Does the inside of your closet look like a fashion boutique? Do you have an eye for great pieces and upcoming trends? Just want to make some extra money by selling clothes online? Whatever the case, if you need a website for your clothing store, we’re here to help. This step-by-step guide will show you how to create a website for selling clothes.
You don’t have to be a techie to put together the perfect look. Nobody can do everything! Luckily, building an online clothing business has been easier than ever thanks to the many ecommerce platforms available.
Reading: How to create a free website for selling clothes
To make things even easier, we’ve broken the process down into a handful of steps. Check them all off at once or build your business at your own pace. With every step you take, you get a little 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 to sell clothes (or anything else that interests you ) for sale. Sites like Lightspeed’s Ecwid, Squarespace, and Wix are packed with templates that take the hard work and coding out of building websites. Depending on the platform you choose, they also come with a variety of features that allow you to customize your website and sell your products with ease.
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 best fit for you and your clothing store. You should choose a platform that will help you build a website that looks beautiful, is easy to use, can handle the right amount of inventory, has a great connection with social media and other marketplaces, and won’t break the bank.
Many platforms, such as Wix and Squarespace, offer free trial periods that you can use to build your site and test out features. Just make sure you cancel your account before the trial expires if you don’t plan on keeping the site and don’t want to pay any fees.
If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of a time-limited free one Trial, Ecwid by Lightspeed is a great option. With Ecwid by Lightspeed, you can set up a free e-commerce website and use it for free.
2. Name your shop
Now you need to customize your website. In terms of customization, choosing a name is one of the most important (and hopefully fun) steps! The website name grabs your customers’ attention, sets the tone for their shopping experience and lets them know what kind of items to expect on your apparel website.
Do you sell both apparel and outdoor? carry? Name your website Gown Fishing. Do you sell vintage menswear and nautical clothing? Go with Old Man and the Sea you understand what matters. Just make sure you have fun while sharing ideas. Finally, find a name that is both memorable and informative.
For best results, make sure your company name is:
- Short . Limit yourself to 1-2 words in the name, 2-3 syllables per word.
- Easy to pronounce and write. Avoid silent letters. Choose words that are spelled phonetically.
- Communicate brand values. Make them relevant to your audience by using words that describe what your customers value.
More Info: Business Name Ideas: How to Pick the Best Business Name
For example, Hibiscus Heroes sells clothing made from plant-based fabrics dyed with dyes extracted from plants. They also highlight their plant-based approach in their brand name.
See also: Menus
Once you’ve decided on a name, you can buy the domain to make your site easier to find. Most platforms have built-in options for buying a domain, so you can put whatever name you choose in the URL instead of something generic. This way, if your customers know your website name, they can type it into a search engine and quickly navigate to your store.
A perfect domain name should:
- easy to spell, pronounce, memorize and type (avoid punctuation, long words, etc.)
- include your brand name or keywords relevant to your industry
- use a well-known 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 can choose from a variety of templates designed to best showcase the clothing you sell. There’s often a cost associated with templates – especially the ones that look the best – but most platforms offer a few free options if you want to keep your costs down.
Ecwid by Lightspeed has plenty of these sleek ones , pre-made design templates to help you design a website selling clothes in 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 are shopping on their mobile devices, it’s also important to make sure your website is visible good in mobile form. With Ecwid by Lightspeed, you can build and fully manage your business on your mobile device. You can create your full website, add products, manage orders and inventory, and more from the same view your customers will get.
4. Upload your inventory
Although seemingly simple, uploading inventory should be done carefully. Try thinking of your apparel website as the floor space of your favorite retail store. Is it cluttered or sparse? What types of objects are in the foreground? Which ones are on the sides? Is everything mixed up or are items divided into categories?
Depending 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 images showing your goods and detailed descriptions so customers can see what they are buying.
For a clothing store, images are especially important as customers want to know how the clothes look like. Keep these best practices in mind when creating images for your store:
- Take pictures from different angles if possible
- Cut out any additional clothing in the background
- Use light colors for the background of your photos
- Show clothing on models, preferably with different body types
- Include close-ups so customers can see the material or See patterns better
If you run an Ecwid store, a zoom-on-hover effect is available for product images in desktop view. Customers can see even the smallest details like material, texture, and intricate patterns in your product images.
When you write descriptions for your clothing, be sure to include all relevant clothing details. This includes sizes, colors, fit, fabric and anything else you think is important to mention. It’s also worth adding information on how to care for garments so customers know how to keep their clothes in good condition.
Your clothing store should also be organized in a way that makes sense for customers – for example: categorizing clothing by gender, clothing type (shirts, pants), or season. So customers can quickly find what they are looking for.
5. Set up your payment processor
Many website builders and ecommerce platforms have an internal payment processing system. Most also offer connectivity to other services like PayPal. Whatever your preference, this is not a step to skip. You want to be sure that your customers’ money finds its way into your wallet.
When choosing a payment gateway, consider the following:
- Security and fraud protection. A secure payment gateway is PCI DSS compliant and offers fraud prevention methods like 3D Secure. Gateways can provide additional security features to protect your customers’ data.
- Payment processing fees. Most payment gateways charge a percentage and/or flat fee for processing each transaction. Double check if you can afford the gateway you want to use.
- Convenient payment options for customers. Most gateways allow you to accept credit and debit card payments in your store accept debit card. However, digital wallets and other alternatives like Apple Pay and Google Pay are growing in popularity, so it makes sense to offer them too.
See also: Multiplayer
Lightspeed’s Ecwid integrates with more than 100+ secure and convenient Payment gateways including PayPal, Stripe, Lightspeed Payments and more.
6. Share your clothing store with others
Customers often don’t come across your website by accident – you need to put in some effort to make it known. Share your clothing business on social media or marketplaces to do just that.
You can start creating social media pages for your business. Focus on the platforms your audience is on. Think Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok; These visual platforms are particularly useful for promoting clothing stores.
Share posts featuring your clothes on your company’s social media pages. You can also use social media to announce special offers, new clothing lines, special events and more.
For marketplaces, it makes sense to promote your products on a variety of platforms because people are already looking for clothes there. However, the competition could be fierce, especially in popular apparel categories.
If you plan to sell on social media and marketplaces, it’s important that your e-commerce platform allows you to integrate your store with social media and to sync marketplaces. This way you spend less time setting up and managing your shop on different platforms.With an integrated platform, you can run all your operations from a single dashboard.
With Ecwid by Lightspeed, you can easily sync and sell across social media and marketplaces. You can sync your Ecwid store with your platform of 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, created and customized your website, secured a domain name, added products, and identified 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 in-store promotion. Here are a few ideas:
- Offer discounts and sales. Consider running a sale or offering a coupon code to encourage customers to place their orders.
- Leverage email marketing. Email campaigns are a great way to get your clothing store noticed and reach potential customers. You can also use email to announce new arrivals or promotions.
- Consider running paid ads. Google Ads and social media ads can help you get started quickly reach larger audiences.
- Collaborate with other brands or influencers. Reach out to brands or bloggers who work with your clothing store and form partnerships for co-promotion .
Find more ideas for promoting your store with ecommerce marketing tips for beginners.
If your ecommerce platform has built-in marketing capabilities, it will Promote your product much easier. For example, Lightspeed’s Ecwid has email marketing tools like abandoned cart recovery and automated emails. It also allows you to promote your products via Facebook, Instagram, Google, Pinterest and Snapchat.
Summary
Setting up a clothing store should be done with the right platform and website design be simple, and connectivity to other websites. When selling, pay attention to which items are flying off the shelves the fastest and which aren’t getting as much love. Always be ready to adjust prices and inventory to keep up with customer demands, and don’t be afraid to check out what your competition is doing if you need some ideas.
Don’t forget that If you need assistance, Ecwid by Lightspeed offers live customer support to help you when you need it. Time to open your own clothing store!
See also: Planning Your First WordPress Project
Want to learn more about selling clothes online?
- Create a clothing store: how to create a website to sell clothes sell
- Best sites 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
.
