While launching your own clothing brand is challenging in this fast-paced world of the fashion industry but thanks to eCommerce and online marketing Starting an online business is now more accessible than ever before and it just might be possible to turn a brand that began in a small inline store into a clothing brand that's beloved nationwide.
Now that you have taken the leap, figuring out what to do next can be the trickiest part. You can picture success in your mind, but the space between that and your current situation looks a little blank at the moment. So, where exactly do you begin? Great question because this is your definitive guide on how to start a clothing brand from scratch!
Let’s get started.
1. Find your target audience
Start by identifying your target audience. This is a marketing term that you’ll hear time and time again, but that’s only because it’s so important! When you figure out what your ideal client is, you’ll start to understand how you can promote your pieces more effectively.
To find your target audience that fit in your niche, start with what inspired you to start your clothing line and then ask yourself these questions.
1. What is their basic demographics profile: age, gender & location?
This is the simplest form of defining your target audience, and these are metrics that are easy to input into digital advertising platforms. Location is important for both online and offline stores. You might find that your swimsuits sell better in coastal cities, or your handbags are more popular in urban areas.
2. What are their interests?
How do they spend their free time and what is their passion? These will help you where to reach your target market. You can then tailor paid social, native advertising, partnership, and influencer marketing toward these interests.
3. What’s their household income and/or discretionary income level?
Your price point is going to be highly correlated to the household income of your customer, so you want to make sure that you are priced correctly for the type of customer you envision.
4. What do they do for work, and in what industry?
By answering this question, you’ll get a better sense of how to reach them. This is especially true if your clothing or product carries something that they’d want to work.
5. What are they reading, watching and listening to?
Learning how your target market consumes their information and entertainment is obviously key to finding the right place to reach them.
6. What forms of communication do they use to express themselves?
Not only are you looking for ways to engage with your target market, but you also need to know they will communicate with you if they have questions or concerns. It’s also good to know how they would communicate with their friends to give you referrals if they really loved your product. Do they prefer to communicate via social media, digital channels like blogs and emails, or offline in-person communication?
7. What brand are they buying now?
This will, of course, include your competitor brand, but it should also include brands that you could align yourself with as complementary partners. Either way, looking at these brands will give you a better sense of messaging, targeting and branding that connects with your target customers.
8. What drives their decision-making for products like yours?
This is the question that will most likely get answered through customer service, surveys, social media, anecdotes, etc. It can help drive your messaging on your website, in your FAQ and in overall content.
2. Choose your Product
Once you have targeted your customer, it’s time to choose your products. Will you be selling short-sleeve shirts or dresses? Say you have decided to open a clothing store aimed at a yoga fitness niche, instead of putting a variety of products on your proposed list, isolate the must-have products you can launch with. However, if you’re tempted to jump in and sell everything this could be your undoing before you’ve started.
What should you consider when choosing your product? Here are the top three tips to deal with this question!
- Start small
Adding too many products upfront will not only add extra admin cost, but it can also add complications when you first launch. The complication can affect the service you give, and as a new store in a very competitive market, customer service, or the lack thereof, can make or break your business.
- Think ahead
choosing a stable product at first that can be easily changed to suit the changing lifestyle. If you’ve decided to go mainstream fashion, plan for the changing style by creating a store that adapts, such as drop shipping orders, which will make sure you are not stuck with unsellable stock. Ultimately, in the clothing game, there will always be shifts, so success will depend on our ability to think ahead and be innovative and creative in dealing with the changes.
- Set your focus
Be as specific and narrow as you can at the beginning, but have an eye on the end goal. Think where you see your online clothing brand extending in the future, and make sure that you’re focusing on the end goal. This will ensure that, as you add products to your range or line and grow your store in your niche, you will be able to implement new or trending clothes into your store more seamlessly.
3. Pick a Business model
Now that you know your niche and have an idea of the product you want to sell, it’s time to pick a business model for your online clothing store business. There are four types of business models that online clothing and apparel store fall into:
- Private Label
- Custom cut-and-sew
- Print-on-demand
- Drop-shipping
Each business model has its own pros and cons and choosing between them should be based on your overall objective, budget, and skills.
Let’s look at each of them more closely
1. Private Label
If you want to design and create your own unique clothing line then this business model is for you. Where clothing is purchased and branded under your own company’s name. You’ll need to find a manufacturer who will provide you with clothing and besides, he may provide varying levels of customization, however, there won't be a need to design the goods from scratch.
Pros
- This can be a lot more cost-effective as you negotiate better rates for buying bulk.
Cons
- There are some drawbacks, such as having to deal with fulfilment and inventory management yourself. However, some platforms will help you streamline the process, such as Threadbird.
2. Custom cut-and-sew
This type of model is for those who want to build their clothing line from scratch. Meaning, you do everything from designing your clothing to manufacturing.
Pros
- The biggest advantage here is that you are selling something very unique and can customize as you see fit.
Cons
- It comes with a lot of management, as you will be responsible for finding and coordinating your own pattern-making and manufacturers, sourcing your own fabric, etc. This means a lot of upfront budget and time need to launch your first line.
3. Print-on-demand
It’s the easiest type of model as well as the cheapest. All you need to do is to create a design that you can market and sell directly to customers as design onto blank apparel and everything is automated.
Pros
- This can work well for items that are quickly produced and it prevents you from needing to have an enormous stock of inventory in items of finished products.
Cons
- This model generally has lower profit margins and offers few options in the way of branding tags, labels, and other finishes it sells.
4. Drop-shipping
If you are interested in curating products from sellers that align with your brand instead of manufacturing them yourself, this model can be a good option. Drop-shipping clothing stores allow you to sell clothing that is fulfilled by wholesalers.
Pros
- This is a cost-effective route, as you don’t have to deal with buying stock upfronts, storing, packing, or shipping. To start your drop-shipping business, just integrate your eCommerce website with drop-shipping companies, find great products, and start selling.
Cons
- Drop-shipping has some downsides, especially considering the overall lack of control. You can’t control who else is selling the product that you are, which can drive-up the competition levels. You also have little quality control or influence on inventory available on your end, aside from delivering customer service.
4. Raise Funds
After you have a business model and know what to sell, you’ll want to gather funding. When you’re doing this, remember that you yourself likely won't make a large profit or be able to take a salary right away.
Before asking for funds, break all your projected costs down, line-by-line, and try to estimate at-least 5% over what you think you’ll need. This will allow you to be prepared for unexpected costs that arise. Try to minimize your initial costs as much as possible. So let's see what are the major options to collect funds.
Self Funding
A small fashion start-up business can be boot-strapped also known as self-fund. Starting from the very little amount of money and then grow organically without taking on debt.
- This is best if you are making clothing yourself, you’ll start to need some basic equipment to start with, including a sewing machine, a thread, and material.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding means raising funds from multiple individual investors or donors for your brand by sharing some details such as product features, the development program progress, and the roadmap for the future along with various tiers of investments. The interested investors and donors then get in touch with the Founder or startup and then start funding the project through the platform.
- You can go with this option of raising funds if you want to see whether your idea has merit without taking on a ton of financial risk.
Incubators
As the name suggests, this is the place to go for guidance for your startup. Not just funding, they also provide you nourishment needed from all perspectives during the early stage of your brand. They are early growth enhancers and provide much-needed multi-dimensional support services starting from office space sharing to access to finance.
- So if you are in the early stage of business and have some proven proof concept that you have some customers then this fundraising completely option makes sense.
Venture capital
With venture capital, the investor is providing money to a startup that they believe has long-term growth potential. They stay in the company until it shows exponential growth. For a more early-stage company, it could be an “angel investor”, as in a high net-worth individual, or a revenue capital who provides a “seed round” of funding.
- Venture capital option comes in handy when you are trying to raise over a million dollar amount.
Friends and Family financing
Brands often launch with a friends-and-family round. These options, of course, tend to allow more flexibility than others, but it’s always important to let them know it may take some time before they’ll get paid back.
- You can go with this method if you want to raise a small amount and have no want and don’t have a lot to show in the way of success.
5. Price
Pricing can be one of the hardest things for businesses to figure out and figure out how to make a profit is even harder in order to make a profit, make profit run a smart calculation to determine how much it will cost to create your clothing line collection, which will allow you to plan and think about pricing. Remember to choose a price point that will cover your production cost but doesn’t alienate the customers you will need to launch your fashion brand.
Generally, when you’ll start your clothing brand, the cost will include:
- Design
- Manufacturing
- Inventory storage and management
- Packaging
- Marketing
- Shipping
- Legal contract
- Taxes
- Website
Once you know how much it will actually cost to get you started with your fashion brands, compare that with the funds you actually have. Then plan how you’ll make up any difference.
6. Online Presence
A recent study shows that 97% of consumers research their purchase online before they buy something. So, in today’s world, you cant start a business without an online presence. It’s the easiest place to find you and get answers so that people can take the next step and buy clothes.
Start by ensuring your website design truly embodies your brand. Visitors should be able to understand who you are and what your fashion brand is as soon as they arrive. Your website’s visual design and marketing copy should project your brand’s voice and identity. Here are some suggestions:
- Use your brands color
- Prominently feature your logo
- Write marketing copy with your target audience in mind
- Showcase your fashion design aesthetic
- Make a “Contact us” page
By making an online presence, the major factors that increase profit in the clothing industry are:
Variety to display: It is difficult to showcase all your products in a physical store but if you have a means of online presence, you will be able to showcase everything that you deal with.
Increase accessibility: You can’t expect to have customers from far places but through an online presence, you can reach customers worldwide with your clothing designs. That is to say, you increase your client.
Product Quality: By means of having an online presence, you give your customer the opportunity to compare your products with those of others. As you improve your quality more customers will be drawn to your online store and you will profit.
Saving time: This is applicable for both you and your customer. By being online you save a lot of time for your customer as they can select, compare and place orders instantly, which you can deliver to their doorstep. It will also be saving time for you as you don’t have to sit at your store all day.
7. Make it legal
Now you’ve done the work and you’re ready to start selling. The last thing you need is to make your clothing brand legal. To this end, there are a handful of tasks you’ll want to accomplish:
- First, you’ll want to select your business entity type like a sole proprietorship, LLC, S-corp, etc. There are pros and cons to every type, so you’ll want to think about which best suits your plans and goals. If you’re planning on starting small, you might opt for sole proprietorship and then create an LLC or corporation at a later time.
- Then you have to register your business. Depending on the entity type you choose, you may have to officially register your business with the state where you’ll be operating. Even if you’re not required to register with the state, you might decide to file a DBA, or doing business, to officially register your chosen business name.
- Get business licenses and permits as you’ll likely need a general business operating license to officially start your clothing business. If you’re going to be operating from your home and starting your clothing line online, you may need a special permit like a sales tax and home occupation permit as well.
- Get an employer identification number. Part of starting a clothing line, or any business for that matter, is registering for and paying business taxes. Therefore you’ll want to apply for an EIN with the IRS. Although an EIN isn’t required for all businesses, getting one can help you file your taxes, apply for a business bank account, as well as access business financing.
Be sure to double-check that your name is not already taken! I’m sure you don’t want to deal with any legal battles.
Now you are all set to start your clothing brand. Good luck!
