Does the inside of your closet look like a clothing boutique? Do you have an eye for great pieces and upcoming trends? Do you just want to earn some extra money selling clothes online? In any case, if you need a website for your clothing business, we are here to help. This guide will give you step-by-step information on how to create a website to sell clothes.
Being able to put together the perfect look doesn’t mean you have to be a tech wizard too. No one can do it all! Fortunately, building an online clothing store has never been so simple thanks to the many eCommerce platforms available to help.
To make things even easier, we’ve broken the process down into just a few steps. Check them all in one go or build your store at your own pace. With each step, you will be that much closer to your own clothing website!
1. Choose an ecommerce platform
Ecommerce platforms and website builders are online services that allow you to quickly and easily create a website for selling clothes (or anything else that interests you) . Sites like Ecwid by Lightspeed, Squarespace, and Wix come loaded with templates that take the hard work and coding out of website creation. Depending on the platform you choose, they also include a variety of features to help you customize your website and easily sell your products.
Changing your platform or website builder can be as easy as changing your clothes. It’s always a good idea to try different options until you find the one that works best for you and your clothing business. You’ll want to choose a platform that can help you build a website that looks beautiful, is easy to use, can handle the right amount of inventory, has great connectivity to social media and other marketplaces, and won’t break the bank.
Many platforms like Wix and Squarespace offer free trials that allow you to build your website and test features. Just be sure to cancel your account before the trial expires if you don’t plan on maintaining the site and don’t want to be charged.
If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of a limited-time free trial, Ecwid by Lightspeed is an excellent option. Ecwid by Lightspeed allows you to set up a free eCommerce website and keep it free indefinitely.
2. Give your store a name
Now you need to customize your website. In terms of personalization, choosing a name is one of the most important (and hopefully fun) steps! Your website’s name grabs your customers’ attention, sets the tone for their shopping experience, and lets them know what kinds of items they can expect to find on your clothing website.
Do you sell both dresses and clothing? outdoor items? wear? Call your site Gown Fishing. Do you sell vintage menswear and nautical-themed clothing? Go with Old Man and the Sea. You get the point. Just make sure you have fun while brainstorming. Over time, you’ll come up with a catchy and informative name.
For best results, make sure your business name is:
- Short. Limit yourself to 1-2 words in the name, 2-3 syllables per word.
- Easy to pronounce and write. Avoid using silent letters. Choose words that spell phonetically.
- Communicate brand values. Make it relevant to your target audience by using words that describe what your customers value.
More Info: Business Name Ideas: Choosing the Best Store Name
For example, Hibiscus Heroes sells clothing made from plant-based fabrics dyed in colors extracted from plants. They also highlight their plant-based approach in their brand name.
Once you’ve decided on a name, you can purchase the domain to make your website easier to find. Most platforms come with built-in options for buying a domain, so you can include the name you’ve chosen in the URL instead of something generic. This way, if your customers know the name of your website, they can type it into a search engine and quickly navigate to your store.
A perfect domain name should:
- be easy to spell, pronounce, remember and write (avoid punctuation, long words, etc.)
- contain your brand name or keywords relevant to your industry
- use a familiar domain extension, such as .com, .org, .net
3 . Design Your Digital Storefront
Website builders and eCommerce platforms make it easy to find the perfect look for your website. You’ll be able to choose from a wide variety of templates designed to best showcase the clothing you sell. There is often a cost associated with templates, especially the nicer looking ones, but most platforms offer some free options if you want to keep your costs down.
Ecwid by Lightspeed has plenty of stylish design templates and out-of-the-box that allow you to design a website to sell clothes in a couple of minutes.There are templates for different types of clothing stores so you can choose the one that best suits your business.
Since most of your customers will be shopping from their mobile devices, it’s also important to make sure that your the website looks good on mobile. Ecwid by Lightspeed allows you to fully create and manage your store on your mobile device. You can build your entire website, add products, manage orders and inventory, and more from the same view your customers will get.
4. Load Your Inventory
Simple as it may seem, loading inventory must be done with care. Try to imagine your clothing website as the sales floor of your favorite retail store. Is it messy or sparse? What kinds of items are front and center? Which ones are on the sides? Is everything jumbled up or are items separated into categories?
Based on your answers to these questions and your own preferences, you can easily upload your products using your platform’s built-in features. Be sure to include pictures showing your merchandise and detailed descriptions so customers can see what they’re buying.
For a clothing store, pictures are especially important since customers want to know what the clothes look like . Keep these best practices in mind when taking photos for your store:
- Take photos from different angles, if possible
- Cut out any extra clothing in the background
- Use light colors for the background of your photos
- Display the clothes of the models, preferably with different body types
- Add close-up images for clients to check out the material or pattern better
If you run an Ecwid store, there is a mouse-over zoom effect available for product images in desktop view. Customers can see even the smallest details in your product images, such as material, texture, and intricate patterns.
When writing descriptions for your clothing, be sure to include all relevant details of the clothes. These include sizes, colors, fit, fabric, and anything else you feel is important to mention. It’s also worth adding information on caring for clothing so customers know how to keep their clothes looking good.
Your clothing store should also be organized in a way that makes sense to customers, for example, categorize clothing by gender, type of clothing (shirts, pants), or season. This will help customers find what they are looking for quickly.
5. Set Up Your Payment Processor
Many website builders and e-commerce platforms have an internal payment processing system. Most also offer connectivity to other services, such as PayPal. Whatever your preference, this is not a step to skip. You want to make sure your customer’s money reaches their wallet.
When choosing a payment gateway, keep the following in mind:
- Safety and protection against fraud. A secure payment gateway is PCI DSS compliant and provides fraud prevention methods such as 3D Secure. Gateways may offer additional security features to protect their customers’ data.
- Payment processing fees. Most payment gateways charge a percentage or flat fee for processing each transaction. Double check if you can pay the gateway you want to use.
- Convenient payment options for customers. Most gateways allow you to accept payments in your store through credit and debit cards. However, digital wallets and other alternatives such as Apple Pay and Google Pay are becoming more popular, so it makes sense to offer them as well.
Ecwid by Lightspeed integrates with over 100+ Secure and convenient payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, Lightspeed Payments and more.
6. Share Your Clothing Store
Customers don’t often stumble upon your website by accident, but you should work to spread the word. Sharing your clothing store on social media or marketplaces helps to do just that.
You can start by creating social media pages for your business. Focus on the platforms where your target audience is located. Consider Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok; These visual-first platforms are especially useful for promoting clothing stores.
Share posts featuring your clothing on your company’s social media pages. You can also use social media to announce sales, new clothing lines, special events, and more.
As for markets, it makes sense to advertise your products on a wide range of platforms because people are already looking for clothes there. However, competition can be high, especially for popular clothing categories.
If you want to sell on social media and marketplaces, it’s important that your eCommerce platform allows you to sync your store with the social networks and markets. This way, you spend less time setting up and managing your store across different platforms.With an integrated platform, you can run all your trades from a single dashboard.
At Ecwid by Lightspeed, you can easily sync and sell across social media and marketplaces. You can sync your Ecwid store with a platform of your choice to set up a Facebook or Instagram store, or become an Amazon or eBay seller.
7. Promote and Sell
You’ve chosen a platform, built and customized your website, secured a domain name, added products, and discovered your preferred payment method. Congratulations, you’ve reached the final (and most important) step: selling clothes!
Now it’s time to double down on your store’s promotion. Here are a couple of ideas:
- Offer discounts and sales. Consider running a sale or offering a coupon code to encourage people to order.
- Take advantage of email marketing. Email campaigns are a great way to keep your clothing store top of mind and reach potential customers. You can also use emails to announce new arrivals or promotions.
- Consider running paid ads. Google Ads and social media ads can help you reach an audience quickly.
- Partner with other brands or influencers. Reach out to brands or bloggers who align with your clothing store and partner for mutual promotion.
Find more ideas for promoting your store with ecommerce marketing tips for beginners.
If your ecommerce platform has built-in marketing features, it makes promoting your product much easier. For example, Ecwid by Lightspeed has email marketing tools such as abandoned cart recovery and automated emails. It also allows you to promote your products through Facebook, Instagram, Google, Pinterest and Snapchat.
Summary
Starting a clothing store should be easy with the right platform, the website design and connectivity to other sites. As you sell, pay attention to which items are flying off the shelves the fastest, and which ones don’t get as much love. Always be ready to adjust prices and inventory to keep up with customer demands, and don’t be afraid to see what your competition is doing if you need some ideas.
Don’t forget that if you need support, Ecwid by Lightspeed offers live customer service to help you whenever you need it. It’s time to start your own clothing store!
Want to learn more about selling clothes online?
- Creating a clothing store: how to create a site Website to Sell Clothes
- Best Websites to Sell Clothes Online
- Proven Ways to Sell Clothes on Instagram and Make Money
- How to Sell Used Clothes Online
- How To Sell New Clothes Online
- How To Sell Clothes On Facebook
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