If you type the phrase ‘how to start an online clothing business,’ Google will immediately return 538,000 different results. Looking at that number, you probably understand the level of competition in the online clothing market, right? If you are still unsure about how to start selling clothes online for beginners, or what is needed for selling clothes online, refer to the article below.
1. Identify the target customers when doing online clothing business
Determining the target customer group is also a crucial factor determining success or failure when selling clothes online. Are your target customers male or female? What is their age range? Are you targeting sophisticated office attire or trendy, dynamic fashion trends?
Building a business plan for online clothing, identifying customers helps you pinpoint the target audience, better understand the needs of the target customer group, and their fashion trends. The more detailed your target audience is, the easier it will be for you to outline the next plans.
2. Market research – creating a business plan for online clothing
Many young fashion entrepreneurs base their product selection on personal preferences and therefore rely on their aesthetic judgment to choose items to sell. This is one of the most “foolish” mistakes in business in general and fashion business in particular.
Where to start with an online clothing business? Selling things online correctly requires you to conduct market research, create a business plan for online clothing to grasp trends, and consumer psychology. What should you do in this step?
First, refer to the models, methods, and business status of both offline and online fashion stores, as well as the most popular fashion styles, designs, and trends. Then, delve deeper into pricing, analyze what is good about their strategies, what has not been done, the reasons for existence or failure…
Based on the experience of selling clothes online, the best and quickest way is to participate in a relevant forum or group and initiate a discussion thread.
Don’t think that you need to conduct a large-scale survey. Just a few questions like “What’s in trend this summer?” will achieve your purpose. There will undoubtedly be people commenting and sharing, and all you need to do is keep the discussion thread lively to attract more participants quickly.
In addition, thoroughly researching market information and competitor analysis will help you formulate high-efficiency business strategies. Questions you should ask during market research are:
- Who are your direct and potential competitors?
- What have competitors done to attract and retain customers?
- Do you have any weaknesses compared to competitors?
- What makes your brand different from competitors?
- What percentage of the market share can you gain in that market?
- How much market share will you take compared to competitors?
Never underestimate the importance of creating a business plan for online clothing. It is the compass for each of your steps to ensure you are always heading in the right direction.
3. Create an impressive, memorable store name
In reality, you may run an online fashion business without a name, but that sounds illogical, right? Therefore, if you want to be effective in online clothing business and want long-term development, want to take advantage of word-of-mouth advertising, you should have a “short and memorable” name, so customers can remember, discuss, and trust your store.
Regardless of how you name it, remember to use the Vietnamese name as the main one, and if there is English, it is only secondary. I wish you find a good, satisfactory, and especially memorable name that brings good business results to your store.
4. Find quality, affordable sources
Regardless of what business you are in, quality sources at competitive prices are always the top priority in shaping your success. To trade successfully, you need to prepare thoroughly for resources, accurately identify the target, and also need a reliable, diverse, and reasonably priced source. Avoid situations where goods are delayed or delivered to customers differently from the actual product images when ordering online.
Suppliers must ensure both the reputation and the quantity. At the same time, the supplier must have various sizes, colors to ensure product diversity for your store.
Currently, most online shops import goods from large wholesale markets or factories that provide export goods or parallel imports. Therefore, about 80% of products from online shops are ‘common.’ Customers will choose products with better prices.
If your product is imported in small quantities, you will not enjoy high discounts, and you will have to compete in terms of price with large shops. Besides, you should find ‘unique’ and ‘quality’ products to attract customers and create ‘hot’ trends for your shop.
When searching, compare prices at each supplier, call or email them one by one, negotiate the best prices (do not rush to see the high wholesale price and ignore it, if you provide conditions and compare prices elsewhere and propose again, you may receive a better price with the initial price and many more advantages).
Each supplier has its advantages; it is best to try to find reputable, guaranteed, and relatively flexible sources. Never be greedy, because if you compete on price, it will be challenging to compete, and if you orient to low prices, it is even better not to break the market.
5. Build online clothing sales channels
You can start selling clothes online on existing websites, classified ads, online shopping pages such as chotot.vn, lamchame, webtretho, 5giay.vn, etc. With this form of business, you can sell clothes online without capital, without having to worry about costs such as renting premises, hiring employees,…
Selling clothes online on Facebook, Instagram,… This is the most popular selling trend today. With simple operations, you can own a fan page for your shop, regularly post images, organize events to attract views, likes,… to attract customer attention.
Fashion website design: When business activities stabilize, besides selling on social networking sites, you should also consider opening a website for yourself to avoid being managed by anyone, as well as to increase your store’s reputation, credibility, and professionalism. Here, you will easily manage your online clothing business, place orders, create payment gateways for customers. Selling clothes online on the website is also bringing a huge profit to shop owners.
6. Invest in advertising for online clothing business
Don’t think that you are doing business online in the virtual world, where connection issues are no longer the biggest obstacle, so just opening a shop will attract customers. Whether selling online or traditional retail, advertising still plays a crucial role, especially when you are starting your business. Advertising helps your brand and products reach more people, attracting more attention.
There are many ways to advertise online clothing sales to advertise online. You can use Google’s available tools such as Adwords, run Facebook ads, place banners on other websites, or use video marketing.
These advertising methods can bring a certain number of customers if used correctly. However, remember that advertising is only a support role, and the important thing is still how you sell and whether your products have enough attraction for customers.
7. Customer care in online clothing business
During the sales process, the consultant is extremely important. You need to advise enthusiastically and carefully, focusing on their benefits more than introducing all your products so that they can confidently choose and be comfortable after making a purchase.
After the sale, you also need special customer care policies for old customers, loyal customers, such as point cards, discount cards, holiday programs, etc. They will come back to buy more products from you, even bring relatives, friends to buy more if they are satisfied.
The above are proven experiences that you can follow if you want to run an effective online clothing business in the fierce market today. Thousands of people have successfully applied these shares to develop their careers.
In addition, designing a sales website is one of the ways to help you run an online clothing business, fashion business through the internet effectively and gain a competitive advantage over competitors.
Cre: sapo
Discussion about this post