When starting an online clothing company, it’s easy to get bogged down in procuring or manufacturing great products to sell. Without a well-thought-out online store, however, you won’t have the ability to sell your products effectively to your target audience. Below, we’ve outlined ten key considerations for anyone about to start an online store.
Planning and Strategy
- 1. Customers– Where will your traffic come from? One of the biggest mistakes made by new entrepreneurs is failing to identify a target audience. Once identified, your target market will influence every movement you make with your online store going forward. In this post, Entrepreneur shares some key questions for entrepreneurs to ask themselves before identifying a target audience.
- 2. Differentiation– After identifying a target audience, think: why will this audience order from me? The online clothing and fashion industries are especially competitive, and behemoths like Zappos and control large swaths of the online space. That’s not to say there isn’t room for another entrant, but all new online fashion stores must architect a comparative advantage.
- 3. Shipping– As we mentioned in our last post, customers have come to expect free shipping; brands that don’t offer free or low-cost options risk shopping cart abandonment. You’ll also want to determine what your store return policy will be; many top fashion stores online offer free returns. Ideally, you should calculate shipping and return costs, then factor that price into your margins.
- 4. Backend functionality— Before you think about the specific platforms and development assistance you’ll need for your fashion store, you ought to consider the processes you might need to use on a daily basis. Hours of planning now can save you days of menial processes in the future. For example, how will you fulfill your orders? If you’re holding inventory, what will be the flow from when a customer places an order to his/her receipt of that order?
- 5. Specials and Promotions– How do you plan to create demand at low points in your sales cycle? Will you do buy one get offers? Have a subscription plan to stabilize revenue? The types of discounts and specials you plan to offer will affect the complexity of the eCommerce platform and subsequent development you need.
Launching your Website
- 6. eCommerce Platform— A few weeks back, I wrote about four potential online store platforms for new business owners. For fashion stores, I would typically recommend a Magento buildout. Most of FarShore’s fashion clients, including Bucketfeet, Boga, and Stock Manufacturing Co., are built on Magento. Shopify is an option for small upstarts, but will not enable customization as your eCommerce brand grows.
- 7. Mobile design– By the end of this year, more than a quarter of the world’s population will use a smartphone (eMarketer). Nearly half of all online retail traffic now comes from mobile devices (IBM). Clearly, optimization of your online fashion store for mobile is incredibly important. At the very least, you should plan to create a website that is responsive. As you grow, you may want to consider developing a native mobile app.
Responsive design optimizes content based on screen size.
- 8. Product Photography— One of the most frequently forgotten aspects of building an online fashion brand is product photography. Most customers won’t have anything to go off of other than how your products are portrayed in images online. Services like POW Product Photography will handle this process for you. If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, several online DIY resources will help you take beautiful photos yourself. If you decide to go this route – be sure to check our detailed guide about product photography!
Companies like POW Product Photography take professional photos for small businesses.
- 9. Copywriting– Many entrepreneurs go through the planning and website development phases of their websites, and then streamline the content creation process. Website content is one of the most important parts of your website. Before launching your website, plan to set aside a period of time for development of this content. If you’d like professional help, groups like Lightspan Digital can assist companies with this process. And if you decide to write the website copy by yourself – you can find some valuable info in our eCommerce copywriting guide.
- 10. A/B Testing— The best eCommerce stores never stop iterating on their websites. One quick and easy way to ensure that no one who comes to your new website leaves because of website layout is by using an A/B testing tool like Optimizely. With Optimizely, you can show different configurations of your website to different users and measure which one has the higher conversion rate.
To be fair, these ten considerations only address a fraction of the questions you may have as a new fashion entrepreneur. At FarShore, we’d love to help out with your technology. Some of FarShore’s most successful partners sell in the fashion and clothing spaces, from Bucketfeet to Boga and from Stock Manufacturing Co. to Luxury Garage Sale. Do you have more questions about how to start an online store? Contact us for details.
This is really a helpful blog post indeed. I have just started my online clothing store and I want to take it even broader. With this post, I believe that I could get more ideas to increase my exposure and sales. You can check out my site here at http://www.giardinomix.com/
[…] Starting an online clothing store: 10 things to consider […]
[…] Starting an online clothing store: 10 things to consider […]
Man, this is excellent information. About to start an online clothing store with my wife and this will help us tremendously. Thanks!!
good info. thanks
[…] to be selling luxury clothing certainly does not mean that you can’t occasionally offer some special pricing and promotions. In fact, you will need to use these tactics when demand is at a low point in the sales cycle […]
[…] could start from scratch – 10 Things To Consider When You Start Your Online Clothing Store – or you could purchase a going concern, where mistakes have already been made and a […]
It’s great how you’ve covered all the points and made it simple and easy for users to understand. Your article provides ample amount of information for startups to launch an online clothing store. There’s no doubt that Shopify or Magento are the best ecommerce platforms and they have their own unique features. But sometimes it becomes difficult to manage them due to the number of options they come with. So, I would personally recommend YoKart for starting an ecommerce marketplace and Stitch for custom clothing store due to their useful features and economical price. Both of these platforms are built while keeping the needs of a startup in mind.
Those who are still confused on how to start your online clothing store, for them its really a helpful post. First it is needed to make a plan keeping in mind all the points mentioned above. According to me for setting up the store it is needed to concentrate on getting perfect product shots and in that case both a photographer and a photo editor can help.
Great piece of advise. I believe that having chosen your target audience, you can create very specific and cost-effective online marketing campaigns with banners and text ads. Use affiliate services and find sites in your niche with large traffic to publicize your fashion website. You can agree on barter u2013 they show your ads in exchange for a percentage of sales made from people that come from them.nRead more at https://www.orbitlift.com/1845-2/
Now-A-Days Online clothing store is very popular for all marketers and local clients. But carefully we should handle all issue. like: website marketing, user friendly website making and make all cloth images looking perfect. Sometimes you can edit your clothing photos for color change, for pattern change, cloth retouching, cloth image sun-flash out or more things. Here I also learn more about clothing store.
Very informative content.
Hey there !
I just read your blog and it has got some proper insight on the topic .
I am also having something to share . Have a look : http://www.whitedust.net/how-to-start-an-online-business-in-10-ultimate-steps/
Best basic tips by which we can understand the process for for start an online clothing store. Ecommerce platforms are one of the best ways for purchase the favorite clothes in the budget. I think IMAIMA is one of the finest fashion brand for women. It is providing the collection of modern fashion silhouettes and middle eastern hand craft embroideries.
hello, how do i get plain tshirt dummy’s where i can insert my designs to upload on ecommerce platform?
Thank you for this excellent information. I have my online clothing store too and this information is very helpful for me 🙂
Those tips are also help to start any online shop or store as a startup business will make then in great way, thanks for wonderful article.
creative post an your Photo Manipulation fantastic, thank you so much
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It is true that online shopping is the latest trend among the peoples. There are so many websites available for buying online clothes in India. BrandOMart can be a good option for online clothes shopping in India. It offers some of the best available deals in the market and the products are of good quality and very affordable.
Online shopping store is very great place for shopping. Brand O Mart product are good quality and very cool.
Thi is a perfect guide for the one who has a thought of doing such business. Nowadays fashion is the leading part to make business in the market. There are plenty of sites coming into the market and making their profits. In fact, it is a long lasting business so there will not be a fear of success here. I mostly follow Ajio online store. It is making very well and took its place in the market like the old sites. This is also providing great offers for the online shoppers on the purchase. You can even try it by making use of offers @ https://www.klaimy.com/ajio-coupons
[…] the ground; you’ll still have the creative challenges of social media marketing and overall brand development. However, if you can keep these tips in mind, your e-commerce business will be well on its way to […]
Nice work! Thanks for sharing this blog post…
Online Shopping for Women
There are good stuff was in an above article really got good and helpfull information about start online clothing store and this this is for clothing store only if i want start online ecommerce site for custom suits and shirt so will it work? how i can start this? Got lots of references for this and visit more websites for that means Custom suits and shirts online. there more website make me confuse for that but one the website (mysuittailor . com) where i can get impressive content and design so should i go with that? there more specification for that.
Hey, Sam. You article comes with few great points. Happy that you
mentioned mobile, most e Commerce entrepreneurs fails to recognize the
importance of positioning their virtual store on responsive platforms.
Even though people recognize the importance of m-commerce, later when
strategizing they fail to factor the mobile into equation. Its a waste
of opportunity. A good mobile responsive will have a notable impact on
the online conversion.
Also, a digital entrepreneur needs to spend
enough time to design and optimize their virtual store. A design that
lacks enthusiasm, will create a sense of boredom and confusion among
people.
I came across a similar article;
https://shopnix.in/blog/start-an-online-clothing-store-sell-clothes-online/
Hope it will add value to you target audience.
nishantoommen (:
Thank you for publishing the list of online clothing site list. Many Online Store in India are providing the Online shopping services but all are not known by peoples so this blog will help him to know about that. Gohitbid is one of the leading online Shopping store.
Great! information to start a online clothing have all the basic. I’m also a online shopping service provider http://www.sp.intimausa.com. Thanks for sharing this kind of appreciating blog.
Hi, I have tried to visit your website. But failed to reach. Anyway, I think if you need some image editing related services, then you can use this below. Thank you.
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Excellent work! Thank you for sharing this workable information.
Want to know China shoes business of price secret Romelu Lukaku or Roman Torres
You can buy China shoes at whatever price! You get what you pay for!
[Foreword] do not always talk about the price of good China shoes, do not always talk about quality of cheap China shoes!
Just like the world cup 2018, do you want to spend more money to buy Romelu Lukaku or less money to buy Roman Torres?
Often hearing from customers, the shoes of other shoes factory are exactly the same as your shoes factory,why are yours so expensive?
Look at the picture below. Can these be the same?
Two major mistakes of current customers:
Talk about prices with high-end shoes;
Talk about quality with low-end shoes;
The same looking,
Can the content be the same?
One is art!
One is rogue!
(one) Principle of China shoes business
Sell one year bad shoes, rub three years butt, and never ending complaint!
Selling good shoes for one year, then business for three years!
Quality is the best advertisement!
Quality is always proportional to price!
Do not do business too wronged, only sell to Mr.Right!
You trust me then we can make deal just after a few words;
You don’t trust me, it’s futile to even I play as a moive star to show you everything!
In 2018, leave the time for the reliable people and things!
(two) China shoes sales story!
The salesperson reports to the boss:
“There is a small company on the market,
Their price is very low, what should I do? ”
The boss asked the sales back:
“Since this company is so powerful,
Why is it always a small company? ”
Low prices usually only play the role of “spoiler” in the market.
Incompetent bungler.
During competition,
High prices are often defeated by low prices.
However, the final shoes quality tells! If there is no support for reasonable
profit, where’s the quality assurance and service!
— Dedicated to customers who tangled on prices!
(three) money boat example of China shoes business，it’s very hard to find a suitable [url=http://www.chinashoefactory.com/] reliable china shoe factory[/url]
In China, there is no doubt you can get some amazing low price from some shoes factory!
For example, if we make the below money boat with 100RMB to sell you at
101RMB, （you know that material cost 100RMB+workmanship+profit, we
should at least sell at 101RMB, but I guess you can find someone else will
quote you at 100RMB, even some others will quote you 98RMB, 97 RMB, …90RMB.
Then you can imagine what will you get later! Something that will never come
or something which made by fake or poor material! Cause no one would like
to do business losing money to you cause he is not daddy!
(four) What make a long term shoes business and both benefits!
For long time shoes business, there will be a group of warm old customers,
Always following you,
Help you advertise and help you introduce customers
They never grind and duzz, never compare price, never say so expensive?
Cause they understand business principle, they know “you get what you pay for” !
They are very clear about each penny they spent!
For these warm-hearted customer,
You are generous to us.
We will be sincerely to you!
Let’s move forwarder and make one and one milestone together!
http://www.chinashoefactory.com/
http://www.chinashoefactory.com/
Very informative blog!
I appreciate your article. It is really very important to know all essential things, before starting an online clothing store. From your blog, we get much important knowledge on this topic. So, thanks a lot for this information.
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https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c127b2b1cae7958e49a31d4c4c8233b4dca3e41190dc912f51407f1ec2c769e5.jpg
Very informative post. Here we can help for the startup eCommerce of the Product photography post production.
Only 1 product i sell 2k+ time one month. what about you?
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Now a days commerce site take higher sell section for clothing selling.
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베트남 관광에서 가장 큰 부분이 역시 하사랑 맛집관련 방문일것입니다.그 중 하노이 맛집 에 관련 된 정보를 안내코자 하는데요
하노이는 북부에 위치한 베트남의 수로도 베트남 맛집 들이 모여있는곳이기도 하죠
하노이 맛집 은 쌀국수나 분짜 등도 정보들이 방대해서
하노이 맛집 은 정보가 많이 필요해요
하노이 가라오케 도 유명하지만
하노이 가라오케 위생상태도 중요하고 위치도 어디있느냐도 굉장히
큰 선택요소가 되지 않을까 합니다.
하노이 맛집은 하사랑에서 정보를 공유해 가시기 바라며 하사랑
에서 더 많은업체들을 확인하시고 하노이 가라오케 하노이 맛집 은 역시 하사랑 에서
Thanks for the great article. The importance of showing your products online in the best possible way is sometimes underestimated. Photograph & edit them you can outsource or do in-house… but in any case its important to make quality images and show them as big as possible without having a noisy background.
Also think upfront thoroughly about your returning policy. Many stores get into trouble with too many items being returned free of charge.
I agree with you many people didn’t know how to start a eCommerce product business for their live. I will appreciate your explanation thanks for the tips.
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