Many online fashion retailers find it hard to branch out to start their own fashion clothing store, but knowing where to start doesn’t have to be difficult. Keep reading to discover all the tips and tricks you need to establish a successful fashion store that encourages customers to purchase and will help you build your brand.
Get to know your customers
When setting up a fashion store, it is important to understand your customers and their needs. Getting a feel of what your customers want from a shopping experience can help you set up your store. Do your customers want to feel appreciated and want lots of attention when purchasing? Or are your customers after a quick and easy purchase where they can explore the store themselves?
Knowing this information can help you with the logistics of running your store and bigger decisions, like how many staff you will need to hire.
Researching your customer base and understanding what makes them tick can be beneficial when setting up your store and can provide valuable insight into what you should focus on when establishing your store plan.
Catering your fashion retail store to the needs and wants of your target market will encourage them to purchase and help you to retain customers, and nurture them into loyal repeat purchasers.
Find your niche
The fashion retail industry is a market that is crowded, and making sure that you stand out is more important now than ever before. When establishing your fashion retail store, you need to identify your niche and work out how this can solve a problem for your target customers. Whether this is providing fashion lines that suit a particular demographic or catering to a subculture, finding a niche and serving your customers will help you on your way to securing repeat customers and a successful business.
Stay current and up to date with trends
One key piece of advice for those opening a fashion retail store is to keep up to date with the current trends within your industry. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be paving the way for fashion retail, but keeping up to date with the latest trends in your market can prevent you from falling behind.
To do this, visit your competitors and bigger stores for ideas and either try and replicate them in your store or give them a unique twist. Staying ahead of the trend regarding your stock is also important. Nobody will want to purchase from a fashion retailer that doesn’t have its finger on the pulse. Research trends and your niche and ensure stay on trend for your loyal customers. If you're known as a local leader in trend forecasting, this will motivate customers to visit your store for all of the latest upcoming fashions.
Essential equipment for a fashion retail store
When setting up your fashion retail store, you will need certain pieces of equipment to ensure you are a functioning business and provide the best in-store experience for your customers:
- Clothes rails
- Shelves
- Hangers
- Display cabinets
- Pavement sign
- Mirrors
- Changing rooms
- Till + Counter
- Clothes steamer
- Clothes display stands
- Sales tags
- Pricing gun
- Storeroom supplies
- Warehouse shelving
- Bags
- Giftwrapping supplies
- Receipt paper
- Chairs and decorative elements
- CCTV and security system
Visually merchandising your clothing
You can visually merchandise your clothing to ensure that customers are attracted to your clothing lines. There are a few ways to do this:
Mannequins: These are a great way for customers to visualise your clothing and a great way to upsell by pairing items that work well together.
Shelving: Displaying clothes, such as jeans and folded items on shelving can be a way of visually merchandising your products. Shelves help you to catch users' attention at eye level as they browse through your retail store.
Gridwall mesh displays: Utilising your wall space with products is a visual merchandising tactic that can work well for fashion retailers and allows you to show off your range of products in a fun and visually appealing way.
If you want more tips and tricks on innovative ways to display clothes in your retail store, check out our full guide.
Set up your fashion store on Google My Business
Making sure that your customers can find you is one of the most important parts of setting up your fashion store. You could create hype on social media and have the best fashion lines around, but if nobody can find your location – you won't have any customers. One way to ensure that your customers know exactly where to find you is by setting up your business on Google. This will allow customers to find your details, including your address, phone number and directions, when searching for you online. Getting listed on Google My Business is easy to set up and will allow you to connect with customers, receive reviews, and even user-generated content that can be posted on your own social media platforms.
Top tips for setting up a fashion clothing store
- Get to know your customers
- Find your niche
- Stay current and up to date with trends
- Merchandise your clothing in a visually appealing way
- Utilise your retail space
- Set up your fashion store on Google My Business
Set up a fashion clothing store with Displaysense
At Displaysense, we have a lot of merchandising and retail equipment to help you set up your fashion clothing store. The selection of display and merchandising equipment includes everything from clothes hangers to storage cubes and a range of other essentials that you will need when establishing your business. We also have a selection of clothes rails to suit the needs and look of your space, including wall-mounted designs.
