How to Start an Online Clothing Store: A Step-By-Step Guide

So you want to open a clothing store, but you want it to be virtual. Are you wondering how to start an online clothing store? Check out these steps for more!

Have you always wanted to have your very own online clothing business? Have you let the fear of failure or the uncertainty of how to start an online clothing store stop you from pursuing your dream? Well, we’re here to help with tips and tricks on starting your own store!

How to Start an Online Clothing Store: Your Step-by-Step Guide

Starting your own business isn’t easy. Especially given how different and unique every online clothing business is. Thankfully, there are basic steps to building a clothing website that’s applicable to every business owner.

Here are the steps you need to take to open a beautiful, stylish, and long-lasting online clothing business.

Know Why You Want to Start a Business

Opening your business requires a lot of work. So, if you want to succeed, you have to know why you’re doing this in the first place. Is it because you have a love for fashion you want to indulge in, or are you looking for a little bit of a side hustle?

Knowing why you want your business will help you determine the scope and size you want. It’ll also help make sure you invest the right amount of time, energy, and financial resources into it.

Find Your Audience

Understanding your audience is essential when it comes to starting an online clothing store. The last thing you want is a lot of clothing and no one to sell it to. So, start off by thinking of who your ideal customer is, and how your business will cater to their needs.

Once you know who you’re selling to, research brands that are already targeting them. See how they talk to your potential audience, and then research high-selling, and top-trend fashion apparel for that group.

If you know your audience, and how your competitors work, you can identify how your brand can fill in those fashion gaps and offer up the product they’re in search of.

Do Field Research

As mentioned above, competitive research is important. You need to know how similar brands work to position yourself appropriately. So, collect what data you can about these businesses, as well as industry best practices, and let that fuel your decision making.

Research takes time but it’s a step you cannot skip. It’ll help you develop a clear vision of your brand and serve as the blueprint for starting your business.

Pick Your Products

Online clothing stores are a dime a dozen. The key to success is understanding what styles are popular with your audience, and how you can make yourself stand out amongst them.

Are you more interested in hand-embroidered apparel or funky graphic prints? What are the products your customers will love that they can’t find elsewhere?

Choose Your Focus

As a new online clothing store, you don’t have to be everything for everyone. It’s better to start off simple and expand as you go. So, start off by focusing on a specific type of clothing or range of items or accessories.

Generally speaking, the more variety the better. But if you’re interested in a particular product niche, you can always try it out and see if it resonates with audiences.

Create or Source Your Products

Once you know what you want to sell, you actually have to get your hands on that inventory. Do you want to sell your own products but lack professional skills? Then take up some knitting, crocheting, or sewing classes to hone your skills.

If your skill sets aren’t amazing, that’s okay. You only need basic sewing skills to take vintage and thrift store finds and update them.

If you aren’t looking to make your garments by hand, you can also purchase them from a drop shipper, or work with a third-party to create them. You can also reach out to different brands and see if you can carry them within your store.

 Invest in Social Media Efforts

So, you have your products and know who you want to sell to, what’s next? Well, you need to get the word out and convince people to shop on your site! This requires an understanding of how to grab your customer’s attention.

Social media will most likely be a huge part of your marketing and overall advertising strategy. Instagram can be a great place to showcase your product catalog because of how photo-based it is. It provides an easy way to display your offerings and advertise the variety of styles you have.

There are many different social media platforms, and each of them come with their own pros and cons. So, the best approach is to test out your advertising and marketing strategies on multiple platforms. This will help you determine where your target audience is most engaged.

Use Paid Advertising

If you’re not sure you’ll be able to quickly attract users to your site, you may want to take advantage of paid advertising. Google AdWords and Facebook Advertising can help you find reach customers who wouldn’t normally know of your business. These tools allow you to get your products in front of customers who are looking for just that.

Content marketing can also be enough great part of your advertising strategy. If you can, create articles, how-to videos, or blogs with fashion tips.

By creating strong content, you can build a meaningful relationship with your customers, establish your brand identity, and showcase your industry

Figure Out the Finances

Budgeting and financing aren’t glamorous, but they’re non-negotiable. To start, you’ll want to determine your inventory minimums. You should have enough to meet your consumer demands, but not so much that you have an apartment or warehouse full of hundreds of unsold products.

Beyond that, you’ll need to figure out how much you actually need to spend. How much time and money will it take to source and create garments? And how much will you actually be able to sell it for to make a profit?

Try to start at a smaller scale. Sell smaller quantities of product to get an idea of what customers want, and what will actually sell. If and when you become more profitable, you can invest in more time-intensive projects and become more ambitious as a brand.

Ready to Get Started?

Know that you know how to start an online clothing store, the decision is yours as to whether you embark on this exciting adventure. By following the tips in this article, you can set yourself (and your business) up for success!

Do you need clothing and accessories to get your business up and run? Not sure where to start? Get started now with our wholesale fashion!