Do you want to start an online clothing store & sell your products online?
Here, I shared 6 steps that you need to follow to setup an e-commerce website for your clothing business.
#1 Think about the products
Before you dive into building an e-commerce store and start advertising your store, you need to ask yourself a few questions.
Here are but some of the important questions that you must answer before you proceed ahead:
Who is your targeted audience?
- Will you be selling your products to men, women or both?
- What age-group you will be looking at?
- Do your potential buyers need to have high purchasing power? Or you will be selling affordable clothes.
The answers to these questions will help you to create your website and write the content accordingly.
What kind & style of clothing you will be selling?
You may wish to focus on formals rather than casual clothing. Perhaps you may have more of a casual clothing collection. Whichever the case, you must know before you even proceed to build an online store.
What will your USP?
- What sets your clothing variety apart from your competitors?
- Do you have exclusive range of products or you wish to sell your products at the most affordable cost? Perhaps, you unique & latest designs could be your USP.
Once you have answered all of the above questions, you are ready to move to the next step.
#2 Think about the stock
The next step is to think about the inventory. How you are going to stock your products?
Will you manufacture the products on your own?
Or do you already have some kind of arrangements with a manufacturer?
There are pros and cons to consider for each option as you consider how to start your own online clothing business.
Perhaps, you may be willing to go for a dropshipping-model business where you do not need to worry about maintaining the stock of your products.
Your website development cost & effort may be affected if you want to go for a dropshipping business.
Recommended post: 5 Things To Know While Building A Dropshipping E-Commerce Website
#3 Think about company & domain name
Once you have decided upon the kind of products & stocking method, the next step is to think about your company name and domain name for your website.
A domain name is very important for your branding.
Here are some tips to choose a domain name for your e-commerce store:
- Keep it short.
- Should be memorable.
- Use keywords, if possible.
- Use product name, if possible.
- Use your brand name.
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#4 Hiring a website designer
This is perhaps the most important step in building your online store for clothing.
Although, there are several web developers and web design companies who can help you to create your e-commerce website, but you must ensure that you must choose reliable yet affordable website development services.
Your website developer or website designer must have all the essential qualities like:
- Experience
- Past portfolio
- Clients’ testimonials
- Project understanding
- Free support & warranty
- Long-term association
- Affordability
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#5 Web Hosting
After the completion of your website development, you must consider signing up with a reliable yet affordable web hosting provider.
A web hosting service can either make or break your online business. Therefore, you must consider well before choosing any web hosting provider.
If required, you must consult your website designer while selecting an appropriate web hosting package for your website.
Here are but few qualities that your web hosting company must have:
- Affordable pricing
- Minimum downtime
- 24/7 support
- Fast loading speed
- High configuration servers
- Security enabled
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#6 Website Testing
The last but not the least step in starting an online store for your clothing business is to test your website.
Yes, before you launch your e-commerce store and encourage people to buy from your website, you must test is properly.
Here are but some of the important aspects that you must test for, before launching your e-commerce store:
- User-experience
- Security of your website
- Cross-browser compatibility
- Website loading speed
- Mobile responsiveness
- Shopping cart process
- Payment process
- Order notification
- Shipping & Billing forms
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