It is quite obvious that clothing items are quite hot at the moment in the ecommerce market. That is due to the fact that we are faced with a huge commodity: people do not need to go to the store anymore. While shopping can be a lot of fun, we live in a world where time counts. Online stores that sell clothes keep increasing their sales as people become more aware of their existence.
As you are reading these lines, there is a pretty good possibility that you already have an online clothes store or maybe you think about opening one in the near future. This is a very good decision in terms of potential at the moment but that does not mean that it is easy. In fact, because of the many different stores that exist on the internet at the moment, we can say that it is hard. You will be faced with a huge competition and you need to hold the necessary knowledge to stand out of the crowd.
The tips that I will mention below are mostly common sense but many tend to forget about their importance. After working with many ecommerce sites thanks to a partnership with Fashionology Mag, I realized some facts that I would like to share with you. Whenever you open or run an online clothing store, make sure that you consider this advice. It will help you increase sales and profits at the end of each month.
Use A Customized And Yet Simple Design
The design of your online store needs to be memorable but for the right reasons. Most of the successful online clothing stores have a very simple design that is suitable to the niche (more on that below) and unique at the same time. We have to look at the ecommerce site as a brand extension. Your clients want to see your brand and this means that you have to add unique touches.
Use large images since potential clients want to see the clothes in detail. Try to add as much information as possible about every single product but let the image speak a thousand words for you. The layout has to be extremely accessible in terms of navigation and your homepage needs to feature a stylish slider that will highlight special deals you are offering at the moment. After all, these are the ones that will connect the best so you want the potential customer to know about them.
Only Use Templates That Are Industry Specific
You surely realized by now that there are many different ecommerce templates available for every single script you might want to use. Most people think that it is not important what template is chosen as long as it looks great and has some features. The problem is that during your research you might end up finding a template that you like but that is not appropriate for the clothing industry.
For instance, a couple of weeks ago I saw a site that sold customized t-shirts and that was incredibly similar to all the sites that present vehicles. I was a little confused since it was not what I was used to. This is the exact reaction that customers will have. People are already used with the feel of online clothing stores so you need to use templates that were created initially to serve as, well, online clothing stores.
Social Networking Rocks! Facebook, Pinterest & Twitter
It is sad to see that most online clothing stores out there do not have a proper social network presence. Few even have a Facebook page set up properly. The good news is that you can take advantage of this lack of work that is done by some business owners and leverage lower social networking competition to your advantage.
Think about one thing. How many times did you click on a link in Facebook simply because a friend recommended it? Chances are you did that today! This is the true power of social networks like Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. Try to grow the number of your followers and fans on all the major social networks. This will create interaction, make your brand seem more human and bring in the viral part of business. By that we mean people will end up promoting some of your products without you investing a cent in this process. Why not take advantage of possible sales that come with an incredibly low investment?
The Shopping Process Needs To Be Simple
As already mentioned above, people buy from an online store due to commodity. When the shopping process is really complicated, the potential client will end up frustrated, feeling like waiting in a line at the local brick and mortar store. This is something that will drastically reduce your conversions (numbers of sales made per clicks generated). With every single ecommerce platform out there we have some steps that can be taken in order to simplify the checkout process.
Another thing that I want to mention about the shopping process is that you need to have different payment options available. Some people simply buy just with a Paypal account and will never even think about entering their credit card details in an online form. Some people do not even have credit cards but they use the Paypal account of a friend.
Conclusions
Your online store will be a success if it brings in many sales. In order to do that, you will need to seriously consider absolutely everything that was written above. Many other things can be said but I think that these aspects are the ones that most website owners need to think about right now. Too many make the mistakes that were highlighted and that is a shame.
If you want to share your thoughts, feel free to do so in the comment section. Maybe you had a nice experience or maybe you made a mistake that stopped you from being a success. Since the online competition is so high, we can all learn from each other in order to succeed together.
