How to Start a Clothing Business

HOW TO START A CLOTHING BUSINESS?

The clothing business can be started anywhere: a boutique, from home, on the internet or just on weekends. It is perfect for young people, housewives or as a second income. The best thing about this business is its opportunities: sportswear, party dresses, doctors’ clothing, uniforms and more.

FIND A NICHE MARKET TO SELL YOU CLOTHES

The first aspect to consider is to determine what the consumer is looking for. The main downside to starting a clothing business is the incredible amount of competition that exists in the market today. Practically in every shopping mall 30% of the shops sell an item of clothing. There are also department stores that sell clothes at prices that are difficult to compete.

That’s why it’s important to find a niche market. That is, a group of people with the same taste and characteristics, whether of income, preferences in fashion or buying behaviors to whom it is possible to sell.

To find this niche, it is necessary to conduct market research. That is, do a survey or observation, and find a niche that is not being served. I recommend you read this article on how to do market research.

BUSINESS LOCATION

Another important point when starting a clothing business is to get a good location, one where the niche market we want passes. For example, if your buyer profile is the high-income person who can afford certain clothing brands, then it will be necessary to get an exclusive location, such as a luxury shopping center, or a local in an exclusive area.

While you want to do without a physical place, then consider selling clothes online. For this, you must have a website, either your own or a marketplace. This way you will sell your product with parcel shipping. To read more about this, check out our article on how to start an online business.

HOW MUCH MONEY DOES IT TAKE TO OPEN A CLOTHING STORE?

budget of a clothing store
It takes between (250-10,000 US dollars) to open a small clothing business. Although you can start with an online business with about (500 dollars). It all depends on the assortment, the number of staff and the size of the place you have. The most expensive thing in a clothing store is the stock and the rent (rent) of the premises.

In this sense, it is important to emphasize a very important aspect: marketing. A very common mistake in people who are going to start a clothing business, is not to make a marketing budget, which includes promotional advertising, both outside and inside the store.

In the case of in-store marketing, the distribution of the merchandise is essential, since this will attract customers or else, they will not feel motivated to enter. This is better known as merchandising (learn more about this in our article how to sell more).

Outside the store, it is also essential the promotional advertising that is given to the products and, for example, what Palacio de hierro does in its night sales, where they carry out a national promotion a week before the night sale.

TYPES OF CLOTHING BUSINESS

clothing store ideas
There are many ideas to make a clothing business, but the types of clothing businesses are:

Clothing for the family: this includes men’s, women’s, children’s and baby’s clothing. In this type of clothing, accessories and accessories are also included.
Event Clothing: These are clothes like fifteen-year-old dresses, wedding clothes, graduation suits, and more. There are entire streets in Latin America dedicated to selling or renting this type of clothing.
Sportswear: There are many opportunities for all sports: football, tennis, athletics, marathons and more. It is best to specialize in one segment. There are also opportunities such as uniforms.
Business clothing and uniforms: All companies print clothes with their logo. To celebrate, to sell or to uniform the staff. You can charge much more for a logo t-shirt. In addition, there are special clothing needs for workers, nurses, doctors and other professionals.
Special clothing: this is the most attractive category. These are specialized clothing, for specific situations. For example: snow coats, orthopedic clothing or clothing for overweight people. These people are willing to pay more money for clothes that meet their needs.

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CLOTHING STORE OR BOUTIQUE MODELS
If your intention is to have a clothing store, there are many ways to put it. Below is a list of store models for you:

Online store: you can start with Facebook, or an online store. There are also apps to sell. Remember that it is not easy, there is a lot of competition and you must learn how to pay for ads.
Printed catalog: there are different brands that give you a catalog to sell. This is fine if you want to start a business with little money. It can be started with shoes or clothes.
Boutique store: it is a place where you must have an inventory of clothes. The difficult thing is to choose a profitable niche such as plus-size clothes or clothes for people of great stature.
Imported clothes: if you want to be fashionable or import things that do not exist in your country, you must import clothes. There are many opportunities and great profit margin.
Since you are going to invest a lot of money in the inventory purchased from the supplier, the payment of rent, the conditioning of the premises, marketing expenses and the hiring of personnel, it is essential to make a business plan before investing in all this. To learn more about this aspect, we invite you to read the following article:

HOW TO GET CLOTHING SUPPLIERS?

boutique clothing suppliers
Once your niche market has been identified, it is necessary to find the product through a supplier.
This is the most important step, which will determine our costs and the price at which we are going to go to market.

There are two types of clothing suppliers, a domestic supplier or an international supplier.

Domestic supplier: it is necessary to search the yellow section for clothing manufacturers, ask for a quote and negotiate the terms of delivery, either and it will be picked up by the factory or delivery at the business premises. This is the easiest way to get suppliers, but you don’t always get the best competitive price. There are many Mexican clothing marketers. Be careful with them, as they sell without import documentation.
International supplier: Due to customs laws, there is a lot of control on the import of clothing. In the event that there is a trademark in between, it will be necessary to carry out a regulated import, where we pay import taxes and licenses to the brand. When imitation clothing is imported, a trademark rights offence is committed, and it is very likely to be seized at customs. An ideal option is to review some marketplaces where you can find suppliers, sometimes international with which you can reach a direct deal, take for example the portal and Alibaba. But be careful, sometimes there are fraudulent suppliers, whether they just scam or deliver poor quality fabrics.

And to know more about clothing suppliers and how to find the most suitable, we invite you to see our article:

How to choose a clothing supplier?

BRANDED CLOTHING: HOW DO I BUY IT?
branded clothing suppliers
Buying branded clothes is an excellent business, especially if you have an agreement with the company. Unfortunately, selling branded clothes without permission can cause you a lot of problems. Be careful with the sale of originals or clones, because there are authorities that protect copyright.

If your goal is to sell branded clothing, I recommend that you contact the company that owns the brand and sign a distribution agreement. Those brands will ask you for minimum purchases and licensing agreements. It’s the best way to do it.

That is why it is very important to know perfectly the market niche, and to know if they are buying branded clothes or simply not interested in the label, but another factor such as price or comfort.

Another business idea is to create your own brand, there are many companies that have developed this model, such as the Spanish company Zara, which positioned itself in the high-income market worldwide.

COURSE TO START YOUR BUSINESS
courses for entrepreneurship
Now that you know some aspects about how to start your clothing business, it is important that you continue learning more about how to undertake correctly to avoid mistakes that put your business idea at risk for it we leave you below our online courses. Check their syllabuses and you will see that the training will be of great help to you to start on the right foot:

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