Are you a fashionista with an eye for business? Maybe you have a closet full of cool vintage or high-end clothes just begging for a new home.
Whether you want to sell a few clothes or start a full-blown business, knowing the best tips for selling clothes online can help you thrive. How you present the clothes and interact with your customers can impact the selling price and repeat business.
Keep reading to learn how to sell clothes online successfully.
- Find a Niche
A niche clothing business can help you find interested buyers who keep coming back for more great finds. Some niche examples include vintage, designer, business casual, or plus size clothes. When you build an online clothing shop around a certain type or style of clothing, you attract lots of customers who are ready to buy.
You can still sell items that don’t fit your main niche. You just might have better luck when you sell a certain type of clothing, especially if it’s a popular category.
- Choose the Right Selling Platform
With so many online platforms for selling clothes, finding the right platform for your items is important to your success. Many clothing sites cater to specific types of clothes or shoppers. Matching your clothes to the right platform helps you find more buyers who want items like yours.
Some sites, such as ThredUP, accept a wide range of clothing brands and types. Others, such as The Real Real and LePrix, focus on designer items. Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist give you an option for selling clothes locally if you don’t want to ship items.
Do your research to find a platform that works best for the type of clothes you’re selling. Browse the available clothes and brands on sites you’re considering to see if they’re similar to what you’re selling.
- Prep the Clothes
Whether you’re selling new or previously worn clothes, you want the items to look as fresh, crisp, and new as possible. Clean, pressed clothes appear better in photos, and your customers will be impressed with what they receive. That positive impression can earn you higher ratings and repeat business.
Some things that help freshen up your items include:
- Washing clothes
- Removing stains if possible
- Ironing clothes
- Buffing or polishing scuffs on clothes and handbags
- Polishing hardware on accessories
Inspect each piece closely to look for any issues. If you can’t fix the blemishes, make sure you disclose them in your description.
- Take Quality Photos
If you want to sell your clothes, you have to provide clear, high-quality photos. Since customers aren’t shopping in person, they need that clear visual to know if they want an item or not. For resale clothing, the images help the buyer evaluate the condition to see if it’s acceptable to them.
Dim photos will cause people to click away before they even read the description. You don’t need to have professional photo equipment, but you do need excellent lighting and high resolution photos. Natural light is best, so plan your clothing photo shoots during the day when possible.
Choose a solid-colored background that contrasts with the clothing to keep the photo simple. Patterns in the background can conflict with the clothes and make it too busy.
You also want to include multiple shots of each clothing item. It’s tough to get a good idea of how the piece looks if you don’t take multiple pictures.
Take pictures of the front and back of everything, and include close-up photos of detailing and patterns. Snap a photo of the clothing tag to show the brand or the attached tags if the item hasn’t been worn. If the item has any damage, include a photo of it so buyers can see the extent.
- Write Thorough, Accurate Descriptions
When consumers buy clothes online, they can’t inspect the item themselves or try it on to see how it fits. Give them that experience virtually as much as possible by writing a thorough, accurate description.
Instead of just saying what type of fabric the piece is made of, describe the fabric. Is it light or heavy? Does it feel clingy or does it hang loosely?
Describe how it fits to help people decide if it’s the type of fit they like. A shirt might be fitted at the top and looser at the bottom. A pair of jeans might sit high on the waist or low on your hips.
Detail the patterns and colors on clothes when relevant. It can be difficult to see all of the detail in photos, so having that description can make it clearer.
Include as much sizing information as possible, including measurements if they’re available. Some brands offer online sizing charts, which you can include in the description to help consumers decide if the item will fit.
If you’re reselling clothes, always give an accurate description of the condition. Let buyers know about small stains, loose threads, or tears in the clothing. A minor flaw might not be a deal breaker to some consumers, but if you don’t disclose it, the buyer might give you a lower rating or complain about the purchase.
- Price Clothes Competitively
Pricing clothes for online sale is a delicate balance. You want to be as profitable as possible, but you won’t earn anything if you overprice items and they don’t sell.
Part of the pricing process is doing your research. Vintage and one-of-a-kind pieces can be more difficult to research, but mass produced clothes can often be found online for pricing comparisons. If you’re creating your own clothes to sell, look at similar clothing of the same quality level to help with pricing.
The longer you sell clothing online, the better you’re able to gauge a good price for an item. Use past experiences to help you with pricing. If something sold quickly, should you have priced it higher?
If something sits in your online shop for a long time, consider if the issue is the price or the presentation. Sprucing up the photos and description could make the item more appealing and help you sell it. If you’re asking too much, dropping the price a little could help.
- Track Your Sales
No matter how much business you do, you need a solid record of your sales. If your clothing sales become a business, you need to report the income and file taxes. Having an accurate record of your expenses and income is essential to do that.
If you’re not sure how to handle the accounting part of selling online, consider using accounting software or accounting services such as Clickandmortaraccounting.com that specialize in ecommerce. These options can help you handle all of the financial stuff so you can focus on the fashion side of the business.
- Respond to Customers
When you sell online, you’ll often get questions from customers. They might want clarification on something you post or want information you didn’t include in your description.
Respond to all customer inquiries as soon as possible to build rapport. If you wait days to answer or ignore inquires completely, those customers won’t likely consider your clothing shop in the future.
When you receive a question about an item, consider adding the information to your description. If one customer has the question, others might have the same question.
- Package Your Clothes Well
A pretty presentation doesn’t stop after you photograph your clothes. Neat presentation can make a positive impression on your customers. It gets customers excited, shows them you care, and helps build your brand.
For clothes, you might slip the item into a pretty bag or wrap it in tissue paper secured with a sticker of your logo. A bow tied around the item with a hand-written thank you note can also impress your customers.
Slipping the item inside plastic adds a layer of protection in case the package gets wet. You want the item to arrive in the same condition it leaves your hands.
- Build an Online Following
If you’re building a large clothing business online, you can grow faster by building an online following. Some clothing platforms, such as Poshmark, have a social aspect built into them. By participating in the community aspect of your selling platform, you can find fans who visit your shop often.
Outside of the selling platform, consider creating social media accounts to promote your business. With over 1 billion users and an emphasis on images, Instagram works well for promoting your clothing business. You can post images of the items you’re selling or create fashion-inspired posts, such as tips for wearing scarves, to help create interest.
Blog posts can also help you find new fans. When you use SEO to write blog posts, you can capture Google traffic from people who are interested in your type of fashion. You can use your blog to direct those visitors to your online selling platforms.
- Provide Top-Notch Customer Service
To grow a lasting online clothing sales business, focus on providing exceptional customer service. Treating your customers well makes them want to purchase from you again. They might also share your store with their friends or talk about their positive experience, which can help you reach more people.
Follow Our Tips for Selling Clothes Online
With the right tips for selling clothes online, you can build a profitable side business or full-time income. Knowing how to market your items and keep customers happy can help your clothing business grow faster.
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