My first idea: online shoe/clothes shop

by dreamtunnel

Posted: 12 years ago 4 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Hi guys, complete noob and this is the first idea i have, could use some feedback

i was working in a clothes shop for the past 6 months, unfortunately its closing down because the recession and internet competition has beaten his business to the ground. He is not out of business though because he owns the distributor rights in this country so he supplies shops in every city with this brand of clothes, so I know i can get this label off him at the retailers price.

i was asking him if i could get a small batch on sale or return to start it up, he said he couldnt untill i was more established, he suggested going halves on setting up the business, but i would rather work on my own, build an online shop and build it up.

I would like to know is there a good service out there for setting up an online shop?

and is it possible to start a business like this on a small budget? just having a few items on sale and then reinvesting? os is there a better way than this?

also how to go about advertising the shop as well would be very useful

its all just an idea now from some one with no experience but any feedback on this at all would be so good and greatly appreciated

#idea #online #shoe or clothes #shop

Eddie Titan 12 years ago

If the person you are talking about is that well connected in the niche you are trying to sell products, it may be a good idea to partner up with him. One of the biggest problems with small e-commerce stores with little budgets is their inability to stock the same range of merchandise other larger e-commerce stores can stock.

It is not impossible to build a successful online store on a small budget but you should note: if you can not sacrifice your money you will have to be willing to sacrifice a great majority of your time.

In terms of advertising, it sounds like it may be profitable for you to target your country. Look into Adwords Geo Targeted marketing (create campaigns for both mobile and non-mobile internet users).

Look into eCommerce search engine optimization tactics. I found this article to be very helpful in the past. SEO Checklist for E-Commerce Sites
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- aeri 12 years ago
  
  Hello At the moment, I am working on my website with that same idea, but I just opened up a week ago, so you can take my comments with a grain of salt.
  
  I'm doing a drop-shipping program with a company in China (might not be the best idea, but I ordered from them before, so I thought I can trust them for the most part), and the problem I'm encountering right now is converting the customers. It may have to do with my design, but the thing was I don't have a reputation right now. So, I am currently finding ways to build my rep right now so people are not scared to buy from my shop since I'm very new to the e-commerce.
  
  For me, I bought a domain name from namecheap, hosting from HostGator, and a 3rd-party merchant to handle credit card authorization (and they will take commission from any sales through credit cards of course, so have to take that into account with your prices), my start-up cost was around $240.
  
  Originally Posted by Eddie Titan
  
  Look into eCommerce search engine optimization tactics. I found this article to be very helpful in the past. SEO Checklist for E-Commerce Sites
  
  Thanks for that article I skimmed through it, and it definitely has some helpful tips for SEO (I haven't done my SEO yet, but hopefully I will start building them next week!)
  
  Thanks
  
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rooze 12 years ago

There's something weird going on with shoes and handbags. I have a bunch of Wordpress and WPMU sites and I'm getting more spam from shoes and handbag sites than from all the other spammers combined. And they're hitting pretty much all my sites which are in a broad range of niches.
I'd check into the competitiveness of that niche if I were you, it seems like there's something going on with lots of people jumping on board.

Good luck.
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mrjosco 12 years ago

There are a few options, depending on your savvy. Since you describe yourself as a noob, I recommend you check out shopify. Shopify is an all in one ecommerce solution that is best combo of customization, newb friendly and cost effective, IMO. I have had an online clothes store that was moderately successful (sold vintage clothes) on both the Yahoo Stores platform and Shopify.

While both had some good points, Shopify is by far the best in my experience.

If you are more technical savvy you could also try volusion, but I stick to Shopify.

You can start collecting payments with Paypal, but eventually you may want to look into talking to your bank for a merchant account.

As far as SEO for an Ecommerce, this is what I did to get over 1000 visits a day and sell over $40,000 in products on a shoe string budget:

1. I would write a unique description for each item. I was careful to use proper keywords and include all original and interesting content

2. I would take a picture of each item and use the proper caption, description, image name and alt tags relating to that specific item

3. I would make sure to add new products on a consistent basis (A few times a week) to make sure the content remained fresh

I did all of this before I knew anything about 'keyword research' or niche marketing. The site was started in the late 90's, so the only 'backlinks' I had were link swaps with other small vintage clothing sites and website directories.

Depending on your 'niche' within the clothing industry, however, you can probably do much better with some good keyword research and back linking strategies.

Anyways, hope this helps!
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