Are you into designer clothes? Would you like to turn this passion into a source of income or a side business? Do you want to sell designer clothes online?
Everyone is trying to generate some income through the internet and from the comfort of their homes these days. As we go through this pandemic, many of us have had to shift our lifestyles, change our mindset about earning income, and focus on starting a business run online.
Selling designer clothing over the internet does not require as much capital budget as opening a fancy boutique. There are no heavy shop renovation and security deposit costs. All it takes is to build a website and get started.
However, before you can create a website and start selling designer clothes, there are certain other steps that you need to take. In this post, we will be discussing those steps or strategies. If you can follow these, nothing is stopping you from starting an online business selling designer clothing.
Things to Consider Before You Can Sell Your Designer Clothes Online
To sell designer clothes successfully, you need to have certain personality traits and skills and take concrete steps to get the business running. These will propel you forward and help you get your first few customers quickly.
1. Be Fashion Savvy
People who can develop effective marketing strategies for selling designer clothing are really fashion savvy and passionate about the latest trends in the fashion industry. You can only sell designer clothes if you admire clothing and fashion and relate to your potential customer’s perception of the industry.
Suppose you are not a fashion-savvy person but want to become one. In that case, you can learn about the fashion industry by reading fashion magazines and blogs. Information is available everywhere these days. You just need to know how to curate it and organize it in a way that it’s easy for you to grasp. There are so many websites that have content on predictions for the clothing and fashion industry trends.
You might also want to look into other brands selling designer clothing and get ideas on the type of clothes you want to sell. Conducting a competitor analysis is wise to keep up with the quality and prices others are charging for items similar to the ones you want to sell. All this homework is easy to do if you have a passion for entering this line of business.
2. Learn Good Customer Service Skills
Whichever industry you operate in, and whether you sell your online or through a retail outlet, providing good customer service is key to satisfying your prospects and existing customers. To sell designer clothes successfully, you need to learn certain customer service skills pertinent to the fashion industry. These are skills particularly required for working at a boutique or managing the orders at a designer clothing website.
When you sell designer clothes online, your customer care could include a chat feature on your site that your site visitors can use to contact you anytime. That’s a fantastic way to get quick leads and convert them into sales. If your website is built on Strikingly, you can easily add a Live Chat widget to it.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Another way to provide good customer services is to keep customers informed about their order status at all times. If there is an expected delay in delivering the ordered item, informing the customer beforehand is better than making them wait and getting annoyed. Suppose the item they have ordered is out of stock. In that case, have options to either wait and receive a late delivery at a discounted price or recommend similar products you can deliver on time.
If your website is on Strikingly, managing your orders from your site’s editor is easy. You can see the customer’s name, due date, item ordered, and order status on the order tracking page. If an order is overdue, that means the customer needs to be informed asap, and corrective action has to be taken soon.
Image taken from Strikingly
If you sell designer clothes online, there is another added customer service you can provide. Suppose it’s feasible for you to manage according to your resources and cash flow. In that case, you can allow your customers to place custom orders for clothing as well.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
3. Master Marketing Skills
To get your business off the ground, you would definitely need to learn and master marketing skills. You might choose to build a sales or marketing funnel, channeling your audience from social media to your website subscription, product pages, leading to sales.
Even if your audience isn’t compelled to buy on their first visit to your site, you can convert them into leads using an attractive subscription form with a sign up invitation. Many businesses offer a free ebook download if you subscribe to their email list. Others commit to email you every time they have an ongoing sales offer on their website. Keeping in touch with your prospects like this is a marketing skill that every successful entrepreneur and marketer must-have.
4. Gain Digital Marketing Knowledge
Besides the general marketing skills, to sell anything these days, one needs to know digital marketing. Even if you are not selling your products or services online, you still need to have an online presence for your brand.
This is even more important when you are dealing with consumer products like designer clothing. During this pandemic, the best way to sell designer clothes is to sell them online through an ecommerce website. All your other digital marketing efforts can then be geared towards driving traffic towards that website.
5. Build an Ecommerce Website
Building a website nowadays is not as complicated and costly as it used to be several years ago. With the help of a suitable website building platform, you can get your website up and running in just a few hours. The best part is you don’t even need to know or learn any programming language for it.
If you build your website on Strikingly, we provide all the basic features of creating awesome landing pages in our Free Plan. You can showcase your products on the home page, and add a simple store to your site to sell designer clothes directly through the site.
To set up a simple store, go to your Strikingly editor and look for ‘Add New Section’. Then select ‘Simple Store’.
Image taken from Strikingly
We also offer multiple payment gateways for you to choose from, so your customers can conveniently pay. And you can receive your sales revenue directly from the site. This way, your website can serve as the one-stop platform for you to generate leads and sales from. Hence, a website built on Strikingly is actually the best place to sell designer clothes online.
6. Do Excellent Product Photography
When you sell designer clothes online, your customers cannot touch and feel the items before purchasing them. The product photos you upload are the only means they have to get the feel of the quality, color, design, and size. Therefore, you must have excellent photography skills and upload fantastic shots of every design or dress that you sell.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
These photos will be uploaded on your website and any social media pages that you integrate with your site. Linking your social media business profiles with your website helps drive traffic to and from all platforms, enhancing your brand’s overall search rankings.
7. Maintain a Steady Source of Merchandise
This is important, and it’s actually something you’ll need to figure out before starting your business altogether. You need to have a steady source of merchandise. You need to have a supplier or multiple suppliers who will provide you with the stock you’ll sell.
For selling designer clothing, it is safe to get hold of a few brands or supplies and have an agreement with them. If you rely on a single supplier, you might run out of stock if the supplier delivers late or has delays in their production process.
Look into other organizations or websites that sell designer clothes online and research where they are getting their stock. You might be able to get into partnerships and agreements that work in your favor big time in the long run.
If you can follow these seven steps, you’ll be on business selling designer clothes in no time. It might take some time before you start getting good sales, but it’s never late to start.
On the technical side, if you run your website on Strikingly, you will incur only minimal costs to maintain your online store. This helps sustain your business in the beginning months when your sales revenue is low and your cash is stuck in your stock.
Many new business owners are using Strikingly to sell products online. They are happy to work with us for a smooth web maintenance experience. So if you are wondering where to sell designer items, register with us for a free account and start building your website today.
