So you want to start an online clothing store. Great! You’re in luck because ecommerce offers an excellent opportunity to get a business off the ground without the overhead that can come with traditional brick and mortar operations.
However, thinking about a store and actually starting a store are two very different things. It’s easy to contemplate a world where customers flock to your brand and you become a household name overnight, but getting to this point takes a lot of work on the back end.
“You can’t wait for customers to come to you. You have to figure out where they are, go there and drag them back to your store.”
Paul Graham, the programmer behind Y Combinator,
Selling Clothes Online vs. Offline
Selling clothes online versus offline is hardly an age-old question after all, ecommerce is a relatively new trend in the long history of clothing stores but in the modern business world, the differences are certainly something to weigh.
Brick and mortar stores have retained a strong foothold in the industry, with a majority of purchases still happening in a standard retail environment. However, the grip on offline stores has been weakening: ecommerce now holds over 27% of the market, and that number is growing every year.
One study found that 67% of Millennials and 56% of Gen-Xers prefer shopping online to shopping at a brick and mortar outlet, opening the door to a huge audience of potential consumers. While 15% of shoppers say they don’t purchase online versus just 6% who don’t shop at in-store retailers, more people shop online every week than in traditional retail outlets.
The biggest advantage of selling online is, of course, the lower barriers to entry. Establishing a storefront can take a few days or weeks online, while getting started in a more traditional environment can take a lot longer with a much higher initial investment.
Opening a clothing boutique averages between N500,000 to N1,500,000, while most online clothing business models require substantially less. Further, operating a traditional retail space means hiring employees to physically keep the store open on a limited time table, while an ecommerce venture can be run as a solo operation that is available to anyone 24/7.
It’s Time to Sell Clothes Online
The best time to start selling clothes online was about 15 years ago when the market was first beginning to grow, and early players in the ecommerce game were able to solidify themselves as leaders. The second best time is right now.
The online clothes sale marketplace is a large one, and it’s only continuing to grow and evolve. Ecommerce revenue from the clothing, footwear, and accessories sector reached over $100 billion in 2019 in the United States, with projections predicting almost double this amount by 2024. Globally, this number is expected to reach $756 billion by 2022.
With so much potential on the horizon, taking a leap into the world of online clothing stores now can help you capitalize on these trends rather than letting an opportunity pass you by.
Steps to Start an Online Clothing Store
A little more thought and research beyond “it’s time to start a store” needs to occur before you begin listing your wares for sale. First, you need a foundation that will steer you in the right direction from the start. These seven steps can help you prepare in the best way possible for online sales success.
- Choose a clothing niche.
- Determine your business plan.
- Find your domain name.
- Build your store online.
- Publish and market your store
Choose a Clothing Niche
Everyone needs clothes, but not everyone needs the same clothes. Instead of making it your mission to sell clothing for everyone across every demographic, grind in on something a little more specific that’s based on your personal interests and business goals.
So, what does this mean for you, and how do you narrow things down? When considering your options, keep these four points in mind:
- Be as unique as possible to stand out from the crowd. Ecommerce clothing stores are a dime a dozen, and if your brand is the same as hundreds of others, you’re unlikely to get ahead.
- Choose a niche that you’re passionate about. An idea that excites you is the most likely to succeed. Think about the kinds of clothes you buy, the items you’d love to see on the market, and what types of products you’d be eager to share with friends or family members.
- Ask yourself whether you can add value and position yourself as an authority. Your unique background plays a big role in your store, and that includes prior career goals. For example, if your history is in nonprofits, consider clothing lines that may relate. If this kind of strategy isn’t relevant, examine where there are holes in the current market in which you can make a difference or add value.
- Make sure the niche has earning potential. You may love women’s sundresses, but countless brands already sell in this area, so your climb toward making a name for yourself will be steep indeed. Instead, find a place to insert yourself or a unique value proposition — that allows for quicker growth and the ability to earn money.
Determine Your Business Plan
A well-thought-out plan is a must for starting any big or small business and a good business plan goes far beyond “sell items, make money.” Instead, it delves into the specifics about how your business will operate, including:
- A high-level executive summary that provides an overview of what your company hopes to accomplish.
- A company description, including products, customer demographics, and plans to remain competitive.
- A market analysis that looks into the data and statistics of the marketplace, including average sales, the number of other sellers, and projected growth rates.
- A competitive analysis that focuses explicitly on competitors in the same space, including their strengths and weaknesses, and ways in which a new company can gain the edge.
- A description of management and the organization of the company.
- A breakdown of products and services offered.
- A marketing plan covering details of online and offline marketing strategies.
- An examination into planned sales strategies.
- How funding will be obtained, including how much funding is required and how it will be sourced.
- Financial projects both for the near future and from a long-term perspective.
A big part of creating your online retail business plan involves choosing a business model. Selling clothing can be handled in a few different ways, so you need to ask yourself how you’re going to start and what model will allow you to grow the fastest without draining your bank account. In the ecommerce clothing retail world, there are four common choices:
- Print on demand.
- Custom cut and sew.
- Private label clothing.
- Dropshipping.
Print on demand
A print on demand business prints or otherwise alters pre-existing clothing based on customer orders. This can be a custom process for example, company logos or based on a predetermined selection of designs. When a customer places an order, either you or a third-party printer will create products as ordered.
There’s no stock of products ready to sell in a print-on-demand business, outside of t-shirts, pants, or other attire which designs can be transferred. For stores that use a third-party printer, overhead can be very low.
Custom cut and sew.
Custom cut and sew, as the name implies, refers to companies that design and sell their own products. This can be a costly venture and requires a significant investment in the acquisition of materials and manufacturing space, but can be the best opportunity to launch a truly unique brand.
Some custom cut and sew businesses produce all clothing in-house while others outsource to plants outside the country. Starting this kind of online clothing store can require more funding and a true understanding of design principles.
Private label clothing.
Private label clothing companies partner with established manufacturers to order unique products marketed under their brand. These products aren’t usually designed in-house but rather designed, produced, and branded for individual sale by a selected third party.
The investment in private label clothing is higher because it requires finding a reliable manufacturing partner and paying an upcharge for branding. However, this method can allow for more flexibility in batch size and sampling, letting stores evaluate products and fine-tune strategy without breaking the bank.
Dropshipping.
Dropshipping is arguably the easiest of the business models. Dropshippers essentially act as middlemen; when an item is ordered, the dropshipper then orders from a third-party company for delivery directly to the customer. Many dropshippers work with sites like Alibaba and Wish to have access to low-cost products that can be sold at a markup.
There’s little investment required to start a dropshipping business as there’s no inventory kept in stock or a need to spend money on orders in advance of customer activity. However, it’s often hard to stand out from the crowd as a dropshipper as products are generally not unique and can be purchased from other vendors.
Choose Your Domain Name
Your domain name should align with your business name as well as your ultimate business goals and available products. Be sure to choose a domain name that’s logical, easy to remember, and easy to access. Short names are always better than long ones, and confusing names with multiple repeating letters or letter sequences can leave prospective buyers lost on the web.
When choosing your domain name, keep these tips in mind:
1. Avoid hard-to-spell names.
If your customers can’t spell your domain name, they’re going to have a hard time finding your site or sharing it with others. Stick with basic words or known phrases to avoid letting confusion alone send prospective buyers into the arms of your competition.
2. Choose a name that is scalable.
The state of your business when you start it may not be the same as what it evolves to be down the road. As such, you want a name that can accommodate potential growth in the future. For example, if your initial business model involves selling rain boots exclusively and you name your domain name accordingly, it will seem out of place when you expand to selling boots of all kinds. Think about your needs in the present as well as potential goals for the years to come.
3. Be unique.
A lot of brands already exist in the retail space, so you need to make sure your domain name speaks to your brand and your business without the risk of being confused with the competition. It can be hard to strike a balance between clever and scalable while staying unique, but finding the ideal option can truly benefit your business.
Build a website
There are several platforms like Wix and WordPress that help you to easily create a website yourself without the assistance of any developer but this is only advisable to those who have a great knowledge of these platforms. A basic knowledge is not enough to build a professional website.
We recommend that you employ the service of an experienced developer to build one for you. At LtForce.com, we have a list of experienced developers with us and would be glad to get started on your project. We have an amazing offer for startups and also you could get your website in just 7 days.
List Your Products
Once you have the framework of your site established, you’re ready to list the products you have for sale. This isn’t quite as simple or straightforward as it sounds; however, how well you list your products, the quality of your descriptions, and even the navigation of your ecommerce page can directly influence your sales.
1. Product descriptions.
Product descriptions sound mundane, but quality content can make a huge difference. On ecommerce sites, product descriptions are the primary driver for SEO: when your descriptions aren’t robust and fail to make the best use of keywords, you’re not going to show up in search engine results.
Product descriptions also play an incredibly important part in telling customers what you have to offer and why they should buy from you.
When writing product descriptions, use colorful, high-quality language that paints a picture for customers. Because buyers can’t physically handle your merchandise, product descriptions are effectively the next best thing. Think about the kinds of details you look for when making purchases online and use this as your guide for drafting content that impresses.
Around 20% of potential purchases fail because of a lack of details surrounding products sold online, so be absolutely sure that your descriptions hit the mark.
2. Product display.
Product display should complement product descriptions completely, providing a way to show and tell shoppers what to expect. A single photo won’t cut it; modern ecommerce shoppers want to see items from all angles, up close and at a distance, to make an informed decision.
Clothing should be photographed on models where possible, or a mannequin when not. Photos should be high quality and showcase fabrics, front, back, and side details, and even styling options when possible.
Don’t just get out your iPhone and snap some photos; pictures should always be professional. When your site looks amateur, shoppers may assume that your products are amateur, too.
3. Navigation.
A site’s navigation is an integral part of making sales. When a site visitor is completely overwhelmed with menus, dropdowns, and navigation options, going through the effort to find the right products can be very overwhelming.
Regardless of how many products you sell or categories you have, keep navigation clean, simple, and easy to use. User experience is a key part of satisfying shoppers; 79% of web users say that a poor experience on one site will lead them to search for another to meet their needs.
4. Checkout.
Checking out is a big part of making money; after all, if your shoppers don’t finish a transaction, you’re not going to earn anything. The checkout process may feel a bit like an afterthought, but a problematic point of sale is a primary driver for cart abandonment.
An estimated 21% of customers will abandon a sale if the checkout process is too complicated. In addition, 23% of users will abandon a cart if checking out requires an account, so make sure a guest checkout option is a part of your process, too.
To make your checkout process as fast and painless as possible:
- Make guest checkout options easy to access.
- Accept auto-filled details when possible, like credit card info stored in Chrome.
- Accept a variety of payment options, including gift cards, credit cards, debit cards, Apple Pay, and PayPal.
- Keep everything on one screen instead of making customers constantly hit “Next.”
5. Search.
When customers want access to information quickly, a search is the easiest way to do so. To minimize the frustration felt by customers who just want to know more about you or your products, make sure your search function is effective and easy to use. Far too many sites have clunky, awkward, or inefficient search functions — and that completely destroys the user experience.
Best Practices for Your Online Store
If you want to succeed, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do things. Yes, breaking out of the box can sometimes be a benefit, but sticking to these best practices is among the most critical things you can do to move your business forward.
1. Simplify your menus.
If you’ve ever clicked on a dropdown on a website and found yourself confused by menus inside of menus, you’re not alone. Massive, monstrous menus can be downright confusing, scaring customers off before they ever have a chance to see your products. When in doubt, simple menus are always the best. By narrowing the focus down to the key points, even if this means artificially simplifying product categories, your customers can enjoy a better user experience.
2. Prioritize SEO.
Do you want your potential customers to find you online? You want SEO. Utilizing search engine optimization techniques can ensure shoppers find you in search engine results pages when looking for your products. From your home page to your product descriptions, be sure your content prioritizes the keywords and phrases that both align with your products and your branding.
3. Have engaging web design.
It may sound a little shallow, but appearance matters a lot online, and poor site design can cost you more than you realize. It takes less than a second for visitors to form a negative opinion about a website. Further, almost all negative feedback for websites are design related. Bottom line? A bad website won’t sit well with your buyers. Make sure your design is engaging, responsive, and attractive.
4. Provide popular payment options.
Credit cards have long reigned supreme in the world of online payments, but they are no longer the only option customers want to see. In today’s diverse world of payments, just the basics won’t do. Around 760 million people worldwide utilize Apple Pay, while checkouts that offer Paypal have a 70% higher conversion than checkouts that don’t. The more payment methods available, the more likely it is that customers will buy.
5. Advertise where your audience is.
Is your target audience on Facebook? Put your money there. Instagram? That’s the best format for you. Unlike the old days of advertising, where customers from all demographics saw ads on TV or heard them on the radio, today’s marketing methods are more targeted than ever before.
When you want to make sure your advertising dollars go toward the right people, you want to advertise in the right place. Rather than throwing money into the wind, figure out where your customers are and follow them there. Without gripping in on your audience, you’re effectively wasting money with little to gain.
Courtesy: bigcommerce.com
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