Planning to start your own clothing brand? Thousands of brands mushroom every month, but most of them fail within a few months. It takes mastering the basics to stay afloat in the market.
With print-on-demand services becoming more accessible, it now easier to set up your own clothing business. In this blog, you’ll learn the basics of starting your own clothing line from scratch. Let’s check out.
Tips to start your clothing brand
01. Explore and understand your target market
The first rule of starting any business is to understand the target market. This helps you build a strong brand identity. Also, you can personalize your clothing line as per their needs.
To understand your target audience, ask yourself some preliminary questions. For example:
Are your customers local or global?
Do they belong to a specific age group?
What gender do they belong to or what’s their income level?
What personality traits do they have?
Are they vegan or prefer sustainability?
What kind of brands do they follow?
What are their buying habits?
To find the answers to all these questions, we recommend conducting a quick survey. You can also take the help of Meta Ads to explore the demographics and psychographics of your competitor’s intended audiences.
As per a Zendesk report, about 68% consumers expect a personalized experience. So, it’s important to knowing your intended audiences.
02. Choose a suitable business model for your clothing line
A business model guides you through the process to make money from your clothing line. With it, you can find out what products your brand will sell, how will you market them, and handle logistics.
Here are the top clothing brand business models to choose from:
POD (Print-on-demand)
If you want to start a low-risk clothing business, POD could be the best pick. In this business model, you don’t have to stock up in advance as products are created when a customer orders.
This model allows business owners to personalize name brand clothing as per customers’ needs.
Here’s why to choose this clothing business model:
Low or minimum upfront cost
No need to stock up inventory in advance
You can create personal name brand clothing
Easy to experiment with new design
Dropshipping
In this clothing business model, a third party will look after inventory and shipping on your behalf. This helps you slash upfront costs while saving valuable time.
If you’re a fashion designer planning to start your own clothing brand, you can choose this option to cut back hassles.
Here’s why choose this business model:
Ni inventory handling
Minimal startup cost
Ideal for launching new products
Bulk manufacturing
As the name implies, this business model needs you to produce your clothing in bulk. You can even collaborate with the wholesale manufacturers for sourcing clothes in large quantities.
If you source clothing from a manufacturer then you’ll have to fulfill their minimum order quantity option. So, this business model is ideal for big fashion houses.
Here’s why choose this business model:
As compared to POD, cost per item is lower in this model
You have more control over quality, fit, and material
Ideal for big fashion brands or expanding businesses
In-house clothing manufacturing
This business model lets you control the entire process from manufacturing to shipping. The only way to succeed in this model is to keep the quality quotient higher. You get control over the design and creativity as well.
Here’s why choose this business model:
Control over quality, design, and process
Creative and unique products
Ideal for businesses to build their identity from scratch
03. Create a business plan
Once you’ve chosen your fashion clothing business model, it’s time to create a business plan. A well thought out business plan is essential to match your vision with doable steps, which will turn your business idea into a tangible entity.
Here is what your business plan should have:
Market research and analysis
Exploring and analyzing your target market is a fundamental step. This helps understand what your customers want. Also, it helps analyze competitors’ position in the market.
Legal business structure
Is your clothing business an LLC, a sole proprietorship, or corporation? Get a business license based on the structure.
In case of partners, predefine the roles to avoid collisions later. Make sure you sign contracts and split the profits among legible partners for smooth operations.
Unique value proposition
What you offer that your competitors don’t? Find and explore your value propositions. It could be better customer support, superior quality, a unique design, and a lot more. This will help draw the target audiences’ attention toward your brand.
Financial channels
How will you find your fashion clothing brand? Starting a fashion clothing brand needs you to focus on financing. Will you take out a startup loan, use your savings, or approach investors?
Add production, marketing, and store setup costs.
Pricing plan
Strategize prices, covering all your costs while staying in line with brand’s goals. Set a premium price for high-quality materials used in your clothing.
Sales medium
Strategize where you want to sell your products. Remember each sales channel, social media, emailers, online, and offline attracts different types of buyers. You need to build separate sales plans to target them.
Marketing strategy
Now comes the marketing plan. Strategize how you’re going to drive traffic to your clothing brand, convert them, and build a strong identity. Paid advertising, social media marketing, email marketing, or influencer collaboration isn’t only the quick-fix.
You need to go beyond these strategies to boost sales.
04. Start creating your brand identity
Once, you have decided on the pricing and marketing channels, let’s move toward building your brand image. A brand identity builds people’s perception about your business and how they set it apart from others in the same niche.
Here’s how to create a solid brand identity:
Get a clothing business name
A company name signifies what your business is all about. Think of all the possible words that describe your fashion brand. Coin and twist words to make a unique name. You can also check out this guide how to generate business name ideas for fashion companies to find some quirky ideas.
Alternatively, you can use a business name generator or AI tools to help you come up with unique business name ideas.
If you have found a name, check it to ensure it’s not been taken by anyone else. If the name is available, visit GoDaddy and register the domain.
Set your mission and vision statement
Every business should have a mission and vision statement to reflect their future aspirations. Explore the meaning of your brand and the values you want to provide. What would you do as a business once you achieve your goals?
Contemplating these aspects will help you find your mission and vision. Make sure it’s not more than fifty words.
Create your visual identity
Did you know 55% of a brand’s first impressions are visual? It means, your brand needs to have a strong visual presence to attract the target audience.
Choose the color palette, font, and logo that perfectly sum up your brand at a single glance. Hire logo design services to get a professional brandmark.
Once you get your visual identity right, ensure your brand looks and feels consistent across all channels and customer touchpoints. Only a consistent brand looks trustworthy and memorable.
05. Design and create your products
Once everything is done, start designing your products. Ensure following fashion design trends to know what’s in and what’s out. Based on this, you can incorporate the designs that your audiences may like. If you sell custom apparel, create your graphic designs and ask people’s opinion about it. Also create mockups to set up your store and once the launch is complete, replace it with real photos.
If you use print-on-demand services, order and check the samples. This will help avoid issues later.
06. Set up your online store
Setting up your online store for custom apparel involves various steps. Select an ecommerce store or choose a website builder to get one. Make sure to choose the right platform such as Shopify, WordPresss, Square, Wix, or Squarespace that suits your needs.
No matter which platform you choose, ensure it’s easy for the audiences to find and explore.
Once your website is ready, add videos and images of your products.
07. Market and sell your fashion clothing online
Once your store is set up, embark on a foolproof marketing strategy. How will you encourage your audiences to buy from you?
Here’s how you can reach your customers and encourage them to buy:
Paid advertising
Reach your customers via paid ads. You can learn the basics and run paid ad campaigns on Meta, Instagram, Google, and Pinterest. Each platform requires different approach, so ensure you know the basics. Find out which ads do your audiences prefer — carousel, video, or image?
Set a budget and start slowly. Over the period, once you have enough experience, you can increase the budget.
Join online communities
Another way to reach your target audience is by exploring online communities. From Reddit to Meta, you can explore these platforms to find groups matching your interests. Join and participate in groups actively to connect with your target audience.
Provide valuable and helpful content, suggestions, tips, and style guide to stay relevant. Keep on building your own community of people who are interested in your brand.
Conclusion
Starting your online clothing business without experience takes just a few steps. It takes clarity of what you want to do, a proper plan, business model, and strategic marketing. Once you stick to your brand’s core mission and vision, it becomes easier to start your fashion entrepreneurial journey.