How to set up an online menswear store?
Menswear is an expanding market niche. In recent years, the men’s clothing market has surpassed the women’s market and the forecast for expansion until 2020 is 22.5%, reaching US$ 33 billion.
There is a robust and growing market for fashion entrepreneurs. If you want to start an online menswear store, this is a great niche to enter. Start by building a brand and evaluating the best strategies and technologies for your e-commerce. Follow up!
research the market
Visit your favorite online stores as customers and buy different products that you are interested in. Buy shirts, pants, shoes, accessories, underwear and anything else they have. Make sure you buy from different stores.
Take the opportunity to analyze, in each virtual menswear store visited, how purchases are packed, what else comes in the package, how long it takes to ship, what services the stores use for shipping, what promotional items are included, etc.
Then go through the return process. Send things back. Where are you sending to? Is it for the store’s listed address? Another address? Is this address from a manufacturer? From a distribution center? From a warehouse?
Also check out research on the fashion market, in general, and on the possibilities of niches in the sector.
Build brand identity
You should start by thinking about what your online menswear store will look like. There are many possibilities, but the experience will be more enjoyable, personally, if you enter a niche that you are interested in.
If you’re more of a fitness enthusiast, contemporary activewear might be the niche for you. If you like fine things, you can think about dress code or the luxury market. There are many possibilities to consider.
Remember that fashion offers many options. You don’t just have to sell formal or informal clothing. You can market your brand to a specific type of aesthetic, subculture or personality.
Is your brand different and whimsical, or more serious? These are the things you should consider before you start working to find your target audience and promote your products.
Analyze production alternatives
To have a fashion store, you can either produce the products or outsource the production. With production outsourcing, you don’t have to worry about manufacturing or shipping your products. Clothing, transport and logistics companies do all this work for you. When a customer purchases an item from your online store, the shipper receives the order and ships the item.
That way, you’ll hire a third-party wholesaler and this eliminates the need to stock items and ship the products, which frees you up to spend more time marketing and building your social media brand.
Develop a marketing strategy
Once you’ve established your brand’s character, start thinking about finding an audience for your brand. The best way to find an audience for an online menswear store is via social media. When it comes to fashion brands, visual media like Instagram are the best.
You should start by exploring the profiles and hashtags that you feel are relevant to your brand’s target audience. Think of the celebrities they would follow and the common interests they would have.
Once you understand what kind of audiences you want to attract, you can produce regular content that they like and begin to build a following over time. Remember to like and comment on posts from the public as well, to increase your profile’s exposure.
When it comes to social media posts, it’s best to promote menswear using lifestyle photos, with people using your products. As your brand grows, you might also consider posting photos of your own customers using the products. This will help build brand recognition via word of mouth.
Invest in a quality marketplace
If you’re creating your own website, choose an easy URL so customers can tell their friends the name of your online store. Your name must match your products as well. Platforms for creating online marketplaces allow you to start your online menswear store with a very low initial investment.
In addition to being easy to use and cost-effective, online store platforms will also take care of a number of technical issues. That way, you’ll be able to start selling clothes online in a short time, without having to worry about security updates and intrusion risks, for example.
That’s because many online platforms offer an SSL certificate, for example. SSL certificates provide secure, encrypted communications between your website and your customers’ Internet browsers. This means that all credit card transactions and data transfers will be safe and secure.
You will also need to sign up for an e-commerce plan to connect to payment processors, allowing you to receive payments from customers when you start selling clothes online.
Choose a payment processor
To start making money in e-commerce, you will need to connect a payment processor to your store. Payment processors are services that allow you to receive credit card payments from your customers.
If you have difficulty setting up a payment processor, most online store platforms have impressive support centers or forums where you can find all the information you need.
It is recommended that you run a test order when setting up payments. This allows you to get an idea of how your customers will progress when checking out your online store. This step is essential for you to make changes and improvements.
While it seems daunting to enter an industry with so many established players, the size of the menswear market opens up many possibilities for exploring specific niches. The success of an online menswear store depends on how well an entrepreneur knows their audience and their ability to offer products that will appeal to them.
Did you like our text? Then, also read our post about 7 inbound marketing tips to apply in your e-commerce.
Find more articles in our categories Fashion & Looks & Luxe et encore 90s Outfits.
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