Finding the perfect garments, building a brand that represents your style and personality, and devising a marketing plan to drive traffic to your site are just a few of the necessary things required to run a successful online clothing store.
The idea of owning an online clothing store is probably exciting and a little scary for you, all at the same time, and understandably so. Owning a business is a big responsibility with so many factors to take into consideration but it’s not something that should make you give up. In fact, it should inspire you to do it even more. E-commerce sales are expected to reach $713 billion by the year 2022!
However, your motivation for starting an online clothing store shouldn’t just be about sales. You really have to have a desire for entrepreneurship and everything that comes with it. To have a successful online clothing store, it’s more than creating a catchy domain name and building a “pretty” website… You’re going to have to consider your niche, the quality of your clothing, and your branding… You have to even consider the important, tiny details like what you want on your custom woven labels.
Whether you’re an e-commerce “newbie” or adding clothing to your entrepreneurial portfolio, these tips will help you on your journey to e-commerce success. Take a look at some of the biggest considerations to think about when trying to start a successful online clothing store.
Tip 1: Determine Your Clothing Store’s Niche
Determining your niche is a very important aspect to think about. You honestly can’t even begin to choose articles of clothing to sell until you know what niche you want to sell it in. This particular tip is important because it not only helps you choose the types of clothing to buy but it also lays the foundation for the type of customers you want to attract.
Maybe with your clothing store, you want to sell clothes that are country chic. You love soft colors, lace, and blue jeans. You want to appeal to today’s southern belle. What would be the niche here? Country. With this type of niche, it doesn’t necessarily project a particular age group but it does project style, comfort, and femininity, especially with the lace.
In finding your niche, the key thing is to be very specific. Once you determine your niche, you can then determine your target audience and develop your product list.
Tip 2: Establish Your Target Audience
If you don’t know who your target audience is, you’re going to have an extremely hard time trying to sell your clothes. That’s why it’s so important to first determine your niche. Luckily, if you’ve determined your niche, you’ll have a better understanding of who your target audience is.
The key to establishing your target audience is getting into the mind of you your target audience… you have to get to the bottom of what they need. If you can figure out what they need, it’s going to be easier for you to show them how your brand can speak to them and meet their needs. For example, if you're targeting environmentally conscious customers, they might want to know about the materials used. Understanding what does polyester feel like, for instance, could highlight its moisture-wicking properties, which are ideal for active lifestyles, and show how it can be a better choice than less sustainable fabrics.
It’s not just the clothes that need to speak to them either. Even the aesthetics of your store needs to speak their language. If you’re selling baby clothes, your online store shouldn’t have a dark background. The background colors should be soft. If your store is for teenagers, you could opt for a black background with complementing neon colors… you could even incorporate teenage slang to be even more appealing.
Tip 3: Utilize Social Media
Typically, with physical clothing stores, the customers would come to your store to shop but because you own an online clothing store, you’re going to get a lot more business by going to find your customers rather than waiting on them to find you. So what better way to find your customers than on social media.
According to statista.com, as of 2019, online users in the US spend an average of two hours and three minutes on social media. The Philippines take the lead with three hours and fifty-three minutes. If people are spending that much time on social media, just imagine how many people you can reach during that time frame…
The great thing about social media is that it takes many marketing tactics and implements them all on one platform. Social media targets the customers you want to reach, it builds brand loyalty, it allows you to establish a connection to your audience, and it brings brand awareness. That’s quite a difference from the traditional platforms of television and radio.
Some of the best social media platforms to take full advantage of include Instagram, Facebook, SnapChat, and Twitter.
In all honesty, if you own an online business and aren’t utilizing social media, you’re doing your business a huge disservice and cutting yourself out of great business opportunities.
