Want To Set Up An Online Clothing Store? Here’s What You Need To Do

It’s not hard to believe that clothing is the number one item to be bought online across the world. People have become accustomed to this new way of getting their fashion fix. With better websites, description and photographs, they don’t mind that they can’t see or feel an item before they buy it. It’s a sector that shows continual growth with no sign of stopping anytime soon. So it’s hardly surprising that sites like Big Cartel have seen a rise in people setting up their own clothing stores. If you want a slice of the action too, here’s what you need to do.

Decide what you want to sell

Before you do anything else, you need to decide what style of clothing you want to sell. You can choose between men’s, women’s and children’s wear or unisex t-shirts. Or you can be more specific and choose a particular niche such as sportswear or formal attire. Deciding this early on will help you to establish your unique selling point and who your target audience is. Which in turn will make it easier to set price points and create an appealing brand. You want your shop to stand out and be memorable, so do your best to remain original.

Create a look

Some of the most popular online stores have a strongly defined look and feel. This branding touches every part of their clothing store from their website to their packaging and labels. If you want your shop to appeal to your customers, you need to create a suitable look. You may not have a large budget to begin with but that doesn’t mean this is something you should overlook. Think of a relevant name that is catchy and memorable. Then create a mood board of images that captures the ethos of the look you want to create. For instance, a shop called Night Vintage instantly brings up images of glamorous ball gowns and retro fashions. Once you’ve made your mood board, logo design, building your website and marketing should be easy peasy.

Find a supplier

Now you know what you want to sell and have a look in mind, it’s time to think about products. You need to find trustworthy and reliable suppliers that can give you high-quality products at reasonable prices. Even if you want to make the clothing yourself, you will still need fabric and equipment suppliers to do this. Start researching yoga wholesales and other clothing suppliers or good sourcing agents like the private label specialist Casino global sourcing whose parent company is the worldwide retailer, Groupe Casino. They have an online catalog aiming at providing product ideas to any private label individual sellers to find products that will fit their brand and store. Compare the prices and talk to the vendors directly to ask questions and get quotes. In addition to this, you should also look at your competitor’s products and pricing. This will help you to avoid buying the same items and charging too much, which could drive your customers away.

Getting your new clothing business up and running will require hard work and time. You may not have millions of orders straight away and it may take some time to generate a buzz. But there is absolutely no reason why you can’t make it a complete success.

Featured image courtesy of Flickr.