There are a lot of steps involved in starting your clothing brand, and if you aren’t aware, you may have more than you can handle. While it may seem overwhelming at first, based on the important steps mentioned in this article, if you take one step at a time, it becomes easier.
So, strap on, turn your working mode to learn, and start understanding these steps for the success of your clothing brand. These steps for how to start a clothing brand will take you far.
1. Identify Your Target Audience
The first thing you need after you have gone through an idea of what to build is to know and target your audience. Understanding your audience is very important, as these consumers will be the lifeline of your business.
They aren’t just consumers but your marketing machine, as the more of them you attract and make happy, the more new customers they can bring in.
3 of the most important traits to start are:
⦁ The demographic who your clothing line will attract
⦁ The gender you will begin to market for
⦁ What kind of fashion or niche do you want them to associate with your brand?
When you have decided on these, you can make essential steps to make choices that will then target this section of your audience.
2. Decide on Your Business Model
Now that you have narrowed down your audience, it is time to choose a business model because it is what defines which aspects you spend most time on, such as:
- Direct to Consumers: Whether you have a team of designers or sewers or get them from a manufacturer, you sell them to your customers through your website or online shop.
- Get a Partner: If you want to focus only on selling and marketing your brand, choose a manufacturing partner or, vice versa, a marketing partner. This way, you only focus on 1 part while the other is taken care of.
- Customized Orders: Your brand only makes clothes and designs based on what your customer wants. This approach creates a close bond with all your customers.
3. Do Research on Fabrics, Market Trends, and Costs
After choosing the first two steps, you now have to dive deep into researching the market trend. According to the trend, you have to decide what fabric and designs you will be using and how much it will cost to manufacture, hold, sell, or put on sale.
You will also have to understand how different seasons, pop culture, fashion shows, etc., change the opinion of your audience. Understanding this trend would require scouring social media and seeing the yearly trend.
4. Build or Outsource Your Design Team
If you go over all the steps in this article, you will understand sometimes you do not have enough time to supervise everything. In these cases, it is best to outsource some of these tasks to others.
Now, if you are starting small, you can start with a small team that allows you to tailor every aspect of your design vision. However, when your business grows, you can increase the team or simply outsource that part of the work to a more professional and experienced setup.
5. Register Your Brand and Set Up Your Office
The first thing you need here is to get a business license, which requires you to choose the business model, step 2, and structure. So whether it’s a partnership or a sole proprietorship, you have to make the decisions based on the risks you can take.
Then, it is time to register your business, an agency that your government helps you with, which makes it easier to gain permits, especially if you are setting up a shop or an office. For an online-only store, you can visit the e-commerce website to see their rules and regulations.
6. Build Your Online Store
In this step, you can choose which e-commerce platforms conform to the design choice you have made. Shopify is one such example. You can also start marketing on Instagram and Facebook marketplace to supplement your online store. So, choosing a platform such as Shopify or WooCommerce and a marketplace like Amazon or Etsy is completely your choice.
No matter which starting point you choose, and how much you can handle on your plate, you will eventually grow and enhance your reach. In addition to the choice, you also need to start by adding a few products to the store that show what your brand represents. They should present a few of the categories that give a range of your brand and cater to your demographic.
Every product should have clear and bright pictures representing your brand, with clear descriptions and catchy phrases to align with the customers. Adding a few videos will also increase customer presence and expand how the customer interacts with your clothing line.
7. Develop Marketing and Traffic Channels
Now that you have set up your online store on one of the above platforms or marketplace, it is time to add and increase traffic channels. As we said above, no matter which one you choose, social media platforms are a big traffic stream.
Now, you can create a custom website to authenticate your portfolio, but starting with one channel to promote, such as Instagram, helps you grow sustainably. Once that is set up and you start getting traffic, you can add others, like Facebook, to the mix to compound the traffic.
8. Create the First Sample of Your Clothing
This step is where the fun begins in how to start a clothing brand. You browse through local manufacturers online and share your instructions and designs. Soon, you will be getting a few samples, which you should make sure to have different minute changes in fabric, threading, etc., to see how these differences translate into the final product.
After you have samples in your hand, you can discuss them with your team and see if any changes are required. It is best now to visit these manufacturers to observe their practices and craftsmanship, which can further enhance your product.
9. Find Fabric Manufacturers in China
When you have narrowed down the components you require, you can go to the bulk market to reduce the cost of the fabric. Getting them in bulk from China can significantly reduce the cost of your brand. You always have the option to get the stitching and final touches locally to have a more unique design approach. Keep in mind that fabric makers require a minimum order in China, so plan and incorporate the same fabric in different designs.
10. Find Clothing Manufacturers in China
If you don’t want the sewing and stitching done locally, you can also choose a clothing manufacturer from China now that you know what you want from the samples you made. As you have already finalized what you wish to do, you can get an idea of the cost savings you can make if it is manufactured in China. This approach allows for mass production while you are focusing on your sales and promotion channels.
11. Develop Pricing and Inventory Strategies
By this step, you have already finalized your manufacturing and all the sales channels. Now, you need to sit down and finalize the pricing you are going to employ for your local market. Based on the market trend and to create competition, you need to lower the sales cost.
Furthermore, as you are now getting in bulk from China, not just your fabric but a complete clothing line, you need to manage your inventory. It is recommended that you talk with a wholesaler or a warehouse company to hold your inventory.
12. Find a Fulfillment Partner
Finding a fulfillment partner for the logistical side of your business is another option you can always go for. You only worry about design changes, sourcing clothing and fabric, and managing your social channels. How the products get to your customers is the responsibility of your 3PL partner.
NextSmartShip isn’t just a 3PL partner but an experienced logistics and business management company that can help you build your business. Here are some of the services they offer:
⦁ Integrating your store with their management system for a one-stop management shop.
⦁ Use global warehousing to ship out packages only when you get an order.
⦁ Take care of everything from picking your package, packing for safer shipping, and finally shipping your customer’s packages to the destination.
⦁ Biggest access to local fabric and clothing manufacturers.
⦁ Massive outreach to about 200 countries to gain an enormous customer base.
Get in touch with them today to get the best possible plan and advice.
13. Learn from Your Competitors
You can learn a lot from others in your industry, especially if the brand is popular. Here are some things you can learn from them:
⦁ You can look at how they market their brand, especially on different social media channels.
⦁ How they interact with customers and engage in every campaign can tell you a lot.
⦁ You can observe which aspects didn’t work and try to avoid similar pitfalls when marketing and selling your brand.
⦁ There are several case studies available online that tell how different brands succeeded and what their goals were when starting.
Understanding some of the ways other companies work and grow as a business will help you implement them in your business plan. This method will give you a significant head start in bringing your business brand to the forefront and letting others interact with you as early as possible.
14. Stay Consistent and Adaptable
If you want to grow sustainable brand recognition, then you must be consistent across all platforms and marketplaces. What you offer should be the same as what your customers receive. So, depending on your demographic, your visual presence should match your clothing line.
For example, if it is for the younger adult demographic and shows colors and is fun to wear, all your posts, website, and branding should be colorful and playful as well. Even if it is for adults and classy, your online presence should reflect that as well.
Conclusion
In this article, we shared 14 critical steps on how to start a clothing brand, which we think should be a good launching pad of information to start a good business. Still, there is tons of expanded information out there to make your brand truly unique yet highly successful.
One thing of note remains that you should have reliable and experienced partners in every phase of your business. 3PL and marketing partners such as NextSmartShip can take loads off you and add immense professionalism to your business. All you have to do now is focus on what matters the most. So, engage with NextSmartShip today and find the plan that works best for you.
