From T-Shirts to High Fashion: How to Start a Clothing Business in 2021

by Alexandra Sheehan

how to start a clothing business

Ever wondered how to start a clothing line? There are so many opportunities when it comes to selling apparel online. People always need clothes, and fashion trends constantly change—there’s always something to sell and someone to sell it to.

But with that opportunity also comes lots of competition. So when you’re figuring out how to start your clothing business, it’s important to find ways to stick out in a saturated market. That’s why we outlined a methodical approach to starting your clothing business.

How to start a clothing business

Do market research

When you first get started, it’s a good idea to get acclimated to the industry and its current state. What’s the current landscape for selling apparel online? Market research will tell you who’s selling, who’s buying, and why—along with other insights that can inform your approach to your clothing business. Here are some resources for conducting market research:

Choose a clothing product to sell

You might launch with one special clothing product, like t-shirts, or choose to create a whole collection for your debut, possibly niching into a category selling vintage clothing or an online boutique. Regardless of your approach, it’s a good idea to find the best product idea that will resonate with your target customer. But choosing which clothing product(s) to sell is about more than creating something people like—it also has to be compelling enough to make people want to buy.

Choose a business model

There are a few different business models you can use for your clothing business, each with its own benefits and challenges.

Print on demand

The print-on-demand business model is when you outsource the manufacturing and order fulfillment to a third-party service. You create a printable design, and the print-on-demand company will put that design onto your clothing product and then ship it out to your customer each time an order is placed. Though it typically has smaller profit margins than other clothing business models, print on demand doesn’t require inventory investment, so it’s low risk. Here are some more resources to help you learn about going the print-on-demand route for your clothing business:

Dropshipping

Dropshipping is another outsourced option. Essentially, you promote and sell products on your website, but a third-party dropshipper holds the stock and handles order fulfillment on your behalf. It’s similar to the print-on-demand business model, but dropshipping doesn’t require any printing. Learn more about dropshipping with these resources:

Make

For a more hands-on approach to your clothing business, you can also create your apparel by hand. You might have the sewing skills needed to start from scratch, or you can hire a professional designer to help. Browse Shopify Experts to find inspiring and creative professionals who can bring your vision to life.

Manufacturing

If you still want control over your product but you don’t have the ability to physically create the apparel yourself, you can work directly with manufacturers to bring your clothing designs to life. Working with a manufacturer is especially helpful if you have growth goals—it can be difficult or even impossible to keep up with growing demand if you make every piece by hand. However, it’s important to communicate growth goals with suppliers so you know they can handle it too.

Write a business plan

Your business plan serves as a roadmap for your clothing brand. It’s helpful for identifying goals for where you want to go in your business, potential challenges and roadblocks you might encounter along the way, and the resources you need to make it all happen. The business plan is helpful not only for yourself, but also for your team, partners, investors, and lenders, now and down the road.

Set up your business

There are a few steps to take before your business is “legit.”

Choose your clothing business name

Your business name is the first thing most people will hear when they learn about your clothing business. It’s important to make your name impactful—and that means different things for different brands. You might want to be super straightforward or have fun with something less literal and more creative. The Outrage and Phenomenal are two t-shirt brands that support social issues, for example. Their names make a nod back to their customers—people who are outraged at issues, and phenomenal women who take stands. That’s just one direction to take your clothing business. There are so many ways to get creative in choosing your name.

Create a logo

Your logo is a visual representation of your clothing company. And while you technically can shell out a bunch of money hiring a designer to do it for you, many clothing companies launch with a logo they’ve designed themselves. Our Hatchful logo creator is one tool you can use to play around with fonts, colors, and graphics. You can also use it to create your own logo ideas that you share with a hired professional as direction when you’re ready to invest.

Build your store

You’ve got the brand and the clothes, now you need a place to share it with the world: your website! Building an online store may be intimidating, but you can set up your own Shopify store using customizable themes and templates—no coding necessary.

Choose your sales channels

When you sell your clothes online, you can sell them directly from your website. You can also add other sales channels to reach more shoppers on more platforms. Other sales channels may include online marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy, wholesale, retail stores, social media, and more. It’s all about finding out which channels your customers use.

Set up your logistics

Shipping and fulfillment are arguably both the least exciting and most important part of any online business. These logistics determine how products get to their final destination—the customer’s intended address. And there’s more to order fulfillment than shipping—you need to nail picking, packing, and shipping and ensure a consistent, positive customer experience every step of the way.

Prepare to launch your business

Now that you have a roadmap to success and the building blocks to get you there, it’s time to wrap up all the loose ends and get ready for launch. There are a few steps you’ll want to take before pushing your online store live and opening it for orders.

Create and execute a marketing plan

Once your online store is running smoothly, you can focus your efforts on driving traffic to your website. Marketing your store requires research, strategy, planning, creative execution, and data analysis to see the results of your efforts.

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Test, learn, and iterate

The beauty of starting your own business is you can evolve it as you go—even more quickly when you’re primarily online. Run some tests to learn more about what’s working and what’s not so you can optimize your store and campaigns for more sales.

Launch your clothing business on Shopify

Sell designer apparel, vintage finds, and everything in between on your Shopify store. With helpful resources, intuitive tools, and a dedicated customer support team, you’ll have support every step of the way.

Illustration by Pete Ryan

Ready to create your business? Start your free trial of Shopify—no credit card required.

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