Want to be Your Own Boss? Planning to be an Entrepreneur? But confused regarding the industry sector to be focused on. Then this blog is for you.
In this blog, we will discuss the opportunity to set up a clothing business to fulfil your entrepreneurship dream. Clothing is one of the sectors that has a huge potential and always has a space for a new player. The only success factor that you need to bring to the business is a crystal clear vision and creativity in product design and creation. A clothing brand is highly fueled by the self-belief and creativity of the entrepreneur. You need to be passionate enough to explore and understand the shifting industry trends and craft a unique clothing design.
The best part of starting a clothing business is that you don’t need a degree in fashion or design to start a clothing/fashion line-up. As of the global trends, the clothing industry is expected to cross a mark of 5-6% Y-o-Y growth, which is backed by the changing perceptions and attitudes of customers in the clothing market. But you need to be careful enough while stepping into the fashion/clothing space. This blog will discuss in much-required detail regarding setting up the clothing business.
1. Why Fashion/Clothing Ecommerce? Exploring Fashion Market Trends?
Clothing Industry has been a key industry sector that has recorded one of the major shifts in the post-pandemic scenario. The reason behind such a positive shift in the industry is the availability of fashion products online. A consumer can easily shop for the desired fashion/apparel in a few clicks. Such has been a key factor that skyrocketed the industry’s sales and opened up a door to opportunities.
The fashion segment is expected to rise with a CAGR of 7.56% reaching a net revenue of US$999.50 billion by F.Y. 2028. It is just an estimate and the actual scenario can even contribute much more than expected. So what is holding you back from being a part of such a transforming industry? Ensure that you complete this blog, as it contains answers to most of your questions.
1.1 Current Clothing Business Trends
1.1.1 Rise of D2C Clothing Brands
Since 2020, a significant rise in D2C fashion brands has been noticed. The brands are ditching the traditional route which involved distributors, wholesalers and retailers in the process. So that they can directly serve the audience. As per the industry statistics, by 2025, 77% of the clothing brands will be operating in the D2C model. Such a D2C model has significant benefits for a clothing brand.
- D2C allows better and improved service delivery
- Direct interaction with the audience through direct and digital means
- Helps in easily revamping clothing products as per the changing industry trends.
1.1.2 Setting Up a Global Mark Through Ecommerce Sales
Modern-day clothing businesses are not limited or restricted by global boundaries. In the present scenario shipping internationally has become a much effortless process. The only thing that your clothing brand needs to figure out is how to reach the global audience. Hence, the ultimate solution to such a need of yours is to set up an ecommerce store for your clothing brand. By 2027, the revenue of the global fashion sector is expected to cross $1.94 trillion.
The ecommerce store is a virtual shop for your clothing brand where you can display your clothing collection. Setting up an interactive ecommerce store is also important to ensure that your targeted audience has a platform to discover your unique designs and clothing Ideas.
1.1.3 Fast Fashion
These days everyone wants the celebrity lifestyle, with access to everything they could ever want. The existing and emerging clothing brands are fulfilling such an audience’s needs by introducing the concept of affordable and fast fashion. You must have noticed that every month or quarter, a clothing trend emerges or pops out from nowhere and everyone starts following it. Hence, the key factors promoting the success of such trends are product affordability, easy audience reach and the existence of D2C clothing brands.
Such a trend is beneficial for both the consumers as well as the clothing brands. The availability of affordable clothing products helps the customers to be in trend. Further, it serves the clothing brands with increased business opportunities. The fast fashion segment is independently growing at a CAGR of 10.7%.
1.1.4 Luxury Fashion Still tops the list
You might be thinking that the emergence of fast fashion may eat up the luxury clothing segment. But being a clothing brand, you can adopt any of the preferred markets, as both the clothing segment has a clear distinction that can not easily be eliminated. Despite the shifting audience focus towards fast fashion, luxury fashion has recorded a CAGR of 6%.
A common difference between the segments is the clothing designs being followed.
1.1.5 Sustainable and Value-Driven Branding
A key trend that can be observed in the present clothing industry is the focus towards sustainable and value-driven branding. The clothing brands are not only selling brands but a story, vision or value along with their products. Such either includes being sustainable, contributing towards charity, using ethical processes in product/clothing manufacturing or any other relevant practice.
So, it’s up to you to decide which direction you want to take your clothing business in. Do you want to follow the latest trends or do you want to set your own? The choice is yours! But this is not the end of trends, the future has many innovative concepts awaiting that can be utilised. Some of these can be:
1.1.6 Aligning your Clothing Ecommerce practices with AI & Metaverse
You can consider creating a completely virtual and 3D clothing store for your brand. This would allow consumers to experience the product and try it on virtually. Hence, adopting such trends would also help you stand out from the competition in the global clothing/apparel industry. These trends can also be beneficial for your clothing business as they would help in reducing returns and inaccuracy regarding sizes and colours during online shopping.
1.1.7 Moving Towards Experiential Fashion Retail
The existing as well as emerging clothing brands are actively moving towards experiential fashion retail. Such includes creating a more personalised market space for the customers. It is being done with the help of customer data, and tech tools. Utilising such tools can help to generate a personalised database indicating specific audience needs and interests. Based on such fashion segmentation can be created.
Irrespective of the industry trend being focused on in the clothing industry, a steady approach is required towards fashion marketing. Being an entrepreneur, it is significantly important to have a creative approach to marketing or promoting your fashion/clothing products.
2. What is a Fashion Brand? How to Create One?
A brand is a unique identity that defines the manufacturer in the competitive space. For a clothing business like yours creating a brand and a positive industry reputation is essential. Consumers are highly selective towards the brand of clothing they are wearing.
Don’t confuse the fashion branding with the leading names including Zara, Gucci, and H&M. Definitely, they are fashion brands but are catering only to a specific audience segment i.e., the luxury market. Hence they are a luxury fashion brand. Accordingly, there are affordable fashion brands, sustainable fashion brands and mass-market brands. So, it depends on the entrepreneur and his/her vision regarding the image they want to associate with their brand.
Hence, having a positive brand image is significantly important. But you must be curious to know how you can step on the path to create an engaging and immersive clothing brand.
3. Step-by-step Guide to Creating a Fashion Brand
3.1 Conduct an Industry Audit and Set Up Your Goals
On your way to creating a clothing brand or a fashion brand, you need to conduct an industry analysis. Such an analysis will help you explore what your competitors and associated players are doing, and what uniqueness you bring to the industry. It can help you set up your brand and clothing business goals.
3.2 Set Up a Mission and Vision for Your Clothing Brand
For a brand, it is important to have a clear vision and mission statement. Every fashion brand has a sort of mission that defines their brand. As it can be to drive sustainability through unique clothing lines, promoting fashion trends, offering affordable fashion or any other mission.
Accordingly, there is a need to define a long-term vision or the ultimate goal of your fashion brand. It can be to scale the global market, to be a national brand, or to set up a recognised image for being a luxury fashion brand.
3.3 Identify Your Customer and Industry Segments
Before moving on to setting up a clothing/fashion brand, it is further important to consider the customer and the clothing industry segment that you would be targeting. Such helps you as a fashion brand to deliver a clear and concise message to your targeted audience.
3.4 Develop a Unique and Creative Clothing Line:
Based on your set vision and targeted segment, you need to work on designing and crafting a unique and creative clothing line. At this stage, you will be able to craft a unique brand idea or image that can act out to be a base for your brand strategy. Also, will help you utilise your passion for fashion and to design a unique clothing line.
3.5 Draft an appealing Brand Story
A modern-day trend in fashion branding is adopting a story-telling approach. Craft a narrative that will convey your brand, its inception, and aspirations, as well as information about the founders and team. It should be able to establish a personalized association with the audience. Such a story also helps the founders to give their operational approach a better direction.
3.6 Work on Core Branding Elements
The above-defined stages are more of the back-end or the vision-based elements of creating a brand. However, certain elements are visible and create an image of a brand in the market. Such include:
- Brand Name: Depending on your clothing brand focus area, you need to get a brand name. You can also take help of the professionals to select a suitable name for your clothing brand.
- Brand Logo: You must prefer hiring a professional logo designer, who can creatively carve out a unique logo design for your clothing brand.
- Brand Website: It is important to have a website for your clothing brand that can allow your customers to shop for designs. The brand website must be smooth and engaging enough to retain the audience.
- Brand Tagline: Your clothing brand must also have a tagline that can represent your brand to your audience.
- Brand Colours: A key element to decide on is to decide on colours to be used for your brand logo and clothing website. You can consider analogous, complementary, and split-complementary colours for your clothing brand.
3.7 Introduce Your Brand
The final step in setting up your clothing brand is the introduction of your brand to your potential audience and conducting relevant testing. Such testing would be to ensure that the brand vision and appearance are adaptable to the marketplace. Also, to test your website’s smoothness and interactability.
4. Different Verticals of Fashion Brands
Setting up a fashion brand requires you to consider the industry trends and decide on the targeted industry segment or type of fashion brand to be established. There are several fashion brand types to be focused on.
4.1 Mass Market Fashion Brand
You can enter into the fashion ecommerce segment by focusing on the mass market fashion opportunities. Such fashion brands stress more on the clothing needs and demands of the mass market. Hence, they aim to be more affordable and have clothing designs and patterns that are in major demand.
4.2 Fast Fashion Brand
These fashion brands have shorter supply chains and a greater focus on industry trends. Hence, it can attract audiences in the market, especially those who are aiming to be trendy and advanced. Such mostly includes the millennials and Gen Z audiences.
Luxury/Premium Fashion Brand
Such Fashion Brand verticals focus on offering premium and quality clothing options to the audience. Despite the shifting clothing industry trend towards fast fashion, audiences are still interested in premium quality and luxury fashion options.
4.3 Designer/Aspirational Clothing Brand
Such a clothing brand is for the niche and offers super-premium and aspirational clothing. Setting up such a brand requires extensive focus towards brand reputation in the marketplace. These brands do not have a mass manufacturing set-up and focus more on the personalised/customised needs of consumers. Due to such factors, these clothing are not for everyone.
4.4 Fashion Psychology and Customer Behaviour
Clothing Brands and their Operations are much influenced by consumer psychology and behaviour. Being a fashion brand it is important to consider such psychological aspects and shape your brand accordingly.
- Generational Gap:
A common psychological difference arises due to the existing generational gap in the marketplace. As with every generation taste and preference changes concerning the clothing design, pattern and choice of colours. Millennials prefer to stick more to comfortable and proper-fit clothing options, but Gen Z is aligned towards baggy and oversized clothing. Hence, while setting up your clothing brand, it can help you decide on your clothing segments.
- Fashion Insecurities:
Customers’ buying behaviour towards fashion products is highly influenced by their insecurities. It has also been identified that customers in the fashion sector often buy products out of “FOMO”, fear of missing out. With rapidly changing market trends, the customer often buys clothing products that their social group is buying.
- Social Validation:
Clothing purchases in the modern market are often driven by social media and consumer’s desire for social validation. Hence, such psychological aspect drives clothing purchases based on the trends existing on social media platforms. Also, based on the recommendations the family, friends & relatives. Personal choice and budget are not a crucial factor in such a scenario
- Brand Perception:
Every brand has its perception in the market. Such perception is either formed based on the experience shared by previous customers, through brand marketing campaigns or is reflected through the branding elements. Hence, it can either be positive or negative. But have a significant impact on consumer behaviour towards the brand.
- Cultural Factors:
Consumer psychology and behaviour are often influenced by the cultural factors in the marketplace. If your brand is delivering products that are either opposing or against a specific culture then it would result in a negative brand perception.
5. Key Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting a Clothing Brand
Till now you have the required details that are essential to set up your clothing line-up or brand. But before proceeding forward, you must ask yourself some essential questions that can help you be clear regarding your aim and vision.
- Do You Have a Vision for Your Clothing Ecommerce Brand?
If you are moving on to start your fashion brand, you are required to be clear with your vision. It includes deciding on the market you are aiming for, the customer segment as well as the end goal, and where you want to take your brand. If you are still confused, consider the above-discussed points, it will help you get more clarity.
- Do You Have Reliable Partners, Who Can Help In Your Brand Growth?
Further being an entrepreneur you must delegate the operational tasks rather than keeping it all to you. You must have professionals or partners who can assist you with the operational tasks and challenges. Hence, you must have reliable design experts, marketing and branding partners as well as other reliable partners.
- How Are You Going to Fund Your Clothing Start-Up?
Setting up a clothing brand requires you to have sufficient funds that can allocated for production, marketing and distribution. Hence, you must also have a clear vision regarding the route that you be adopting to achieve your clothing brand vision. Hence, you need to have an estimate of the budget that would be required for setting up your clothing brand. Let’s have a look at an estimated budget.
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- Website Development costs for your clothing ecommerce business can lie somewhere between ₹30,0000- ₹25,00,000. It is just an estimate and the actual figure can be even lower or even higher than mentioned. The website development cost depends on the features or the appearance that you want your website to have.
- Further, the potential branding cost for your Clothing e-commerce brand can be somewhere around ₹50,000. Such would include developing a brand logo, your product packaging and other essential branding elements.
- An estimated marketing budget that you must have for your clothing ecommerce brand must be at a minimum of ₹20,000-30,00000 or more depending on your branding vision and goals.
- The major cost associated with setting up your clothing ecommerce business is the manufacturing and inventory costs. It is estimated that the cost of machinery, staff, distribution and other operational costs can be somewhere between ₹10,00,000 – ₹50,00,000 depending on the scale at which you are aiming to launch your brand.
The costs listed here are just estimates, based on the average amount spent by most fashion entrepreneurs. However, depending on your brand vision, these costs can vary. Hence, it is significantly important for you to consult with industry experts to get a detailed view regarding the costs specific to your clothing brand.
- What Is Your Sourcing Strategy?
Irrespective of the clothing or the customer segment you are going to target, you need to have a strong sourcing strategy. It can also be defined as improving your supply chain. It would involve making decisions regarding whether you will be manufacturing the clothes or sourcing them from manufacturers. If you are the manufacturer then from where will you procure the raw materials?
- Where Will You Market Your Clothing Products?
Before starting your clothing ecommerce brand, you need to conduct the necessary market analysis. Such can help you be aware of the trends and market opportunities based on which you can plan your marketing strategies. Also, to decide the market areas/region that you will be targeting.
- How Will You Reach Your Targeted Audience?
The most important question that you need to ask yourself as a fashion entrepreneur, is how you will target your audience. Even if you have the most unique designs, you still need a solid marketing plan to get your brand in front of your audience. You must continue reading this blog to know in detail how you can reach your targeted audiences.
6. How can you reach your target audience?
Knowing your target audience is important for every brand or start-up so that relevant marketing strategies can be formed. However, there exists no standard formula or approach that can simply be implemented to get better reach. However, there are certain tools and approaches that you must include as a part of your marketing/branding strategy.
6.1 Create a Strong Digital Positioning
The best way to reach your targeted audience is to set up a clear and relevant digital positioning. Such can ensured through having a user-friendly and interactive website for your brand. Your clothing ecommerce website needs to have a website where your designs can be displayed and your customers can buy them. You can take help of the professional website designers who can help build an interactive brand website.
6.2 Identify Platforms Where Your Targeted Customer Exists
To promote your brand, you need to conduct an industry analysis to determine the platform where your audience is present. Such a strategic approach involves identifying the appropriate social media platforms or other associated platforms. It can help you better utilise your marketing budget and to get better conversions. The potential platform can be social media, digital forums, online communities and several other targeted locations.
6.3 Set Up Your Social Media Campaign
You can reach your audience with the help of an extensive social media campaign. Social Media campaigns include adopting a strategic approach to position your brand on different social media platforms. Such can be Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest or any other emerging social media platform. To have a better brand presence on social media, you must be aware of the key trends and practices that your competitors are following. Such can help you plan for a better edge in the marketplace.
6.4 Integrate Digital Marketing Tools
You can reach your targeted audience in the global marketplace with the help of key digital marketing tools. Such digital tools include paid promotion campaigns, online ads, email marketing, performance marketing practices and many others. Hence, it is recommended to partner with leading and experienced marketers. They are well aware of trends and can accordingly help you to enhance your digital positioning.
6.5 Content Marketing
A key marketing approach that you can rely on to promote your clothing brand is content marketing. You must have read fashion-related blogs that provide you with relevant clothing and fashion tips. Hence, you can also create engaging and informative blogs or content for your clothing brand. Such content is further optimized using SEO techniques and approaches so that it is better visible to the audiences.
6.6 Influencer Marketing
For a clothing brand, the most important element that helps in brand growth is the brand trust and reputation in the market. Hence, the best way to gain such trust and reputation is to partner with social media influencers. These social media influencers promote fashion trends and influence their follower’s buying decisions. Hence, partnering with such influencers can allow you to take your brand to audiences.
7. Common Challenges Faced in the Clothing Ecommerce Industry
If you have reached so far, then you must also be aware of the common challenges or threats that clothing brands are facing. Such threats and challenges are commonly faced by almost every new and emerging brand in the marketplace. Such challenges include:
- Volatile Industry Demand: A significant threat in clothing ecommerce is volatile demand patterns. You never know when a new clothing design will emerge and will take over the market. Hence, clothing ecommerce brands are required to be highly interactive with the audience to predict such a shift based on their behaviour.
- Dead Stock: With a shift in industry trends, clothing manufacturers are required to restock their inventory. Such is important to keep up with the changing market trends. But it also results in an increased risk of dead stock. Hence being a clothing ecommerce brand, you need to study the market and determine the production needs and capabilities.
- High Competition: Entering the fashion ecommerce sector may seem easy, but without a proper layout or marketing approach it can be challenging. The present marketplace is highly complex and challenging. Also, clothing brands are dependent on their vibrant design patterns and experience. Hence, such factors highly influence fair play in the clothing market.
- Colour and Size Issues: A key challenge that can be identified to be faced by clothing brands is the colour and size issues. Hence, it is recommended that you mention the required details on your website. Also, ensure high-resolution images on your website that can help your customers make better decisions.
- High Return Rates: A common issue that is being faced by clothing ecommerce brands is high return rates. Several factors result in such high product return rates. However, there is a need for expert consultation and being aware of the industry trends that can help you control the increasing industry returns.
8. How Digital Marketing Can Aid Your Clothing Brand?
A recent and commonly followed trend in clothing ecommerce is digital marketing. If you are aiming to set up a digital ecommerce store for your clothing brand, then you must also have a reliable digital presence. Such a presence can actively be created with the help of digital marketing campaigns by experienced marketers. There are several key benefits and significant impacts of digital marketing approaches for your clothing brand.
- Improved Brand Visibility: Digital Marketing campaigns allow better brand visibility on digital platforms. Such visibility includes a focus on the search engine as well as the social media platforms. To ensure better brand visibility, key digital marketing tools such as social marketing campaigns and search engine optimization can be utilized.
- Active Audience Engagement: Adopting digital marketing can allow your clothing brand to actively engage with the audiences in the market. The digital platform allows the brands to have feedback and interaction portals. Hence, such allows the brand to be actively involved with the audience and to be aware of their changing trends.
- Be a part of the social world: Transforming social media with digital marketing tools enables a brand to be a part of it. The presence of your clothing brand on leading social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, helps to promote brand awareness and interaction.
- Introduce Innovative and Creative Campaigns: You can bring creative digital marketing campaigns to promote your clothing brand. Such includes bringing virtual contests, offers on online shopping as well as other voucher deals.
These are a few of the numerous benefits that digital marketing campaigns can have for your clothing business. Hence, it is recommended to interact with experienced digital marketing agencies who can assist you and can be a partner in your clothing business growth.
9. Final Words
Hope the blog has provided you with the relevant details that can assist you in setting up your clothing ecommerce brand. The information mentioned above is just based on the industry average and is commonly applicable to every clothing brand. But, depending on your brand’s specific need and interest, the actual scenario may vary. So it is always recommended to consult with industry experts before finalizing any of your decisions.
If you are facing trouble deciding how to brand and market your clothing business, you should contact VerveOnlineMarketing for expert assistance. We are a decade-old digital marketing company providing services to clients across sectors and regions. So what are you waiting for? Speed Up your entrepreneurship journey today and connect with us.
