Starting an Online Clothing Line — Decoded

Clothing is one of the most fundamental human requirements. With an increase in population and other favourable demographic factors, the demand for apparel products keeps on increasing. The need to keep up with the prevalent fashion trends further fuels this demand. This makes the apparel or clothing industry driven by both necessity and desire. Ecommerce has proven to satiate both these two requirements. Now customers can buy from a multitude of sellers and brands while meeting their budget and fashion requirements. With traditional retailing, the options were limited for customers. These factors make the online apparel business a promising one but also competitive. Many seen and unseen challenges come up on the way for new businesses. It is important to uphold certain fundamentals to ensure smooth business and remain prepared for the future. This blog dives into a few of those fundamentals.

Business Idea Validation

Ideas may sound very appealing but when we weather them with tough questions, even the brightest ones of them are brittle. In business, executing ideas based on untested assumptions is not a good idea. A journey embarked upon in fragile plans is always exposed to enhanced risks. So, irrespective of the reception received by a business idea, one of the fundamental things to do is to question it critically. A few such questions are specified hereunder.

• Why should your online clothing store exist? Will it fulfil any void in the market?
• Who and where your customers are? Will you be able to access each other?
• Are there any compelling reasons for customers to buy from your store? Will they return?
• How is your store different from existing brands and businesses?
• Is it possible to pull off your business idea in the given environment?
• How will the value chain work?

In trying to answer these questions, you will also gain many insights previously unconsidered.

Business Model Development

Even validated business ideas are only thought experiments. You may have jotted down a few things on the papers but there is a need to give your business idea a more definite shape. Here we are talking about translating your business idea into a business model. This is the first place where a business idea is mapped as a composite of many broad working elements. These elements include value propositions (UVP), value chain, capabilities and resource requirements, customer segments, partners and stakeholders, costing and revenue, channel strategy, etc. Business model development is a vital activity for every business and online apparel startups are no exception. Once the business model canvas is available, a clear and comprehensive picture of how the business is going to function comes out. The business model becomes the guiding light for the rest of the business planning process.

Financial and Commercial Planning

The moment a business idea is conceived earmarks the beginning of the planning and mapping activities. There is no such thing called a ‘good time’ to start off with business planning. Certain important business requirements may be identified even during the idea validation stage. Then there are requirements that emerge as business modelling and planning progress. For example, early identification of social media platforms for brand promotion and advertising helps online apparel businesses prepare their digital marketing budgets. As the business planning progresses and with an improved understanding of the buyer persona, the right mix of social channels is created. Important financial and commercial projections involved in a business plan include:

· Capital requirements

· Operating expenditure

· Pricing and costing

· Financial and commercial ratios

· Turnover estimates

· Inventory purchase plan

· Return on Investment (ROI)

· Break-even marks, etc.

Operational Planning

As omnichannel consulting professionals, we could say with a fair degree of conviction that eCommerce or online businesses are expected to be more effective and efficient with their operations than their brick-and-mortar counterparts. The credit for this goes to the standards of service delivery set by popular marketplace brands like Amazon. Technology surely played a part but they are of value only when someone actualises that value. But coming back to the point, if upcoming businesses intend to maintain high service standards, they must focus on their operational planning. Without being process-oriented and SOP implementation, eCommerce businesses cannot achieve the operational standards required and expected of them.

Ecommerce IT

The IT platform is the backbone of any eCommerce entity. In online business consulting, experts highly recommend businesses to spend time comprehending their business-IT requirements. From digital marketing to home delivery, every interaction with customers takes place via the digital bridge built on the back-end and front-end software and hardware technologies. The idea is to give customers a smooth and intuitive shopping experience technically executed in the background over a suitable IT infrastructure. The size and scale of the business are immaterial when it comes to the UX and CX delivered to customers. For example, if your competitors are providing voice support to customers via their shopping apps, you cannot afford not to have the same. You or your team must know the technical aspects of having such a feature in mobile apps.

Best practices and systems

To emerge as a powerful brand and organisation, businesses must embrace and implement the best practices and systems. This applies to all areas of business — HR, IT, operations, sales and marketing, finance, supply chain, warehousing, etc. For HR, it helps businesses attract and retain the brightest talents. For marketing, it helps businesses in bolstering their branding efforts. Likewise in all other areas, businesses benefit in different ways by implementing modern-day business practices, systems, and values.

About Your Retail Coach (YRC)

YRC is a retail and eCommerce consulting enterprise with the experience of serving 500+ clients in more than 25 verticals. As a brand with a scaling international presence, we strive to uphold world-class standards in service design and delivery. Every project of ours is handled by professional and experienced retail and eCommerce consultants.

To know about our retail consulting services or to speak to one of our online business consultants, please drop us a message.