In this huge e-commerce apparel industry, where apparel sales have reached around $180.5 billion, setting up and launching a new clothing business is not much hassle.
With the day-to-day growth of digital channels, the increase in online shopping, and the development of technological innovations, the online clothing e-commerce industry has skyrocketed sales. Consumers find shopping online easier and more accessible than visiting a physical store and waiting in massive queues.
Not only are consumers shopping online, but brands and companies are also controlling their business online. This makes it an excellent opportunity to start and handle your clothing business online from home. So if you are an entrepreneur or good at designing clothes, patterns and styles, then there is still plenty of space that you can fill by starting your online clothing business.
There is a lot of potential in the online clothing business, making it a good reason for you to stay focused on your goal of laughing your clothing business from home. When you are thinking of launching an online store, there are several things to consider as your business model will be a bit different here rather than the traditional method.
As many entrepreneurs are concerned about how much money they can make by doing online clothing business, the answer is, on average, the online clothing business earns around $48,901 per year. While it also depends on the number of clothing lines you sell online.
Here is an 8-step guide for starting a clothing line that will make your online clothing business journey a bit simple, effective, and easier to manage. The process might seem to be overwhelming at the start, but don’t worry because we have listed out the pointers in a way that the whole process works in your favor for you.
Get to know the basics you should follow when starting your clothing business online from home.
6 Steps to Start Online Clothing Business from Home:
Here are some basic things you should consider when starting your own clothing business online. Let’s dive into details and explore the essentials.
1. Grab a niche
The clothing industry is highly diversified, so when you step into the clothing industry, you will have to choose a specific niche and grab a perfect grip on it. You can start with any place that attracts you, interest you, and mainly it should be according to your target audience.
As you will be selling to a specific audience that might be youth, you should choose a niche that is liked by youth, for example, streetwear, formal clothing, comfortable clothing, casuals, or it can be anything.
You can create authority under your brand name with a good grip over your niche. Moreover, you can make the niche selection process easier for you by considering two factors:
- What interests you?
- How are your products unique from other sellers in the market?
Tips
- Be unique in niche selection
- Carefully work over the niche in which you can provide value to the customers
- Make sure that the niche that you are targeting has potential selling.
2. Choose a name for your clothing business
When you are in the clothing business, your fashion brand name plays an important role, as it is your business or brand name with which your consumers will see and identify your business. So when deciding on a name, make sure it is unique, easy to remember, spell, and pronounce. It should not be so long. Moreover, you will have to check if your chosen name has a domain available because the same will be your website’s name.
After choosing a fashion brand name and logo, you first need to register your clothing business with the states or countries you are operating in. For example, if you are running an online brand in the USA, you should register your business in the US to avoid breaking laws.
When you are running a business, specific business standards you need to follow are defined by respective states. By registering your clothing business, you ensure that you follow US laws and regulations and have all the rights to do business in the US. This way, your customers see you as a trustworthy source they can shop from.
3. Determine a Business plan
Whether your business is small or big in the initial stages of your beginning, having a company from the start keeps you motivated and focused on your goals. A strong business plan is more than making money; it is about having a vision and goals. If you have an idea or goal by your side, you will probably reach your targets.
So you are advised to have a strong business plan that defines everything about your business model. Here are basic potential things you should add to your clothing business plan.
- An executive summary defines the business goals of an overview of your business.
- A description of your company, business, organization, and product line that you are selling
- For an overview of the industry you are working in, you should provide a background of the clothing industry so that it throws a good impression to the reader that you are well aware of the industry you are working in.
- A detailed look over the market, you can mention the statistics figures in the clothing industry, for example, the average sales, growth rates, growth chances, and other important information.
- A competitive analysis focuses and pointing out details about your competition who are working and operating in the same market and targeting the same audience.
- Moreover, if you are running a joint venture, you should mention the partners you are working with. If you are connected to a clothing manufacturer, you should note them in your clothing business plan, as this helps increase your business plan’s credibility.
- A strategy and marketing plan that you will be working on. You can list the online and offline marketing strategies that you will be working on. You mention your strategy, like social media campaigns, outdoor marketing, etc.
- You can also list your financial projections, balance sheets, and other financials you contribute to your business.
4. Sourcing of Clothing products
Another essential milestone you need to achieve before you finalize your website is connecting with a clothing manufacturer and starting the production of your clothing with them. There is a primary reason behind connecting with clothing manufacturers before building your website. It takes a couple of months to bulk-produce your clothing line.
So when manufacturers manufacture your product lines, you will have plenty of time to create brand awareness, and you can focus on marketing your clothing line.
A couple of ways by which you source your products
- Work with a clothing manufacturer
- Order from supplier
- Drop shipping your products
If you plan to sell your own clothing line, you will have to work with a clothing manufacturer who can create a custom clothing line based on your requirements.
Things to consider when choosing a clothing manufacturer
- Price
- Turnaround time
- Shipping time
- Product Quality
- Reputation
5. Create a website
To kick-start your online clothing business from home, an essential element you will need is an clothing eCommerce business, as your website will be the primary channel for your customers to make purchases.
You can choose from a number of e-commerce platforms, as tons of them offer unlimited customizations like Shopify and WordPress, or you can create your own custom website.
You can buy any theme and add customization from different pieces that match your website structure and brand.
Here are some of the important pointers that you must not forget to include when creating a website
- High-quality photos, visuals
- High-quality, clear, concise, and attractive product descriptions
- Responsive website that should look good on all devices
- Set up the process of payment
- Make your website search engine optimized and SEO-friendly
- Add attractive landing pages’ blogs, and articles
6. Marketing strategy
Now that your website is up and live, you need to raise its brand awareness. Your consumers should know about your business. To do marketing easy, there are specific ways by which you can market your clothing line, for example:
SEO
SEO refers to optimizing your website, which helps rank your website in search engines. You can mix and match the use of keywords based on the keywords that you are selling through your website.
Paid marketing
You can opt for paid marketing, which refers to running ads on google to set yourself on the very top positions in search engines. Moreover, you can also run social media campaigns.
Email marketing
By gathering your customer’s emails, you can send them emails regarding your products, new offers, and more.
Content marketing
Content marketing is another way to climb your way up through digital marketing. You can practice SEO, article writing, and blogging to create high-quality and valuable content.
Wrap up
So these are basic essentials that you should consider when starting your own clothing business from home. Starting any business can be pretty dazzling, so you will need to stay focused at the start of your clothing business. There is a rising trend in the apparel industry, so there is an excellent chance for your success.
About the author
Tom Brady currently works as the Senior Content Editor at Zega Apparel. He loves to write about fashion, How-to Guides, and many hot topics for the fashion business industry. During his free time, he likes to meditate and practice mindful yoga.
Tom Brady currently works as the Senior Content Editor. He loves to write about fashion, How-to Guides, and many hot topics for the fashion business industry. During his free time, he likes to meditate and practice mindful yoga.
Senior Content Editor @Zega Apparel
1-805-623-0552 | tombrady664@gmail.com