Would you like to earn money with your hobby? More and more people are selling their own jewelry and clothing through a small webshop. In this way, you can earn money with your hobby. More and more people are also importing clothing or other accessories and then selling it in their own country. Many companies sell their products through a webshop because the costs are relatively low. However, starting up a webshop is not realized within one day. On this page, we would therefore like to give various tips to start a successful clothing store. We will show you some insights step by step.
Determine Your Margins
First of all, it is important to determine the selling price. How long does it take you to make your own jewelry or clothing? You have to determine how much money you want to earn per hour. When you import, you have to keep a close eye on how much time you put into it in addition to the purchase price. The number of hours must also be recouped. There are other costs such as a website and shipping costs. Perhaps another commercial building for storage. Either way, map out all costs and determine what you want to earn at least per hour. Open Excel and clearly map out all costs and revenues. This gives you a clear insight into the costs and benefits. This forms the basis for taking further next steps.
Determine The Sales Market
When you have mapped out all costs and revenues, you can also better determine a sales market. This is the market where you want to sell the clothes. This can be done in your home country but also abroad. In the sales market you have different segments. With a high sales price, it is smart to focus on the higher and luxury segment. It is better not to display cheap products in the higher segment. When you are going to focus on the higher segment, you have to take into account the promotion costs and packaging costs. People expect, for example, a more luxurious packaging or bag for your clothing or jewelry. The website must also look more luxurious, for example, which of course will also cost more money. Within the sales market and segments you also have different target groups that you have to take into account.
Target audience
Many starting entrepreneurs want to sell to everyone. This is often a bad choice. When focus is placed on a certain target group, you have a differentiator compared to other competitors. A target group is therefore another branch of the sales market. For example, Gucci wants to focus on the higher segment of the target group that wants to spend a lot of money on clothing and accessories. Tommy Hilfiger focuses on the same segment but a different, broader target group. More people are wearing Tommy Hilfiger because it is more accessible in price. Fewer people buy Gucci, but the selling price is higher. In short, map out your target group well. This is possible with so-called “perosona’s”. Here you visualize fictional customers that you would like to focus on. For example, you know the contact moments of the customer journey. Just as an example: Rolls Royce does not advertise on television because it wants to appear exclusive. Their promotion lies with movies such as James Bond. They pay for James Bond to drive a Rolls Royce. A good example that has been well thought out.
Sales channels
You used to choose a sales channel offline or online. Nowadays offline and online is a real advantage. People want to feel the clothes and jewelry in physical stores. Buying something quickly should also be possible via the webshop. Here again, you have to take the target group into account. Luxury physical stores must be close to the target group in luxury areas. Cheap clothing stores, on the other hand, do not have to have an A location. Online appearance is everything. Cheap clothing stores should mainly focus on the price. However, luxury clothing stores must have the overall picture right. The customer wants an optimal user experience on the website, where the price is not an issue. If you want to set up a website for multiple countries, it is important to translate the texts properly. After all, you don’t want to have strange sentences with spelling mistakes. Fortunately, there are many translation agencies that can help you with that. For example, Translation Agency Perfect who, with their years of experience and expertise, can translate a website well. As a result, the image and message are not lost.
Import en export
You always have to deal with imports. After all, you have to buy the basic supplies to make your own clothes and jewelry. When you buy clothing and jewelry, this is most likely also abroad due to lower purchase prices. You must take into account the shipping time and associated costs. Quality also plays a greater role in this. It’s not for nothing that companies in several countries buy their supplies. With a so-called supplier matrix, you can choose the perfect suppliers. If language is a barrier for you, you can have the import and export documents professionally translated by a translation agency. Certainly large orders with high costs, it is wise to understand all the small prints. You have to know who is at risk and who is responsible where.
Customer is king
Customers only want one thing, clothes and jewelry that make them feel good. Where one customer feels good with a cheap product, the other customer feels good with expensive designer clothes. It is therefore important to put the customer first. Customers do not want to know about the import, export and target audience. Customers want to buy clothes and jewelry from you because they want it. So treat every customer as unique and not as one of your target group. When the customer is heard and feels beautiful, the customer will feel at home at your clothing store. In the so-called Net Promoter Score, these customers are the so-called promoters. They will promote your company for free and subconsciously by, for example, telling you about your company during a birthday. After all, the best advertising is word of mouth. So make sure that every customer makes purchases with a big smile.
Finally
Starting your own clothing store entails many things that you need to think about. Starting a clothing store is therefore not arranged within one day. So mainly look at other clothing stores to see how they are doing. When you have largely carried out the above steps, you will see that having your own clothing store is great fun. You have to get energy and passion from happy customers. The most important way to get happy customers is from great customer service. More and more specialist clothing stores are gaining ground in the clothing industry. So don’t wait any longer and start today to start your own clothing store.
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