Fashion is always the in thing. People need to be clothed and we all want to be well dressed all the time, whether it’s for work, going out or for functions. Better still if we can be well dressed for less!
These days, many fashion stores are mushrooming, not only in malls but also on cyberspace. There are many net entrepreneurs who sell their fashion items online either from an e-commerce site or from blogs. And these have become the acceptable channel of purchase for many customers.
If you’re thinking of jumping onto the bandwagon to start a small fashion store, be it a physical store or an online fashion store, read on below for ideas and resources on how to get started.
If you are completely new to this business, you may want to start small and part time (if you hold down a full time job). Do some market testing before you head into this business big time. You need to see how you can tap into the market and find a niche amongst all other fashion retailers before you spend big money on this business.
Start by researching all kinds of fashion boutiques offline and online to give yourself some knowledge of the fashion industry. Study the trend of what people are selling and what people would buy. Then you need to think about what fashion line you would like to get into, is it going to be clothes, bags, shoes, jewelries or a bit of everything to offer a one-stop shop? If it is a clothes business, what kind of fashion do you want to enter into? Korean and Japanese designs, American or European designs, etc. If you want to go into jewelries, are you going to offer any kind of jewelries or would you want to specialize, say Swarovski crystal jewelries, silver jewelries, etc.
Once you have decided on your fashion products and concept, you need to look for affordable suppliers who can best deliver to your needs. Do lots of homework to check out who has the products as well as quality of products that you want, wholesale prices that fit your budget, delivery options that work for you, as well as payment methods that are acceptable to you. You may want to work with more than one supplier for variation of products that they each have to offer.
If you are cash strapped or concerned about how your business will take off, negotiate with your supplier for you to take in a small order to test the market. Bring in a small shipment to start with so that you are not bogged down with stocks and tie up your cash. You may want to bring in just 3 to 4 colour variation for each product and in just one size each to start. Sometimes, being exclusive in selling limited number of each design works well for customers. Some people pay for designer fashion because they only come in one piece!
You may also contact some new or up and coming local designers and talk about marketing their clothes for your business. You may negotiate and see how they feel about you taking on their labels on consignment basis. This may be a win-win situation for both of you.
Next, you must have ready avenues to be in touch with the market. Be it at your home, shop, weekend markets or online store, you need to start making your products known to people. Get help from others to help spread the word about your new business and your exciting products. You can also invest in some advertising by giving out printed flyers or
If you are selling your products online, it is recommended that you invest in a good camera to take pictures of your products to be posted on your site. A picture paints a thousand words, so take nice and clear pictures of your products and provide some write-ups to accompany the pictures too. Always offer a point of contact so that if potential customers want to have more information or clarification, they can easily look you up. Be sure to respond as quickly as possible to show good customer support and service.
You also need to think about the kind of payment methods to offer to customers. If you are running a physical shop, of course the most direct and easy payment method is cash over the counter when customers purchase your products. You may want to offer the use of credit cards but you will need to apply for this service with your selected payment gateway provider. Being new in business, this may prove to be a difficult task and may cost you quite a bit to set up. So do consider accepting cash only payment terms to start with.
If you are running your fashion business online, you can get your customers to do cash deposits to your selected bank account or payment via PayPal. The former is the most popular method and have come to be very acceptable with many online shoppers. It’s almost hassle free with everyone if they have the use of internet GIRO to transfer their payments online. It’s also by far one of the safer methods that customers feel more secure about.
When running this fashion business online, you may also want to think about whether you want to register an enterprise to run your business or you would just prefer to run it without a registered company. I believe both methods are accepted well, but if you were to expand the business later on, the use of a registered company may be a good move.
These are just some of the more simple methods of what you can do to start planning for a fashion business. To be more detailed, I’m sure there are lots more steps in between to take care of. Do take your time to experience them and learn from every step of the way.
Being in the fashion business is not easy, because you need to be keeping up with the trend and also to offer new and different products frequently. Otherwise, your customers may find the same or repeated products stale and out of style.
So you must be willing to spare the time to find ways to keep up with what’s hot and what’s not.
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