New designers are advertising their fashion lines on social media, hosting local fashion shows, and even opening boutiques in droves these days. Online retailers are doing well as consumers love to have their orders come directly to their front doors. Casual shoppers enjoy browsing smaller retail stores because of their intimate feel and hands-on assistance and customer service. Regardless of how or where you plan on selling your fashions, if you are going down the retail route, you should follow these four tips.
1. Sell Clothes Your Consumers Want to Wear
Sometimes, you can see an outfit on the runway that is beautiful beyond words, but the real question is how it will translate off the runway in real life. All in all, consumers want to wear clothes that are modern, comfortable, and eye-catching. Some want to duplicate looks that they have seen celebrities wear, while other shoppers are more concerned with following their own personal signature style and aesthetic. Get an idea of who your shoppers are going to be and what they enjoy wearing the most. This will help you as you get into partnerships with designers to carry their lines and make exclusive deals.
2. Buy Mannequins of All Shapes and Sizes
In order to successfully sell clothes in a retail setting, you have to showcase the various styles your company has available. If you just put a dress on a hanger and take a picture, you won’t have much interest. This is because it takes effort and know-how to showcase clothing and make them look really good. At an online mannequin shop, retailers have the opportunity to find the perfect models for their clothing on offer. Purchase plus-sized mannequins, or child-sized mannequins, or even gender-neutral mannequins to appeal to shoppers of all types. Have your plenty of mannequins in your retail store so consumers know what each outfit looks like on a 3-dimensional form.
3. Don’t Forget About Discounts
Retailers sometimes get the biggest number of sales when they start offering their merchandise at a discount. You don’t need to mark everything down by 50 percent to see sales, but you should think about giving your best customers a break on pricing to encourage them to spend even more. Email promotions announcing storewide sales will send more traffic to your website, as signs hung up in retails stores usually gets more people to come in off the street.
4. Advertise According to Season
Some types of fashions, such as jeans, can be successfully sold summer through winter, rain or shine. On the other hand, there are other kinds of fashions that are restricted to specific seasons, like swimwear and winter coats. The best way to be successful in fashion retail is to start advertising new lines and collections of clothes just ahead of the corresponding upcoming season. So, if it is the end of the summer, you want to promote all of the new and hot fashions you will be selling in the fall. Be ahead of your competitors by talking about upcoming trends so that consumers will want to look at what you have on offer.
It isn’t easy to be successful in retail fashion as there are lots of different brands selling similar items and styles. You should have a plan in mind before you open a store, online or off. Once consumers come to trust your judgment and sense of taste, they will visit your website or come to your store just to see what’s new. Always be on-trend, well dressed, and personable as you will be the most vocal spokesperson you have to promote your retail fashion store.
