The clothing and fashion sector is one of the most profitable, after all, everyone needs clothes and everybody loves them. If you’ve decided to open a clothing store you’re about to take an important step, and if you plan your foundations correctly you’ll be able to achieve great results.
But what are those foundations? What should you start from? How should you move your first steps to ensure your future success? In this article, we’ll discuss the best tips to open clothing stores.
This is more important than what it seems: you must have a business plan, a guide that outlines the goals you want to achieve, how you plan to achieve your goals and the time needed. It doesn’t need to be a formal document; it’s only important that you reflect on some aspects and, possibly, write it down somewhere so that you can compare the results with the expected achievements in the future.
What aspects should you consider to redact your business plan?
You can’t sell anything to anyone. Having the widest and most varied catalog doesn’t increase your chances of selling. On the contrary, it’s counterproductive. The first thing you need to do when you open a clothing store - and any other business - it’s to choose a niche.
You’re opening a clothing store so you’ve already chosen a niche, but you might need to narrow it down even further: what kind of clothes are you going to sell? Children's clothes, sports clothes, formal wear?
The best way of picking your niche is to identify a necessity or lack in the market. Is there anything that people need that hasn’t already found a proper answer in the market? Can you feel that lack with your business? If your business becomes the answer to the need you’ve identified it has great chances of becoming successful!
In the same way, you must not fall into the error of thinking that aiming your items and business at every possible client can increase your chances of selling and therefore profit. When you identify your niche, you’re also identifying your targeted audience.
You must be aware of who your clients are: how old are they? Where and when do they like to buy? Through what channel? How do they prefer to pay? This information will help you understand how to plan your business and marketing strategies.
Benchmarking is the practice of collecting data on the current trends and projecting future ones. It also involves measuring your company's success comparing it to other similar and competitor ones.
In this phase, you need to collect data about the resources at your disposal and the goals you’d like to achieve. Also, take a look at what competitors have done or are doing around you. Then, constantly compare results and data to have a better understanding of how your business is doing. This is extremely important because avoiding mistakes will be impossible, but it’s vital that you learn from them and improve aspects where necessary. The key to success is not avoiding mistakes, but learning from them.
Once you have your business plan, it’s time to take action. Before anything else, your clothing store needs solid legal and financial foundations. The ones that follow are all the necessary steps.
Setting a legal structure for your business it’s like making things official. It also has the important advantage of separating your person from your business finances, so that your personal savings are always protected.
Also, when your business is a legal entity you can properly manage your expenses, pay taxes regularly, and also get tax write-offs as a business owner.
The most common legal entities for clothing stores are LLC (Limited Liability Company) and corporation. If you’re starting small, the LLC option will be the most suitable.
You’ll also need a license to open a commercial activity in your area. These regulations can change depending on where you and your store are located, so get informed properly to have all the permissions you need to regularly open your store in the territory.
Opening a clothing store requires a budget. If you don’t have enough savings you can still secure your financing. You can either finance your project through a bank loan or even find a private individual investor that believes in your project and it’s willing to finance it.
In both cases, but especially when you opt for a private investor, precise agreements must be taken and written down.
Before passing on to purchase your inventory and set up your shelves, you might also want to establish your company vision by drawing up a policy.
Your policies should include the principles that guide your choice but they are also technical rules that regulate your hiring, your inventory and how you’ll choose your collaborators.
It’s time to set up your clothing store, and the first thing you need it’s a quality inventory. How to choose your distributors?
Your wholesale supplier should be:
Finding a wholesale supplier that meets such standards is easier than you think especially in the clothing sector: Cerdá has a 30-year experience in the world of clothing, it boasts collaborations with Disney, Marvel, Harry Potter and all the most important characters’ creators in the world, and all its products come with an original license.
The choice of your store location should depend on the niche and targeted audience you’ve chosen. Once you’ve found the perfect spot, make sure it’s ready before the opening day. Avoid opening when things aren’t ready yet, the first impression you give to your first client should be excellent.
This is also something you can do later in your journey, but you should never neglect the importance of the internet. Start selling online - without abandoning your physical clothing store but just expanding - as soon as you can.
Can you take care of every aspect of your store? If the answer is no, hire your team before opening. However, this is also something you can do once your business has started growing. However, don’t leave it to chance: the possibility of hiring should be included in your business plan.
Everything is now set and you need to get people to know about your new clothing store. It’s marketing time. This is also a field where you don’t want to neglect the importance of the Internet.
Now that you know everything you need to know to open your clothing store, you just need to take action and start building your future with the advice and assistance from Cerdá.
At Cerdá we are manufacturers and wholesalers specialized in licensing products and children's characters for more than 40 years. Our products help create unique moments of happiness and that is our greatest motivation. In Cerdá we strive every day to make the dreams of our children and clients a reality. Join the Cerdá family!
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