How To Start An Online Clothing Store
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Introduction
With approximately 560 million users, India has the second-largest number of active internet users in the world. Supported by the Indian government’s Digital India drive, more and more people are adopting technology in their day-to-day life. The pandemic has sped up the adoption of technologies by the masses, particularly the younger generation. Be it education, health, or e-commerce, technology has provided much-needed support to people during this time of need.
A recent study by Unicommerce suggests that the Indian online fashion industry witnessed order volume growth of 51% in FY21. The global online fashion industry is booming and is expected to reach 1 trillion dollars by 2025.
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Current Scenario and Opportunity
A change like this means convenience for customers and opportunities for aspiring business people, entrepreneurs, and even homemakers. A vast majority of people are using e-commerce solutions not only for food and grocery purchase but also for purchasing garments, electronics, and many other services.
The sector that is poised for tremendous online growth is the garments industry. Many technology companies provide e-commerce solutions to enable entrepreneurs, MSMEs, or anyone running a home-based service in the garments fashion industry. One such solution that empowers entrepreneurs is the AASAAN e-commerce app that is easy to use and affordable. Through this app, entrepreneurs can quickly start a clothing business online.
Factors to Consider
There are certain vital factors to consider while choosing an e-commerce solution to start your online clothing store. At a high level, anyone aspiring to start an online boutique should keep in mind the following while choosing their e-commerce solution.
- Deciding Your Market Segment
It is imperative to be clear about the products you want to sell online. It is a good idea to start small and grow big. Decide on whether your store will sell fashion for men, women, children, or all. Then, the decision should be on whether it will be readymade garments or materials alone. Another essential aspect to decide is whether your company will be a B2B or B2C store. These decisions have to be made depending on your experience and resource availability.
You can also choose to be a dropshipping agent who will source the products from another company and send them to your customers once they place the order. Now that you have done the groundwork to start your online clothing store, the next logical step is to choose your e-commerce solution partner. Yes, an e-commerce partner and not an e-commerce vendor.
2. Selecting the E-commerce Solution
An entrepreneur should always look out for technology partners and not vendors to ensure the success of their business. A vendor would sell a solution, but a partner would understand its customers’ problems and travel along to ensure their success.
AASAAN is one such partner that offers e-commerce solutions allowing aspirants to create and run online boutiques quickly. Unless you have deep technical expertise and financial resources, it is better to choose from the available e-commerce solutions in the market. The AASAAN app is one such solution built with its customers in mind.
Entrepreneurs can start their online clothing store easily through the AASAAN app. The app has intuitive capabilities that help customers build their online presence step-by-step. From creating your product catalog to checkout, the AASAAN app allows users to set up their online store without the need for any deep technical knowledge.
Customers can also select themes as per their business needs and preferences and use them for their online clothing store. The app also provides integration with other software, like the point of sale and last-mile delivery. Another important integration is with payment gateways, allowing the receipt of online payments.
3. Marketing and Customer Retention
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The next logical step in launching an online clothing business is to spread the word to your target customers that you exist. An e-commerce solution should have provisions for marketing. The AASAAN app allows customers to send personalized text and email notifications. This will be helpful when end-users have to be notified about the online clothing store, the current offers, or even remind them to visit their abandoned cart.
Retaining customers is much more difficult than acquiring them for any business. The AASAAN app takes care of this through its various features to collect and share customer reviews, feedback, and also provide offers and promotions. The app offers customer insights, viz. frequently purchased products, order volume trends, and cart size to the owners of online clothing stores. Store owners can then drive business decisions based on real-time data than going with instinct alone.
4. Support from Solution Partner
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A business owner will be most productive when they can focus all their time and effort on one thing that matters most, the business. AASAAN precisely realizes this, and that is the reason customer support is given utmost importance. AASAAN provides world-class customer support round the clock to ensure its customers’ online clothing business runs smoothly.
AASAAN’s support team trains the store owners and staff extensively to ensure customers effectively utilize the solution. AASAAN constantly keeps updating its solution to meet customer and technical demands. Be it business-specific requirements, regulatory changes, or technology upgrades (like software, operating system), AASAAN has it all covered.
Conclusion
Starting a business always comes with its risks, mainly if one is not well-versed in it. Starting an online boutique can be nerve-racking at first, and rightly so. But, now is the right time to be in the online business, particularly in the fashion segment. The segment has been growing fast and will sustain it for many more years to come.
The key to succeeding in the online clothing business is to have the right business plan and the perfect technology partner to back it. AASAAN app has been encouraging aspiring MSMEs, entrepreneurs, and home-based service providers to take their businesses online. So, get started now and set up your online store for free to get a feel. You can download our app here and try it for yourself.
Wishing you splendid success in your online business journey, with the AASAAN app!
