10 Strategies For Running A Successful Clothing Store

#Business

Hey,

Are you into a business of selling cloths and you have not recorded high sales volume in the last six months? Or probably you wanted to know how to run a successful clothing store, and you don’t know how to go about it. If your answer is in the affirmative, then this post is particularly written for you. Keep on reading it.

In today’s post, I am going to delve into some strategies that a cloth seller, if he applies these strategies will be surprised how successful his clothing business will look like after you must have read this post and put what you have learnt into practice. Let’s get started.

 A clothing store can be a great business, and running a successful clothing store can be a great opportunity. But the challenge is that while it's relatively easy to open your own store, making it successful is an altogether different challenge

I can tell you that as any other business, I have seen many clothing stores come and go. Why? As a matter of fact, I’ve seen where a cloth dealer purchases merchandise from clothing shops that have gone out of business. On the other hand, I have friends, who have clothes stores who have been buying wholesale fashion for years now. So clearly, there are factors that can determine if a shop will make it or not.

 Unfortunately some of those factors are out of our control, such as the general state of the economy, or a natural disaster that affects the neighborhood where the business is located.  But as with everything in life, while we can try to prepare for these types of factors, what we need to be actively focused on are the factors that we can control. Those are factors such as our marketing, inventory selection, and customer retention.

 Hence, in the blog, I would like to share with you the 10 strategies for running a successful clothing business based on in-depth research carried out by KEB.

Strategy #1     
                                                                                                                                 
Motivated Staff.

Your employees are the front line of your business. They are the first people customers will interact with, and will form an impression of your store partially based on how well they are treated by your employees. You need to train your employees and ensure that they are happy. 

You should immediately address any issues that your customers have raised with you regarding an employee with that employee. You should also focus on ensuring that your workers are satisfied so that they happily help your shoppers. If necessary you can produce materials that your employees can read or watch that can help them serve customers the right way.

You should always remind your employees that without customers there is no business, so it's important to be kind and patient with every shopper.

  Strategy #2

 Keep your clothing store organized and neat.

Remember, you can have the perfect Nine West office dress that a shopper is looking for, but if they can't find it, or it looks creased, they won't buy it. I would recommend that throughout the day, you, or your employees, organize and straighten out your clothing inventory.

You might feel that all your work is in vain when the next customer comes in and disorganizes a neatly piled of shirts, but that is okay. You just need to make that the pile of shirts looks really nice so that the next customer will be enticed into purchasing a shirt.

 Strategy #3

 Develop a theme for your store.

If you are looking to attract corporate female workers into your store, you might want to replicate the look of a fancy office or bank in your store. If you are selling designer beachwear then you might want to make your store look like a beach shop. You will want to use props, furniture, music, and pictures, to convey the theme that you are aiming for. 

If you want to see great examples of this strategy being implemented I would recommend that you go to your nearest shopping mall. Visit the corporate owned clothing chains and you will see how the stores expertly convey a feeling that matches the merchandise that they are selling. You might find to visit vintage shops and search on eBay for unique props that will help you give your store the look that you are aiming for.

  Strategy #4

 Use mannequins that have a similar body type to your customers.

 I realize that every person has their own body type but the idea is to use mannequins that are actually similar to your shoppers, and not based on unrealistic dimensions that put pressure on women to look a certain way. I do realize that mannequins can be expensive, so you should look for used mannequins by calling retail fixture distributors and attending going out of business sales.

 Strategy #5

 Frequently rotate your merchandise.

If you have 1,000 designer dresses in stock you don't want to put them all out at once. First of all, people want to see new dresses so if they see the same dresses every time they visit they will stop visiting. They can also get overwhelmed if there is too much clothing on display, especially if your shop is relatively small. You would be better off putting out a few hundred dresses, keeping the rest in storage, and then rotating the dresses periodically.

It's also important to change the location of your merchandise periodically. You want to do this because shoppers might not be visiting specific spot in your store. . There could be many reasons why they will overlook one spot of your store, so the merchandise that is there will sell a lot slower than if it was in a better spot in your store. So periodically you will want to move the merchandise around so that every piece of clothing can be placed in a better selling spot in your shop.

  Strategy #6

 Introduce new merchandise into your shop.

Shoppers like visiting shops that have new merchandise on a frequent basis. Even if a person plans on buying a specific item, such as an R&M dress, they still will be more excited about going to a dress boutique that always has a new selection of brand name dress wear. And I can understand why. Although they are planning on purchasing a specific item they want to go to a business where they can possibly find another fashionable apparel piece that they might like to buy.

You can find new merchandise by reaching out to your current suppliers, or by calling other brands and designers, and asking them for any new clothes that you can introduce into your store.

You don't need to purchase a very large quantity of dresses or any other type of clothes for that matter, but just enough so that people will see that you have a new inventory of fashionable wears. On the other hand, if you do see an offer for wholesale clothes that you believe your customers will love, then you should take advantage of it.

  Strategy #7

Look for closeouts that will allow you to retail brand name fashions at below wholesale prices.

You can find closeout merchandise by purchasing excess merchandise from brands, samples from designers, overstock from department stores, shelf pulls from national retailers, and clearance sale merchandise from retailers. Every clothing store needs a way to distinguish itself from its competition, and having brand name clothes at deeply discounted prices is definitely an effective way to do it. Check on shops that will show you plenty of designer apparel at below wholesale prices.

  Strategy #8

Have fun and entertaining events at your store.

You want people to be excited to come to your business. Once they are at your business and are having a great time they will be inclined to take a look at what you are selling. Barnes and Noble is an expert at this strategy. They will invite a well known author to talk about his book, and then passively make sales of the author's books to the people who came to listen to him or her speak.

I have also seen businesses organize free carnivals to attract prospective shoppers to their premises. If you know a singer with a great voice you can offer a free concert in your store.

 Strategy #9

 Move out slow selling merchandise quickly.

Look it happens to all of us. We will from time to time accumulate merchandise that just isn't selling. We can either try to repeatedly sell it until customers just ignore our marketing efforts, or we can get rid of the merchandise, recoup some of our costs, and then use those proceeds to buy new merchandise that we have a better chance of selling. You can liquidate your slow moving wholesale merchandise by offering it to wholesalers, by taking it to a garage sale, by listing in on an auction site like eBay or Liquidation.com, or by simply giving it away as a bonus to your customers.

However you do it, the bottom line is that you cannot have merchandise that is not popular taking up space in your store. Your space is too valuable for it be used as storage. All of the space in a clothing shop should be devoted to selling.

  Strategy #10

 Personalize your interaction with your customers.

You want to know your customers. You want to understand why they are buying what they do, and what it is that they are having a challenging time finding. The only way that you will know that your customers are looking for Jones New York suits is by asking them what they are looking for. You can have a form which customers can use to provide you with feedback. This way they will feel more comfortable giving you positive feedback.

The better you can serve your customers, the better of a business relationship you will have with them, which in turn will turn into increased and sustained sales for your clothing store.

Read post: How To Attract Eager Buyers To Your Store