How can I start an online Clothing business from scratch?

[Stella Richards]

hello,

I have the person to make the site, some suppliers. I have never own a business before and tought starting an online Business might be a little less expensive than an actual store.
Any places offering some kind of training? how do I make my site known?

Please help! I need suggestions, links, ideas, etc if you have an online business tell me if you recommend it as my first business.

[Nazreen]

Welcome to the Business Advice Forum Stella.

I saw on your sig in your other thread that you already have a business - "Visa India". The rules of promoting your online clothing business should also be the same as this one.

[Fergal]

Stella, Welcome to Business Advice Forum and thanks for posting.

Your question is a very broad one, if you tell us a little about your knowledge and experience we will be able to help you more.

Where abouts in the world are you located? That will also impact the type of business you set up.

[Fergal]

Just to add, you might consider starting your online business by selling on something like Ebay or Yahoo Store (http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce/).

That would allow you to get set up quickly, without in-depth technical expertise or large expenses at the start. It would also give you the opportunity to learn about selling online before you make the larger commitment of opening your own online store.

[wussa]

hello,

I have the person to make the site, some suppliers. I have never own a business before and tought starting an online Business might be a little less expensive than an actual store.
Any places offering some kind of training? how do I make my site known?

Please help! I need suggestions, links, ideas, etc if you have an online business tell me if you recommend it as my first business.

Practically after you have build the site make sure that it matches what your selling. Also make sure your sites are easy to navigate because many of your customers can be those who like shopping but not to used to websites so you have to make sure you are making their life easy.

You should have enough info and the price must be stated unless for certain reason. I found out that some web stores don't display their prices and ask their customers to contact them which is a big deal. Example: Store A have price Store B don't have a price list ans ask you to mail them. Which one would you prefer to buy?

About promotion, besides SEO and marketing strategies, using 3rd party advertisers like Adwords is always an option. However make sure you are using it wisely. Spend example around $500 in Adwords per month, and make sure you make profit maybe earn $100 per month.

Cheerio and GL

[scifi]

It would be better if you first start concentrating on local market as it will going to help you both in the long run & short run too ,....Try submitting your links to local directories too & publish few adverts in newspapers...It will help you/...Start attracting people by giving discounts to random buyers or first few buyers of your website..it should help you...

[Violet]

It would be better if you first start concentrating on local market as it will going to help you both in the long run & short run too ,....Try submitting your links to local directories too & publish few adverts in newspapers...It will help you/...Start attracting people by giving discounts to random buyers or first few buyers of your website..it should help you...

I have to agree. it would be much more beneficial to begin by targeting either long-tail terms or geo-targeted terms before broad ones. You'll have more success early on and in the end probably save you a great deal of money on Adwords.

[MH Vishal]

To starting any business you need to seriously research - it all comes down to money in the end so get calculating !

[Kay]

Hi Stella, welcome to BAF. :) I think Fergal's advice is the most sound of all. Get the experience behind you of an EBay store and learn from the sellers there.

They have a whole community effort built around how to be successful. You'll find plenty of tutorials and the like there. They also have entire sections devoted to how to make money as an EBay seller and the big plus is you already have an established audience in place.

Any new business online will tell you the hardest part is getting people to come to their site. I would take advantage of their huge traffic and try that first. You can browse the EBay learning center here (http://pages.ebay.com/education/index.html) and their community here. (http://hub.ebay.com/community)

Better to learn on a platform like this than to spend a lot of money on a site design, hosting, ect and then find it wasn't for you after all. At EBay, you'll get plenty of guidance from experienced sellers on the best approach and most important, traffic.

[lilyariel]

as i see you can begin with a blog like blogger.com
Also, you can build an E-shop on Ebay!

[simplyjo]

First of all -Welcome :) This is a great place and you'll love it here.
Well, it is easy to start an online business really. All you need to do is research what the market wants. Once you've done that, all you need to do is set up a good site (since that would cost you money, you can even start with a free blog on blogger.com), put up a good landing page then market through forums/backlinks/social networking/social bookmarking/article marketing (All of these are FREE tools) and you are all set :)

[Moonpeach]

Follow the local market. Look around, Get a domain and use a shop CMS type program