How to start a business selling clothes | 9 Simplified Steps

 

"Clothes signify nothing until someone lives in them," stated designer Marc Jacobs. When you own a clothing store, you are selling more than just clothes, you are selling aspirations. So, How to start a business selling clothes?

You offer garments that instill confidence in individuals. As long as you know the critical steps to make your goal a reality, starting your own clothing business from home is rather simple.

 

9 Steps to Start a Business Selling Clothes

1. Determine a Market Need

You may already have some ideas to start a business selling clothes. That's fantastic news, but don't rush in.

One of the main reasons new business owners fail is that no one wants what they're attempting to sell. And it would be a shame if you went through the entire process of learning how to establish your clothing brand only to fail miserably.

That is why, at this time, market research is your best friend.

There are numerous free and paid services available to ensure that your garment has a market need.

There are two forms of market research: primary market research (data you collect yourself) and secondary market research (data you acquire from other sources who have already done the study, such as Nielsen, NPD, and MarketResearch.com).

Be aware that purchasing research reports might be costly. If you're funding your startup with your own money, you might wish to prioritise primary research.

 

Here are some possibilities for primary market research:

• Search Google Trends for specific things to see what's staying or growing in popularity.
• Investigate Facebook Analytics to discover the likes, interests, and habits of potential customers or target audiences (more on that soon).
• Do some competitive research on other online apparel brands to see what people like and dislike (pay specific attention to negative comments - that's where you can swoop in and solve their problems!).

 

2. Determine Your Target Audience

Selecting a need and identifying a target audience go hand in hand since your items will be needed or desired by a certain group or groups of individuals.

And those are the people you want to reach. These are the folks with whom you will spend your days attempting to engage and connect. The better you understand such folks, the higher your prospects of gaining and retaining their business.

If you want to learn how to build a highly successful online clothes company, you must first define your target demographic.

Do your research till you grasp your target audience's demographics and psychographics:

• Age, gender, income, marital status, geographic region, and other demographics.

• Psychographics: their likes and dislikes, hobbies, interests, lifestyle attributes, purchasing habits, including which brands they currently shop with and why problems in their lives and how you may assist them to solve them.

 

3. Create a Business Plan for Your Clothing Line

A strong fashion business strategy will include:

• Who you are as a firm, including your workforce, goal statement, and products and services.
• What you're attempting to achieve, including precise, actionable, and quantifiable business objectives.
• Why do you believe the company will succeed? (this is where your market research comes in).
• How you intend to achieve your business objectives, supported by precise measures and methods.

Ideally, your clothes business plan should span the first three to five years of operation. Of course, things may not always go as planned, but you must have a goal to strive for.

More importantly, you need something to measure your progress so you can see if you're on pace to accomplish your goals or if you need to revise your original plan.

Furthermore, your clothing line business plan will be shown to potential investors and partners. If your plan is smart, strategic, clear, and promising, you will be much more likely to bring others on board to support and build your firm.

Most importantly, get private limited company registration online done to protect your business legally.

 

4. Begin Creating Your Clothing Line

Now comes the exciting part. Get your creative juices going and start working on your creations.

Here are some things to consider when creating your apparel line:

Always carry a sketchbook with you. You never know when inspiration will come, so be prepared to scribble down new ideas and inspiration.

Don't skimp on materials or overall product quality. Customers will notice if you cut corners to save money, especially if you're developing a luxury line or boutique.

Making your samples is a fantastic idea. An extensive understanding of the process will assist you in running your clothing business more smoothly, particularly when negotiating costs with your manufacturer. But don't get so engrossed in the technical aspects that you lose sight of your creativity and ability to design new things.

Begin assembling your "tech pack" as soon as possible. When it comes time to build your clothing line, this is the basic information you'll give to your manufacturer. Technical specs and product specifics such as measurements, materials, and accessories should be included in your tech pack.

 

5. Look for a Clothing Manufacturer

Finding the appropriate manufacturer is critical when learning how to establish a clothes company. That is why, before making a selection to start a business selling clothes, you should conduct a thorough study and thoroughly vet your possibilities.

Here are some suggestions for locating a clothes maker.

Think about if you want a domestic or an international manufacturer.

You may save money by using an overseas manufacturer, but the possible downsides, such as longer delivery delays or inferior product quality, may outweigh the savings.

If you live in the United States, you can find local apparel sellers through Handshake, a hand-picked wholesale platform that connects small businesses with US-based manufacturers and wholesale distributors.

 

6. Establish Your Clothing Brand

It's time to create the visual elements that will reflect your clothing lines, such as your business name, logo, graphics and illustrations, product photographs, and colour palette.

Doing all of the branding and design work might be daunting. If you don't have any design skills or the funds to employ a professional developer, there are lots of free, beginner-friendly resources available to assist you to keep costs low.

Check out Shopify's tools website to see what they have to offer, such as their:

• Business name generator 
• Logo maker
• Online video maker 
• Domain name generator 
• Slogan maker

 

7. Determine a Price Point for Your Products

To set suitable pricing, you must first determine how much it costs to make the commodities, often known as the cost of goods sold (COGS). COGS encompasses costs such as materials, labour, and production.

You should also examine your clothing line's expenses, such as how much you pay in warehouse rent, shipping charges, and employee salary.

Once you know how much it costs to run the firm, you can set a price that covers those expenses while also leaving you with a profit once all bills are paid.

 

8. Commence the Marketing Process

Marketing is an important aspect of learning how to run an online clothes business. After all, no one will buy from your store if they are unaware of its existence, right?

Ideally, you should begin planning your marketing strategy before your clothes business ever opens. That way, you'll be ready to go right away.

You begin by creating Facebook Ads, which are a popular way for clothing firms to increase their consumer base. Facebook has fantastic targeting options that will assist you in reaching the correct people.

If you don't have a lot of money to spend on ads, you may start with organic social media marketing methods that focus on providing great content that engages and entices people to follow and shop with you.

 

9. Begin with a soft launch, then seek additional investment and partnerships.

Now that you've established company registration online, a presence and generated some interest, you can unleash your masterpiece on the world.

It is the time to launch all of the marketing campaigns you've been working on. Continue to work on them and grow on them - as with everything else on the road of how to start a clothes company online, you'll need to explore and build as you go.

And now is the time to focus on business expansion by obtaining additional investment funds and forming collaborations with other companies.

Pitch your clothing line to stores that already sell products to your target demographic. Depending on the size of the organisation, you may need to contact several people before securing a meeting. Keep going!

Finding investment partners is the same. Make sure you have hammered down specifics, such as how much money you're asking for and where those dollars will be spent within your organisation before you submit it to them.