Career Guides, The Sims 4

Starting a Retail Business (The Sims 4 Get to Work)

The Sims 4 Retail Business Guide

Run your own Retail Store in The Sims 4 Get to Work

Build an run a successful retail business if you have the expansion The Sims 4 Get to Work. The retail store can only be placed on a special retail lot type and can’t be placed at your own home. So your Sim needs to go to the retail store to manage it. But you can manage your store and have a full time or part time job with one Sim.

When your business is growing you will be rewarded with perk points, this will improve the sales skill of your Sims. This will also help to sell your products faster. Perks are earned over time by successfully interacting with customers, selling items, and restocking your store.

Requirements to open a Retail Shop or Bakery

You’ll need two things to open a store. A Cash Register and Products to Sell. It can be an item from the Build Mode catalog, something your Sim has crafted, something your Sim has collected out in the world, or you can even dress a mannequin and sell clothing. Once you’ve decided what you’re selling, click on the item and mark it as “For Sale.” Next, click on your cash register and select “Open Store.” When you are building a Bakery there more things you will need to make it work. Here is a list what are you able to sell:

  • Objects from Buy Mode
  • Collectibles
  • Paintings
  • Photo’s
  • Prepared food
  • Fruits, vegetables and herbs
  • Woodworking sculptures and furniture
  • Self written books
  • Clothing
If you choose to run a store with food you need to build a kitchen within your retail store to bake or cook the food you would like to sell.

Running a successful Retail Store in The Sims 4 Get to Work

Run your store smoothly and make higher profits with your retail store or bakery. Get a higher curb appeal, let employees work faster and get more sales!

Attract more customers to your Retail Store

The number of customers that visit your store is determined by your store’s curb appeal. You can check the level of your store’s curb appeal by viewing the Financial Report on the cash register. You can purchase advertising to temporarily increase your curb appeal. Web advertising provides a quick spike of customers that fades off towards the end, while a television ad provides a consistent boost of customers over the duration of the campaign.

Place items like retail signs or neon signs for a more lasting impact for the curb appeal. Sims with the handiness skill can even upgrade their neon signs to animate or break less often.

Higher your store’s curb appeal for more customers

  • Purchase advertising from the register
  • Place items like retail signs or neon signs
  • Place decoration in your store
  • Having a nice variety and amount of items for sale

Get more Sales

Shoppers are more comfortable purchasing from a pleasant retail environment. So make sure you keep your store neat. Clean the dirty displays and pedestals in your store. Cleaning goes a lot faster if you level up the Retail Maintenance Skill. Use Perk Points to purchase Perks like Serious Shopper that will increase a customers desire to purchase an item while entering the store.

Work faster by maxing out your employees Retail Skills

While working at the store you and your employees will level up their retail skills. This can help with faster cleaning, selling products faster and they will slack off less often. By maxing out each of them determine how well they work at your store. Assign a variety of tasks to your employees to make your store run at peak efficiency. Unlock additional employees with Perk Points.


How to run the store/bakery

Sell products, clothing or food

Before you can open your business you need to put items in your store for sale. You can do this by clicking on the desired item and click ‘put for sale’. When you open the store, customers will come to your store to look around. Before a customer wants to buy a product from your store you will gave to convince them. You can do this by interacting with the customer and build some kind of relationship with them. The higher your retail skill levels the faster you can sell product to your customers. When a costumer want’s to buy an item they will get an shopping cart above their head. Click on the Sim to make the sale. You don’t have to do this at the register because your Sim will take out a tablet to make the sale.

Restocking

When an object is sold you have the option to restock. This will place the same object as it was before it got sold. Example: If you sold a painting made by your Sim it will place the same painting back on it’s place for the same price, you don’t have to make a new one. This also counts for collectibles. So If you found one collectible, you can keep restocking it and don’t have to find new ones.

Restocking isn’t free. You will always have to pay a percentage of the price the object is sold for. You also have the option to place a new object your Sim has made or collected, this won’t cost anything to place the new object.

The Sims 4 Retail Mannequins

Dress up Mannequins

In The Sims 4 Get to Work expansion there are different types of mannequins. You can choose between a modern mannequin or a more realistic mannequin. These come in child mannequins and adult mannequins. After you place the mannequins in your store you can choose between different poses. These are; Neutral, Confident, Flirty, Playful, Active and Business. Mannequins do have some limitations to keep in mind. You can have a maximum of 10 per lot.

Create outfits that are shared between each type of mannequin per lot. To create additional outfits in Create A Sim, click on the outfit category, then click on the arrow above the category. Here you can add up to 5 outfits per category, for a grand total of 30 unique outfits.

Tip: You can edit the shape of a mannequin in Create A Sim the same way you would with a Sim.
Retail Employees
Manage retail Employees based on their skill or salary

Manage Employees

You can get up to 3 extra employees who aren’t in your household in one store. You can hire or fire Employees in the retail shop you own. You can choose Sims with higher skill levels but they will cost a bit more. Customize their store uniforms that they need to ware at your retail shop. Your employees will gain experience when they are working for you and build up their skills.

Level up Retail skills

Employees have three different skills that determine how well they work: Sales, Maintenance, and Work Ethic. There are cheats to increase these skills.

Retail Maintenance Skill

Employees who are proficient at maintenance will be faster at restocking items and cleaning the store. Employees raise their Retail Maintenance Skill by performing their job after being instructed to Restock Sold Items or Clean.

  • Restock items faster
  • Clean dirty objects faster

Retail Sales Skill

Employees who are skilled at sales will have greater success interacting with customers, and will ring up shoppers faster once they’re ready to buy. Employees increase their Retail Sales Skill by performing their job after being instructed to Assist Customers, Upsell, or Push Cheaper Items.

  • Ring up customers faster
  • More success at interacting with customers

Retail Work Ethic Skill

Employees with low work ethic will play with their phones, socialize with other employees, or just have fun while slacking off. Berating an employee will slowly increase their Work Ethic Skill over time. Tip: Praise them and check up on them.

  • Will not slack off quite as often
  • Work a bit harder

Earning Perk Points

Earning Perk Points is simple and it will almost go automatically while running a store. If you have employees, they will not earn Perk Points for you. Here are some helpful tips:

  • Interacting with customers (5 perk points)
  • Restocking items (10 perk points)
  • Ringing up customers (15 perk points)

Perk Points Rewards

Unlock new options and items for your Retail Business by purchasing them with the Perk Points you gathered. Perks that are purchased will be applied to every member of your household. This is a complete list what you can buy with Perk Points in The Sims 4 Get to Work.
PerksPerk Points
Placard: My First Simoleon
Unlocks a decorative wall object that celebrates the store's initial success. Check the "Retail Items" section of Build Mode.
50
Provocative Pedestal
Unlocks a new Pedestal object to display various items for sale on. Check the "Retail Items" section of Build Mode.
100
Stunning Sign
Unlocks a new sign which can be placed in your store to attract more customers. Check the "Retail Items" section of Build Mode.
150
Snazzy Shirt
Unlocks an additional shirt for men and women that's ideal as an employee uniform.
200
Register of Tomorrow
Unlocks the Suros Pecuniary Cash Register; perfect for use in modern, upscale stores. It's the register of tomorrow... today. Check the "Retail Items" section of Build Mode.
250
Superfluous Surplus
The store's supplier ordered too much inventory, and they're temporarily reducing prices to clear space! The cost of restocking items will be reduced for 12 hours. This perk can be repurchased again in the future.
300
Additional Employee #1
Unlocks the ability to hire one additional employee within the Manage Employees window.
350
Faster Restocking (small)
Slightly reduces the time it takes members of the household to restock sold items.
400
Faster Checkouts (small)
Household members will ring up customers that are ready to purchase an item a bit faster.
450
Placard: Fobbs 500
Unlocks a decorative wall object that celebrates the store's ultimate domination of the marketplace. Check the "Retail Items" section of Build Mode.
500
Curious Shopper
Customers will spend more time browsing the items for sale in the store before they decide to leave.
1000
Mega Manager
Management social interactions performed on store employees will have a greater chance of succeeding.
1100
Additional Employee #2
Unlocks the ability to hire one additional employee within the Manage Employees window.
1200
Serious Shopper
Customers will have a greater desire to purchase an item when they first enter the store.
1300
Faster Checkouts (large)
Household members will ring up customers that are ready to purchase an item much faster.
1400
Faster Restocking (large)
Greatly reduces the time it takes members of the household to restock sold items.
1400
Sure Sale
Unlocks the "Sure Sale" social interaction, which guarantees a customer will purchase an item when used on them.
2000
Slick Salesman
Retail socials used on customers will have a greater chance of succeeding.
2100
Instant Restocking
Members of the household will be able to instantly restock items.
2200
Cheaper Restocking
Reduces the price of restocking items.
2500

There are cheats available to get the Perks you need.

Store suggestions/ideas

When you need some ideas on what kind of business/store you want to create, here are some great options!

  • Photography Studio
  • Bakery
  • Flower Shop
  • Toy Store
  • Electronics Store
  • Art Gallery
  • Clothing Store/Boutique
  • Bookstore
  • Organic Food Store
  • Mineral Store (crystals and metals)
  • Grocery Store
  • Alien Store (collectibles like aliens, space rocks and space prints)
  • Garden Centre (sells plants and fish and outdoor furniture)
  • IKEA
  • Bridal Botique (cakes, decorations, wedding dresses)
  • Coffee Shop
  • Music Store
Got some great store ideas for your own Sims? Reply with your ideas!

Watch the Retail Business Gameplay Trailer

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7 Comments

  1. A shopping center or mall with a couple of different stores. I really wish we could have an actual restaurant where Sims sit and eat. Watching other people play on Youtube and customers that buy food don’t sit and eat. They just leave and go home after purchasing. Also the ability to buy all lots in new neighborhood and be able to merge them into one giant lot for a supercenter would be cool but I doubt will be possible lol

  2. There are cheats for retail skills:
    stats.set_skill_level retail_workethic [x]
    stats.set_skill_level retail_maintenance [x]
    stats.set_skill_level [x]

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