E-commerce is now a multi-billion dollar industry. And with more and more people turning towards shopping over the internet, this industry can only grow bigger in worth. Before now, only few players were known—the likes of Amazon, EBay, Wal-Mart, and others. But now that the industry has become much easier to break into, new online retail stores spring up every day.
Yet, there is still much room for additional player—due to the increasing rate at which people shop online. While you have the option of starting a retail store that sells virtually everything (like Amazon), you will need huge capital to start such. And even after its launch, you will spend big on running and growing the business. Now, does that mean starting an online retail store isn’t for entrepreneurs with moderate budgets? No.
Even with a meager startup budget, you can set up your own online retail store. However, you will need to “start small” by focusing on a specific niche, such as offering just a product line. Many of the successful retail stores started this way. An example is Amazon, which started as an online bookstore before expanding its scope to include other product lines.
Focusing on selling clothes is a good way to start small. Clothes and fashion accessories are always in huge demand selling them is usually very profitable. In addition, you don’t need to break the bank before starting an online retail store that sells clothes. Like that idea? Good. So, let’s talk more about it.
By selling clothes online, you will be focusing on a specific niche and a well-defined target market. And you can easily channel all your energy and resources towards one direction, since you are not targeting multiple markets or offering a wide range of products. So, if you play your cards right, your clothing store has great chances of success.
As is the case with any other business, starting an online clothing store requires adequate planning, which takes lots of time and effort. Here are the steps involved in starting a successful online retail store that sells clothes.
5 Easy Steps to Make an eCommerce Website That Sells Clothes
1. Write your business plan
Even though it’s an internet-based business, you need to write a comprehensive business plan for your online clothing store. This plan will detail the proposed name for your business and other important details, such as your products, target market, required startup and running costs, management summary, market analysis and marketing strategy, projected income, and so on.
Since you will be selling to customers through your website, you need to differentiate your website from the thousands that are already offering the same products online. Define strong reasons why customers should favor your own website rather than from the several other options they have. These are your unique selling points, and they should go into your business plan, too.
2. Register your domain
Since you will use your website to sell clothes to customers, your first step towards setting it up is to register a domain name. You have many options when it comes to choosing a domain name registrar. But I recommend GoDaddy or Namecheap.
Pick a name that is easy to remember, suggestive of what your business is all about, short, and brandable. And ensure that it ends with the .com extension because this is what most people—including your customers—will find easiest to remember.
3. Buy a hosting plan
You also need to purchase a hosting plan from a hosting service provider. The hosting plan is the “space” which holds your website on the internet. And the specific option you will choose depends on your business’s needs. Hostgator, Bluehost, and iPage are examples of reputable providers of web hosting services.
4. Install and design your website
Having registered your domain name and purchased a hosting plan, you can start designing your website. Ensure that the theme of the website goes well in line with what you offer. And carefully choose everything from colors to fonts to navigation styling and so on. The user-friendliness of your website matters a lot. It can either hook customers or repel them.
Aside the aesthetics, you need to write and put up compelling content on your “about us,” “why us,” and other pages of the website. And you need to integrate a very secure and easy-to-use payment processing system for receiving payments from customers. If you have a solid background in website design yourself, you can set up your website yourself. Otherwise, you will need to hire the services of a professional website designer.
5. Get started
Upload your inventory to the website and start marketing your business aggressively. Since the business is internet-based, online marketing strategies such as search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising and social media will work best.