How to Start an Online Clothing Store

You’ve decided to start a clothing store but, you don’t have the skills or technological advancement to make your site pop. So, what next?

You don’t have to worry; online store builders exist for the sole purpose of making your online store dreams come true with the minimal hassle on you.

With online stores garnering a whopping $80 billion per year, it is one of the more popular e-commerce slots and, it is no surprise why more and more people are headed into the lucrative niche.

Creating a successful online store requires much more than just a domain name and some ads; success depends on the niche, branding, quality and customer service you make available to your customers.

Here is how to start a successful online clothing store for beginners:

1. Table of Contents

   Choose a niche

Choosing the section where your clothing store will focus on is important in creating organization on your site.

Choosing your online clothing store niche will ensure the products you choose and your entire business plan revolves around the type of shoppers you wish to appeal to.

The most important thing is to be super specific about your niche. This will allow you market to and identify with your potential customers, while also limiting your competition and increasing customer loyalty.

Choosing your specified niche can be done in three easy considerations

• Allow yourself be as unique as possible
• Keep your interests in mind as you choose a niche; choose the one you are passionate about.
• Ensure the niche is lucrative enough

An example of an online clothing store with a specified niche is the store HUMAN; they cater to the ‘pop culture nerds’ with their clothing leaning towards tee-shirts, socks, and hoodies with pop culture slogans.

2. Choose an Online Store Builder

Make sure you choose an online store builder that best suits your online store. Some of the biggest online store builders are; Shopify, Wix, and BigCommerce.

You will need to sign up to an e-commerce plan before you begin making sales on your online store.

Online stores save you all the hassle of dealing with technical stuff you are unfamiliar with and, they do it at a really economical price.

These store builders will take care of things like ensuring you have an SSL certificate, keep your store safe from hacking and theft and integrating a payment plan.

Shopify is voted as the best eCommerce solution; with their impressive array of themes and an app store that allows you add more tools to your clothing store.

It is also preferable if you are looking to open a clothing line with over 50 products.

3. Choose your Domain Name

A domain name which stands out from the crowd affords your clothing store a unique identity online.

Choosing one can be a bit tricky if you do not yet have a company name. Make sure that your domain name is catchy, unique and easy to remember.

If you do have a company name, let your domain name be something easily linked to it. For example, clothesfix.com for a company named ClothesFix.

Now, choose your plan, theme, and templates.

4. Outline your Online Clothing Business Plan

Now that you’ve gotten your niche, and domain name out of the way, it is time to outline your business plan.

A good business plan entails:

• cutting down your potential customers into different markets,
• outlining your products in relation to uniqueness,
• outlining and listing your top competition,
• outlining your business fulfillment strategies and
• outlining how you want your brand to be viewed by your target market.

E-commerce strategy requires you to know where your potential customers are coming from, and how to attract them for keeps.

Also, very important in your business outline is your budget and pricing; set prices for each of your products according to the costs of these;

• Equipment
• Design and growth of your clothing store
• The production cost of each item
• Salary (if you hire workers) and transportation
• Cost of resources

Do some research and verify the pricing of your rival stores, and set your prices according to this bar; but, leave enough margin for profit.

5. Choose a Business Model for Your Online Store

There are four business models clothing apostles and online stores lean towards; Drop shipping, print-on-demand, custom cut-and-sew, and private label clothing line.

In choosing your business model, you should weigh all of their pros and cons, keeping in mind your skills and budget.

» Print-on-Demand

Pros

• Easy to use
• Cheapest online clothing model
• Automated
• Variety available

Cons

• Lower profit margin
• Fewer options in branding finishes

» Custom cut-and-sew

Pros

• Perfect if you want to build your clothing store from scratch
• Allows uniqueness and customization

Cons

• Entails a lot of management and responsibility
• Requires a large upfront budget

» Private label clothing line

Pros

• A perfect balance between print-on-demand and custom cut-and-sew business models
• Allows customization
• Cost-effective

Cons

• Involves having to deal with management and fulfillment

» Dropshipping

Pros

• Cost-effective
• Easy to set up

Cons

• Reduces uniqueness of your store

6. Launch Your Online Clothing store

Once everything from your products to fulfillment is organized, it’s time to launch your online store!

Before launching your store, make sure you have active social media platforms, use this as an advertisement for your store; ensure they have content relevant to your store.

Your email marketing strategy should be set up, as well as your Google Adworks and Analytics account.

7. Bring Traffic to Your Online Clothing Store

Now, you just need to direct traffic and properly advertise your online clothing store.

Some of the best ways to generate traffic are through content marketing, social media posts, guests posts and integrating Pay Per Click into your store.

Furthermore, apps like TrafficBooster exist to lessen the load of bringing traffic to your site and, you can literally just sit back and watch the magic happen.

So, there it is. How to start a successful online clothing store in 7 simplified steps.

Remember to start small, think ahead, set your focus and set up your business with an eye towards maximized profit.

Think about where you see your online clothing brand in the near or distant future and work towards achieving that end goal.

You might also like: