Researching about building an online fashion boutique using Shopify? And, don’t know where to start? Luckily, you are at the right place. Initially, I too was in the same situation as others, had no ideas about the domain, hosting, payment gateway integration, email setup, SSL certificates, etc, and also didn’t know other technical factors involved but after long research, studying articles, watching youtube videos, I’ve finally figured out quite a simple ways to build online fashion boutique with luxury and in less time using Shopify.
What is an online fashion boutique in Shopify?
An online fashion boutique is a shop or store where you’re going to sell clothes and accessories online/internet. Shopify is a beautiful eCommerce platform for online stores. Shopify is the best eCommerce platform that helps individuals, and small & medium-sized businesses sell online on the web, mobile, person, brick-and-mortar locations, and pop-up shops and across multiple channels from social media to online marketplaces. There are many successful fashion boutiques on Shopify already, now it’s your time to set up your fashion boutique.
Why is Shopify a good choice for an online boutique?
Shopify offers a user-friendly platform with a range of features and support options custom to the needs of boutique owners, making it the right choice for building and growing an online boutique business. Shopify is a good choice for an online boutique for various reasons.
- Shopify provides a user-friendly platform that allows users to set up and manage an online store on their own even though a user without a technical background.
- It provides a wide variety of professionally created templates and custom themes which allows store owners to build unique and attractive storefronts.
- Additionally, Shopify offers strong features such as payment gateways, inventory management, and customer support allowing owners to showcase their products to attract customers.
- As a whole Shopify offers a convenient solution for launching and enhancing a boutique in online with its hosting and responsive customer support.
How to build an online fashion boutique
Now, I’m just going to point out 10 steps to build an online fashion boutique using Shopify.
Step 1: Create a Mindmap for your online fashion boutique
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,
As he said, planning is the most important step to achieving the goal. Here, your goal is to build an online fashion boutique, and to fulfill your goal, create a mindmap i.e make a plan to set up an online fashion boutique.
Don’t get scared by lengthy business plans, to create a business plan, at first build a conversation by answering the questions yourself,
a. Decide the size of your online fashion boutique, whether it is a
large-scale or small-scale business?
b. Choose your products, what are the products you’re going to sell? Are you going to sell unisex or based on genders?
c. Target your customer, to whom you’re going to sell?
d. Finally, what is your aim to achieve?
Step 2: Analyze the market gaps
Every entrepreneur who is already doing business or just starting must know the importance of the analysis process.
“Analysis is the art of creation through destruction.”― P.S. Baber, Cassie Draws the Universe.
Get a piece of knowledge about the marketing strategies to reach out to the potential customers and update yourself by researching which products are having high retail, and high demand, what is the product’s current price, and which brand is fast selling. Gather as much information as possible because this is going to be a big success factor for your online store.
Analyze the market gaps from the customer point of view, for example, in some particular time period modern outfits will create a big market among the customers, in some period traditional wears will be in peak and in festival time all variety of clothes, cosmetics and costumes will create very huge merchandise. So, analyzing the variety of products will help you to get an idea of market needs.
Step 3: Prepare your cost estimation
Generally, to create an online fashion boutique store, you need anywhere from $1000 up to $100,000. There is no fixed price for building an online fashion boutique because the cost varies based on different factors. A small-scale boutique can spend from $1000 up to $10,000, while a large-scale fashion boutique can spend from $50,000 up to $100,000.
The common law of business balance usually expressed as “you get what you pay for”, is the principle that one cannot pay a little and get a lot. In addition, paying a cheap price will not guarantee the buyer will receive a product of high-quality value.
Step 4: Select an e-commerce platform for your fashion boutique
If you’ve got your business plan right, then you’ll need to decide where you want to start an online boutique and which technology or CMS you want to use to build your online store. There are some great options that make it easy to create an eCommerce website in today’s time, even if you haven’t had any prior experience. There are some famous eCommerce platforms like BigCommerce, Shopify and WooCommerce, Magento, Opencart, and more. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages and hence you need to spend time in choosing the perfect one. If you are an individual or small business, I would suggest going with Shopify. With Shopify, you just need to worry about adding products, and marketing them and not to worry about any IT-related stuff like Hosting, Backups, Payment gateways, etc. And Shopify is the widely used eCommerce platform by Small businesses.
Step 5: Choose your Brand name and domain
For any business, the brand and domain play a vital role. As an entrepreneur, you want to give importance to the brand name. Getting Fame for a brand and publicizing your brand among people is not easy at all. To make your brand more successful first, select your brand name and domain which would connect you with customers, it must be more attractive with a logo, and a slogan, if needed. Customers like brands with captivating stories, so include that in your public profile.
Fashion boutiques are all about image and elegance, not only within the products you sell but also for the shoppers who wear your clothing line. branding is an integral part of positioning your company as a well-liked purveyor of world-class garments which will help your customers look better and gain confidence in their own images.
It will create a business name that embodies the feeling of the brand. It should be simple and impressive. Hidden customers can also want to find simply the brand online.
Step 6: Select your products
As a creative entrepreneur, you should have an idea about the products that you are going to sell in the online store. When you’re starting an online fashion boutique, you shouldn’t attempt to please everyone. You want to target a small group and then move step by step. At the initial stage, you want to cover a particular section of the population in which you can easily get popularity, whether it’s children’s clothing, hand-beaded necklaces, or men’s hats, etc.
Also keep in mind, about your ideal customers so, that you can assure the products you offer will keep them excited. Another important thing is customer lifetime value. It is more cumbersome to get a new customer than to sell to an existing customer. To enlarge your profits and expand your online boutique, you’ll gracefully want to offer products that keep your customers coming back to your online store to add new products to their shopping cart.
Step 7: Categorize your products
Add your Products to the inventory of the eCommerce platform in the appropriate category. Categorize your products on the basis of pricing, quality, and materials e.g. women’s wear, men’s wear, children’s, bags, hats, etc. If you’re going to sell women’s wear then categorize the products like Beauty & Personal Care, Western Wear, Kurtas & Suits, Ethnic Wear, Jackets & Coats, etc, and other accessories in different separate sections to help the customers to identify the products easily.
Step 8: Determine how you intended to ship your products
Having a concept for shipping your products is crucial; if your shipping charge is too high, or your shipping time is too slow, you’re likely to suffer customers. So you want to select comfortable and trusted shipping partners who can offer their service at low cost and deliver the products in less time and are completely protected from damages. With Shopify, there are different shipping providers signed up and it’s up to you to choose the right shipping partners based on your delivery locations.
Step 9: Marketing your online fashion boutique
Your online fashion boutique needs strong marketing tools to succeed in today’s competitive market. There are a variety of platforms available to the market and promote your product starting from Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and marketplaces like Amazon, etc. In online marketing product image quality should be outstanding; since fashion brands are highly based on image, it stands to reason that your marketing tools must bring a sense of grace, beauty, and fashion. Few other marketing activities like sharing Flyers, Posters, Postcards, Product Catalogs, Booklets, etc will also gain some attention. I would suggest getting into Google ads, Facebook, and Instagram marketing. This will surely define the success of your online fashion boutique.
Step 10: Themes for online fashion boutique
Shopify themes are a template that determines the way your online store looks and feels to your customers. Each theme offers different styles, layouts, colors, functions, or purposes. And Theme design plays a vital role in the success of any online store, specifically for online fashion boutiques to attract, engage, and convert. Authorselvi, shopify experts have vast experience in building and customizing Shopify themes. We as an experienced Shopify Development Agency choose the best Shopify theme that offers a well-designed Call-to-action, fast and optimized checkout experience, and an easy way to see the total order value. A well-designed Shopify fashion boutique will not only look amazing but will also encourage more conversions.
Shopify Development Agency to Build Online Boutique
If you are still finding it difficult in setting up an online store then hiring the right Development Agency is an option that you could consider. They will assist you with designing, developing, and publishing the store or even improve your marketing and sales strategy.
With vast skills and specialization in Fashion E-commerce, Authorselvi could help your store to extend the traffic and sales by submitting you a step-by-step business plan which is formed after analyzing the other online stores in the fashion industry and in your demographic.
Conclusion
If you are facing trouble in finding a way to build your fashion boutique online as well as deal with technical things, this blog is for you. Undoubtedly, building a Shopify store has a lot of work to do. After all, building your fashion boutique brand is not supposed to be simple, but it’s worth it. Who knew, the fashion boutique store that you’re working on right now will become one of the finest brands someday. I believe after reading this article, you would have a basic knowledge of Shopify stores, how to build them, and where to choose the right theme, developers/agency to build your store. If you are seeking for Shopify development agency then contact us through info@authorselvi.com
Frequently Asked Questions
No, It’s upto you and about your abilities and theme. If you need shopify store with professional look then you need to hire Shopify developer.
Yes, you’ll be able to create your own shopify store. But, while Shopify is straightforward to make and run even by users without a technical skill, you’ll still have to hire professional Shopify developers.
No, You don’t have to be a designer to make a shopify store. Just provide a look, add themes and features to your online store using online shopify store builder.If you wish any extra help then contact Authorselvi to rent developers.
Yes, shopify is pleasant for developers because it allows you to induce your store to grow and to run with minimal configuration. you’d better sell from a catalog of 10 to 1000s of products.
Step 1: join up for Shopify.
Step 2: Add stock to Your Shopify Store.
Step 3: Customize the design of Your Shopify Website.
Step 4: Setup Your Domain name with Shopify.
Step 5: Activate Your Payment Process.
