If you run an online clothing store, you need more than just an appealing product lineup. Clothing brands are a dime a dozen; if you don’t find ways to stand out, finding success will be rough.
To stand out and attract a loyal customer base, you’ll need to incorporate features that create a connection with your audience, minimize costs, and build a trustworthy reputation. This article outlines the must-have features that can propel your online clothing brand toward success, even in a competitive market.
You’ve heard it before, but it can’t be stressed enough: the technical aspect of your website matters. Your website is the foundation of your business, so it needs to be functional, easy to navigate, and aesthetically pleasing. It should embody a seamless user experience from the time a visitor first arrives until they make a purchase. Products should be easy to browse with appropriately-labeled categories, and the checkout process should be smooth.
According to research data, good UX/UI design can increase conversion rates by up to 400%. On the flip side, 42% of users abandon a website when they encounter usability issues. To maximize your profitability, your core focus should be on the user experience over fancy aesthetics.
Providing customers with size charts that display accurate measurements is essential for success. If your clothing sizes aren’t typical, and your charts aren’t accurate, people might stop buying from you. Some people might return an item once or twice, but then they’ll start buying from your competition.
Each manufacturer produces their blanks with different measurements. Sometimes sizes can vary by 2-4” (or more) for the same tag size. For example, one brand’s XL t-shirt might measure 24” pit-to-pit, while another measures 26” across the chest. This small difference can be important to some customers who like their clothes to fit a certain way.
You can see these minor differences in this video where a popular print on demand YouTuber tries on various t-shirts to compare the size and quality of each brand. They are definitely not equal, and this demonstration makes it easy to see why some people have strong brand preferences.
On all of your listings, be sure to include an image or link to an accurate size chart relevant to each item. If your blanks come from different brands, verify that each listing links to that brand’s size chart.
Additionally, it helps to measure each physical garment to verify the accuracy of the manufacturer’s size chart. Then you can add this insight to your product descriptions to help your customers select the correct size. For example, your shoes might run large or a certain t-shirt might run small. If you find that your actual garments don’t match the manufacturer’s size chart, make your own chart that reflects the true measurements.
Real product photos with human models are superior to overlaying your images onto AI-generated mockups. Nothing beats hiring a professional photographer to do a photoshoot of real people wearing your clothing. Some streetwear brands get away with taking amateur photos, but that won’t work if you’re appealing to a general or high-class market.
Since generative AI apps are affordable and accessible, it’s tempting to use AI models for your clothing, especially t-shirts. However, most AI-generated images are clearly AI, and they fail to accurately represent clothing. For example, say you sell graphic t-shirts and joggers with special designs on the legs. If you generate AI models wearing shirts and joggers, you’re not going to get images that accurately depict the nuances that matter, like the overall fit, the way the fabric drapes over a person’s body, and more.
While making a purchase decision, many customers don’t just want to see the design – they want to see the cut, fit, and overall style of clothing. Important details can include the stitching, hemlines, sleeve length and size, neck opening, and even the garment length. If your AI models misrepresent any of these details (this is virtually guaranteed), some customers will buy your clothes and be disappointed, while others will skip the purchase because the models depict details they don’t like.
If you’re going to use mockups, overlay your design onto a plain image of just the clothing item not being worn by a person. However, be sure to use a mockup that features the actual item you’re selling and don’t generate it with AI.
According to data sourced by CapitalOne Shopping, a whopping 80.7% of fashion ecommerce traffic comes from mobile devices. Since smartphones and tablets have limited screen space, it’s crucial that your product descriptions be short and to the point.
Extra information about your items should be placed below or next to the main images under an expandable accordion. This includes information about the type of fabric, the garment’s weight, and where the blanks are produced.
Unless you’re cutting and sewing your own clothing products from scratch, you’re going to be sourcing blanks from existing brands. For example, if you’re selling t-shirts, you have a variety of options, like Gildan, Hanes, Bella and Canvas, Comfort Colors, Lane Seven, and more. Since a lot of customers have brand preferences due to the way certain shirts fit, you should disclose the brand of your blanks whenever possible.
It's impossible for customers to know exactly what a garment will look and feel like based on images from your website. Even the best photos can’t give someone the visceral experience needed to know if they like the garment. However, people with existing preferences already know what each brand feels like, and that previous experience will help them make a purchase decision.
By disclosing the brands you use for blanks, you’ll have people who choose not to buy from you, and that’s not a bad thing. It will reduce your returns, chargebacks, negative reviews, and complaints.
Every good brand has an origin story that creates an emotional connection with their market. If you look at successful clothing brands, you’ll find that each one of them is connected to some kind of story or lore, which often includes dedication to a movement or cause, or specific values and ethics.
For example, Bombas sells high-quality socks that aren’t that different from other brands. However, the company matches its own retail sales by donating super high-quality socks to homeless shelters. The company was founded on a mission to provide socks to homeless shelters, and that’s a big draw for their customer base.
Other clothing brands have strong messages that resonate with their audience on a deep level. These messages relate to never giving up, staying the course, working hard, and similar things. Of course, Nike’s “Just do it” slogan is probably one of the best examples of simple, yet inspiring brand messaging. Other brands use messaging like “Today is a Good Day” (Life is Good), “Be a Visionary” (Gymshark), “Wear Good, Do Good” (TOMS), and “Better Things in a Better Way” (Allbirds).
To be genuinely successful and gather a loyal fan base, your clothing brand needs a mission or story that people can relate to. No matter how amazing your products are, it’s your storytelling that will sell your brand.
Every clothing brand needs an email list to build stronger relationships with customers and turn leads into sales. Email marketing provides a high ROI, with the average return being $36 for every $1 spent. That’s a 2,600% return. If you’re not already gathering email addresses from your customers and website visitors, it’s time to start.
Having an email list allows you to communicate directly with people interested in your brand. You can send out discounts, free shipping codes, and personalized discounts to your existing customers to get them to buy again. Personalized emails make customers feel special and valued, and that’s how you earn loyalty.
As you strengthen your connection with your customers through email marketing, you’ll develop loyal fans and maybe even some brand ambassadors.
Email marketing provides the following benefits to clothing brands:
· Increased brand awareness and engagement. Emails keep a brand’s existence at the top of a customer’s mind.
· Brand visibility creates loyalty. As you send your customers discounts, notices about new collections, and collaborations, you’ll start to grow a tribe of loyal fans.
· Cost-effective marketing. With a high ROI and low overall cost compared to other advertising methods, email marketing makes reaching a large audience cost-effective. You can run targeted campaigns for less than you’d pay for ads.
· Customer insights. Email campaigns provide valuable data on your customers’ preferences, like which products and promotions they prefer. This information can help you tailor your ads, sales page copy, and overall marketing strategy to be more effective.
· You’ll build a community. With the right strategy, you can create a sense of belonging and foster a sense of community among your customers. This is even easier when your brand stands behind an important cause your fans can rally around.
· More word-of-mouth advertising. Engaging your customers through emails makes them more likely to tell their friends and family about your brand.
Email marketing is a powerful tool for clothing brands that want to grow their community and build a die-hard fan base of loyal customers.
When you’re just starting out as a new brand, paid ads (PPC) are the only way to generate fast and immediate traffic to your website. Search engine optimization (SEO) is important, and you’ll eventually want link building services, but it takes time to see results. You have to build a genuine reputation and authority before your site will become visible in search engines. While you’re waiting for that to happen, paid ads can bring you quite a bit of sales.
Just make sure your ads send people directly to specific product pages and not your home page. You’ll get more conversions when your ads target a specific market rather than a general audience.
It takes time to create a sales funnel, but it’s worth the effort. While most clothing brands simply run ads, sell products, collect email addresses, and call it a day, building a sales funnel will be a game-changer for your brand. Without a sales funnel, you lose the chance to upsell, cross-sell, and it’s harder to scale your business.
A sales funnel involves multiple steps that not only qualify your leads, but optimize conversions, while increasing sales and customer lifetime value. For example, a sales funnel might look like this:
· You create free resources, like blog posts, to attract a broad audience. As a clothing brand, this might involve posts about whatever movement or cause your company supports.
· This content helps position you as an authority, and people start to like and trust you.
· You capture leads through opt-in forms.
· You engage your email list with automated sequences offering deals, while building a stronger connection with your audience by educating them about your brand.
· You use retargeted ads to bring prospects back who didn’t initially convert.
· People who are aware of your brand are presented with your main products.
· You use storytelling and value propositions with compelling calls to action that generate sales.
· You create a sense of urgency, like presenting limited-time offers or bonuses. Many clothing brands do this with seasonal discounts.
· After a purchase, customers are shown related products that pair well with what they just purchased.
· You add order bumps to increase cart value. For example, “add this accessory for just $10 more.”
By creating a full sales funnel, rather than relying on one-off sales from ads or praying for traffic from Google, you can maximize revenue during each transaction, increase the lifetime value of your customers, and build loyalty that will get customers to promote your brand.
All of this will support you in scaling your business when that time comes. The more reputable your brand is, the easier it will be to scale.
When you look at successful brands like Nike, Champion, Bombas, Hanes, Carhartt, and others, you’ll notice a common thread. They don’t rely on elaborate or flashy designs for success. Many of their products are simple and understated, just like their logos. Instead, they deliver high-quality products that meet the needs of a specific target market, while using powerful storytelling to develop a strong and respected brand identity.
Nice clothes won’t make you an automatic success. If you haven’t done so already, start developing your brand by adopting core values and/or a cause that your market aligns with. Start marketing your brand through messaging that resonates with your market, and you’ll transform your customers into loyal, lifelong fans.
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