FREE Retail Store Opening Project Plan

Master retail store opening project plan timelines with our intuitive retail store opening project plan Gantt chart template.

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Gantt chart template

Why use our Retail Store Opening Project Plan instead of Excel or Google Sheets?

Get started with our Retail Store Opening Project Plan in seconds while skipping the hassle involved with Excel or Google Sheets.

Build Gantt charts in minutes, not hours.

Build Gantt charts in minutes, not hours.

No project management experience? No problem. Tom's Planner offers a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface that's intuitive and easy to learn. Creating Gantt charts is a breeze, saving you time and effort. Compare that to the time-consuming, frustrating, manual formatting-intensive process of building a Gantt chart in Excel or Google Sheets.

Create a Gantt chart in minutes, not hours

Move at the pace of modern business with no learning curve or Googling formulas.

Good luck figuring out how to make a Gantt chart work in Excel or Google Sheets. Excel’s user manual weighs in at a hefty 500+ pages. It takes just five minutes with Tom’s Planner to start planning your first real project plan.

Create a Gantt chart in minutes, not hours

Headache-free collaboration and sharing.

Tom's Planner offers powerful options for sharing and collaborating on Gantt charts, including public links, PDF exports, and team access with customizable permission levels. It’s never been easier to communicate or ensure everyone’s on the same page. Compare that to Excel, where sharing and collaboration mean jumping through hoop after hoop and dealing with confusion and chaos.

How to use Tom’s Planner’s retail store opening project plan to build and share your project.

Getting your project off the ground is as easy as 1-2-3.

Step #1

Click the 'start with template’ button to open the Retail Store Opening Project Plan.

Step #2

Register for a free account and watch a short video on using Tom’s Planner. The account is free forever, with no strings attached.

Step #3

You’re all set to use the Gantt chart template. Need additional help? Our AI assistant can create a custom Gantt chart Retail Store Opening Project Plan based on your project description.

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What is a retail store opening project plan?

Opening a retail store is an exciting but stressful process. There are multiple components and if they don’t all mesh, it can lead to delays, increased costs, and other problems. A retail store opening project plan is a tool that helps streamline your process, remove hurdles from your path, and efficiently manage the opening process.

Why a Gantt chart is critical

By using a retail store opening Gantt chart template in your planning and preparation, you improve your chances of success and gain some pretty important benefits.

One of the most important is that you can create an accurate timeline that tracks your project from ideation through the final walkthrough and store opening. Using a retail store opening project plan also helps ensure that you’re able to allocate resources accurately throughout the project and that you and others involved in the project can collaborate and set accurate deadlines.

Ultimately, a retail store opening Gantt chart template provides you with a highly visual roadmap through each stage of the process. You don’t have to worry about missing tasks or overlooked steps and can prioritize tasks that matter most while ensuring that everything gets done even if it’s not a top priority.

Flexibility and adaptability

For leaders and managers, a retail store opening project plan also makes it simple to track progress and adjust on the fly. That sort of flexibility is necessary in a day when you can’t count on supplies to be available from preferred partners and costs can fluctuate dramatically within a very short time.

Retail store opening project plans often include:

  • Materials and resources required, the quantity on hand, and where they’re allocated
  • Task names and subtasks, as well as who is assigned to each and any dependencies between tasks/subtasks
  • Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) codes
  • Percentage of the project complete
  • Priority levels for tasks
  • Project milestones
  • Expenses tracked against value schedule

Using Tom’s Planner helps improve accuracy and reliability, providing a strong backbone for the project and helping to ensure its success.

When to use a retail store opening project plan

You should use a retail store opening project plan when designing, constructing, and opening a brand-new retail store.

Planning Phase:

Any retail store opening project plan benefits from a detailed Gantt chart. Think of it as a roadmap that provides immediate insight into all the moving parts required to make the project successful.

Bidding Process:

You’ll be working with a wide range of contractors to get your store up and running. A retail store opening project plan allows contractors to submit compelling bids that highlight their abilities and ensure that you can compare apples to apples.

Resource Allocation:

Resource allocation and management are critical to successfully opening your retail store. A Gantt chart ensures that you can balance labor, materials, and equipment so that everything’s available when it’s needed.

A retail store opening project plan tames the chaos of opening a new store and provides structure and order to ensure accountability, visibility, and success.

Who should use a retail store opening project plan?

A wide range of people will need access to the information in your retail store opening project plan. That list may include:

Project Managers:

You’ll certainly have multiple project managers involved and they all need to stay in the loop. Project managers can use a Gantt chart to ensure tasks are completed on time, resources are properly allocated, and more.

General Contractors:

General contractors oversee the entire construction project from initial planning through the final walkthrough. A Gantt chart ensures that they’re able to manage deadlines, communicate timeframes, include stakeholders when necessary, and coordinate between different teams.

Architects and Engineers:

Designing and building a new retail store requires in-depth planning in all aspects. That includes everything from the site survey to the foundation, building design, routing of wiring and utilities, and more. A Gantt chart ensures that architects and engineers can coordinate their responsibilities with other stakeholders and teams.

With a retail store opening project plan, you increase the chances that your project will conclude on time and within budget. You may also need to share some information with people outside your organization, including suppliers, insurers, and lenders.

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The top three pitfalls to avoid when creating a retail store opening project

Keeping your project on track, avoiding cost overruns, and opening the store on time are essential goals. Avoid these three pitfalls to have a better chance of achieving them.

  1. Underestimating costs: One of the most common mistakes made when opening a retail store is failing to accurately estimate the costs. Make sure your budget is as accurate as possible and that you have some degree of flexibility to account for the unexpected.

    Solution:

    A retail store opening Gantt chart template can help you break costs down, so you have a good understanding of the total project cost, what has been paid already, and what has yet to be paid.

  2. Failure to plan accurately: Not planning your project correctly is a major pitfall. It can lead to cost and time overruns, miscommunication, and even cause your project to fail.

    Solution:

    A Gantt chart allows you to create an accurate roadmap for the project, highlight dependencies between tasks, check progress on tasks and the project as a whole, and much more.

  3. Overlooking accessibility requirements: Accessibility requirements are mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act, which spells out your responsibilities, like providing handicapped parking access, ease of entry, and more.

    Solution:

    Know the ADA requirements for your site and ensure that they’re covered during the initial planning phase.

What does a retail store opening project plan include?

Your retail store opening project plan should be customized to your unique needs and goals. However, most of these plans do share many similar features, and those can be adjusted to customize your template.

  1. Task breakdown:

    First, you’ll need a detailed list of tasks and their associated details. What’s involved? Who’s responsible? What other tasks depend on these being completed? Is there a specific time/place in the project where the tasks fit best?

  2. Task status:

    Once you’ve detailed the tasks involved in opening your store, the next step is to create detailed task statuses. You can do this with icons, by color coding things, and in other ways. The idea is to create a uniform way to tell others where a task stands in terms of completion: completed, delayed, in progress, to-do, and more.

  3. Vision and goals:

    Each retail store opening project plan should have a section dedicated to the project’s vision and goals. Take bigger goals like opening the store and break them down into smaller objectives and steps that help take you from where you are to where you need to be.

  4. Capacity and layout:

    Every retail store must have enough floor space and storage space to hold a minimum amount of stock. The amount you need, and your layout will vary depending on the type of retail store in question (grocery store, clothing store, electronics store, etc.), as well as the size of your business and other factors. Your retail store opening Gantt chart should provide information about stock numbers and flow from the backroom to the sales floor, as well as other important information.

  5. Resources:

    You’ll need plenty of resources for your store opening. Those include funding, tools, equipment, and people, to name just a few. This section should provide a full breakdown of all the resources needed, those available, and the strategy for sourcing any not currently available or their alternatives.

  6. Technology necessary:

    Today’s retail stores depend on technology to operate. That’s true from your cash registers to your security system and everything in between. Make sure you have a detailed list of technology required and its status (ordered, installed, out of stock, etc.). You should also tie these items to the team member or contractor responsible for installing the hardware, when that installation is slated to occur, and any dependencies.

Four tips on how to make sure you reach your deadlines

Pay attention to technology integration

Technology is more important in retail stores than ever before. You must plan for integration from the very beginning. You’ll need to pay special attention to electricity and Wi-Fi/Internet availability, as well. You should also buy your technology with an eye toward the future, or you might find that you’re losing ROI because you must update technology soon after opening the store.

Ensure clear, easy communication

Communication is one of the most important parts of your retail store opening project plan. Ensure that there are clear channels of communication between all stakeholders and plan for regular meetings, check-ins, and updates so that everyone is on the same page and you’re able to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Invest in quality project management

No matter the size or scope of your retail store opening project plan, you need the right project management team in place. Ideally, these individuals will have deep experience opening retail stores, not just managing projects. Follow their lead and focus on completing each task in sequence promptly. And remember that many tasks depend on others for completion.

Use the right tools

Successfully opening a new retail store will require a wide range of tools and equipment. However, nothing is more important than the tool you use to plan the entire thing. A Gantt chart like Tom’s Planner allows you to break the project down into individual tasks, track completion, see dependencies, budget more accurately, and move your project forward.

Gantt charts in Tom's Planner vs in Excel

Excel Tom's Planner
Cost License required Free version available
Learning curve Hours Minutes
Create your first Gantt chart Hours Minutes
Making an update in your chart Several minutes Seconds (drag & drop)
Sharing charts with others At some point you will save and email a file titled: version_4_def_usethisversion_reallyfinal.xlsx Online, one source of truth, always up to date, with no confusion
Look & Feel Messy Clean, polished and professional
Dependencies
Filtering
Zoom in/out
Automatic Legend
AI-assist Let our AI assist do the work for you
Export to image or pdf Requires workarounds to export One mouse click

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