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Last Updated on January 9, 2022 by Work In My Pajamas
The online retail industry is growing by leaps and bounds, with over 1.66 billion people buying things on the Internet (Statista). If you want to get into business by starting an online clothes shop, you will have every chance of making it a success. This is a great time for trading with predictions being made which say that average revenue per vendor will continue to grow at least in the near future (ShopifyPlus).
One of the main benefits of entering this particular industry is that you can cut the initial costs by building a company from home. However, bear in mind that running a business is a big life change. This means you’ll need to adjust your lifestyle and habits if you want to achieve success. You can get some ideas on how to do this here.
In This Post:
6 Steps to Building an Online Clothing Shop
1. Draw Up a Business Plan
Any kind of business project must begin with a detailed plan. Don’t worry if you don’t have specialized education – today you can research how to draw up a business plan online. As an online clothes shop is a pretty standard venture, be guided by existing examples of good planning. You can find some here and here.
2. Get Financing
Depending on your situation, you can either use your own funds to start up or else apply for a loan. In the latter case, you will need a detailed and attractive business plan to present to lenders.
The advantage with an online clothing store is that you won’t need a large initial outlay. You can create a website using free templates and find cheap hosting in many places. You can also use direct sales companies to get the products to sell. You should research the clothing lines you can sell from home carefully – choose something which resonates with you personally so that you can be a model for your future products. This kind of approach would be a great addition to a personal blog, where you could model the items when posting about fashion.
3. Sort Out the Legal Issues
Research what the legal requirements are for running an online clothing store in your country or state. It’s essential that your business is legal from day one as this will help you to avoid unnecessary setbacks along the way. You should also set up a bank account for your new shop as it’s always wise to keep all business and personal finances separate.
4. Create a Website
You can build a website yourself without any professional training. A reliable hosting service should include a free website builder with the package. This software has a very simple interface, which you can master fast. Go for WordPress if you are a complete novice – this platform hosts over 32% of all websites. Creating WordPress websites is easy and there is a great platform for using eCommerce with those platforms which is called WooCommerce. WordPress also provides a multitude of themes and plug-ins, which will allow you to customize your store.
5. Get the Products
Depending on the business route you decide to use, you might wish to stock up on the products which you will be selling. Don’t go all out at the beginning, but rather make sure you have a way to get supplies fast if your business takes off rapidly.
6. Market Your Shop
When running an online store you will need to increase your traffic constantly. It will be essential to market your shop through social media and paid ads. Optimize your website for Google and focus on developing your blog to boost the shop’s visibility. Click here to get some tips on how to attract online traffic.
Starting an online clothes shop from home is easy, but this business will succeed only if you are committed to it.
In terms of marketing from an SEO standpoint a good option is to use a blog so you can constantly add content over time. So with that in mind, WordPress is the perfect choice as it can be used for ecommerce and as an effective blogging platform.