato’s Closet® Stores who ranked in the top 25% of the gross sales range. Of the 110 reporting stores in the top quartile, 46 or 42% of the stores attained or exceeded the Top Quartile Average Gross Sales and 49 or 45% of the stores attained or exceeded the Top Quartile Average Gross Profit. A new franchisee’s results will likely differ from these results.