With everyone spending most of their time at home, starting an online business might well become the most lucrative venture in this new normal. Clothing websites are cropping up all over the internet, eager to take a piece of the growing ecommerce pie. Over the next few years, experts see this particular niche grow into a multi-billion dollar industry and there’s a lot of opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs to cash in.
But just because you’re tapping into a popular niche doesn’t necessarily mean instant success. In fact, the reverse could be true. As a niche becomes more popular, the competition and the pressure to differentiate your brand heightens. When done right clothing design websites have great potential to be profitable and can jumpstart a new venture on the web.
As an internet company with humble beginnings, Strikingly understands the importance of having a strong platform to back up any business. With more than 3 million users all over the world, Strikingly has grown into a website builder that provides powerful solutions for startups and small businesses.
To help you get started, here is an easy set of guidelines that you can follow on how to make a clothing website and a profitable one at that.
1. Identify a niche you want to specialize in
In any business, it is important to determine a target market you want to sell in. The clothing industry is so vast that there are thousands of niche markets you can actually specialize in. Before you start creating clothing design websites, you should determine the group of people you want to sell your designs to. For instance, in this time of the pandemic, people are spending a lot of time working from home or pretty much staying indoors. There is a growing demand for loungewear that is both comfortable and still dressy enough for those Zoom meetings. Learn more about the needs of your target market to be able to provide products that will improve their lives.
Check out bigger online stores and find out more about trending clothing categories. Find out where there is a huge demand and consider your options for suppliers. When you’re just starting out, the key is to provide products that a lot of people need and are actively looking for.
2. Choose a platform for building your online clothing store
One of the biggest advantages of taking your clothing business online is that there is a lower barrier to entry to get into online retail. You don’t need to pay rent for physical premises or hire a lot of people to help you run your business. You can even manage end-to-end operations on your own. The key is to choose a powerful ecommerce platform that will give you a wide range of tools to help you set up and run your business.
When it comes to ecommerce platforms, website builders are not created equal. Ideally, you want to start small but you will need a lot of room to scale up as your business grows. Strikingly makes it easy for small businesses to open up online retail stores by providing access to its Simple Store platform for free. You can move from a single product store to one with multiple categories within the same platform.
3. Keep track of ecommerce trends
You are probably well aware of the trends in the clothing and fashion industry because it is the niche that you specialize in. When it comes to clothing website design, you also need to stay on top of the latest trends and learn more about what works and what doesn’t as far as selling clothes online is concerned. For instance key UX design elements that are currently popular include chatbots and multi-channel retail - where customers can either choose to purchase from your online store, through social media, through their mobile devices in the form of an app and other online marketplace you may have set up. You can also take advantage of certain marketing tools on your selected platform such as newsletter integrations, social media streams and SEO editors to promote your brand and your clothing line. Go through your competitor websites - including the bigger brands and find out what works. Check out other websites on Strikingly to find out how other clothing stores customized our clothing website templates and turned them into unique online stores.
4. Choose a business model
Within the clothing industry, there are many different business models that you can implement on your own venture. You can go for a dropshipping model where you act as a middleman between wholesalers and customers so you don’t have to deal with managing stock. If you are a fashion designer, you can also develop your own clothing line and make this available on the internet. Alternatively, you can source suppliers and manage the stock if you want to sell items with your brand on them.
5. Carry out marketing campaigns
Just like any other business, you need to promote your clothing websites to make them profitable. Build clothing website content that you can share to various other platforms. Add a blog section to your Strikingly website to keep your website fresh for search engines. Link your other online spaces to your site to create a cohesive web presence. Consider paid advertising on search engines as well as on social media.
Ready to launch your clothing line? Build your own clothing website now.
