This is an interesting niche to talk about because fashion eCommerce is so huge on the internet these days. From small to big brands, petite to plus size, there’s always something for everyone’s wardrobe. So, whether you are a fashion geek or a retailer, learning how to create a clothing website will help you to express your fashion statement better.
Sounds exciting? Great, let’s get started.
How to Create a Clothing Website?
Setting up a website isn’t as technically challenging as it used to be. Basically, you only need 3 things;
1) A Domain
What would you like to call your website? That would be the domain name, a.k.a. the website address. A subdomain is free ones that have the subdomain extension after the name of the website. On the other hand, custom domain names are paid ones and they always come with a domain extension such as .com, .net and .org.
At SiteDomains, you can easily check for a domain availability by typing in your desired website name. Here’s one that I’ve come up with;
2) A Hosting Service
After you decide on a custom domain name, you’ll need to connect it to a hosting company, a service that will be storing all the files related to your website. At SiteRubix, you have the privilege of using a powerful hosting platform supported by an efficient technical team and this process can be easily completed with just a few simple clicks.
3) A Publishing Platform
In this next step, you’ll need a publishing platform and if you are planning to make some money, I would recommend that you use WordPress. Although there are much simpler website builders out there, I find that WordPress offers more functionality and online visibility. So if you have never used it before, head over to SiteRubix and create a WordPress website for free.
How to Monetize Your Website?
When it comes to the clothing niche, there are basically two ways to monetize; build an online store and/or create a blog.
An Online Store
This method is great if you have physical products to sell. An online store enables you to display your items into different categories and accept orders from the customers right away. The good thing about using WordPress is that you can use plugins to organize your products and connect them to the themes that come pre-built with eCommerce features.
To look for these types of themes, simply go to Appearance > Themes at your WordPress dashboard and enter the keyword ‘eCommerce’ or ‘online store’. Either way, it would come up with some nice looking theme designs that you can use right out of the box.
Here are some examples;
If you are looking for something that is more gorgeous and has more extensive functionality, then you could consider premium eCommerce themes such as Shopkeeper, Uncode, and Divi.
A Blog
Having a blog is a great way to constantly keep your website ‘fresh’ with new content and to attract more online traffic. You can use a blog post to feature your new clothing line OR recommend apparel through affiliate programs. The most important thing is to write the blog based on popular key phrases and this requires some niche brainstorming.
Ask yourself, what type of audience are you targeting? The clothing term by itself is TOO BROAD a niche so you’ll need to be more specific. Here are some questions that you can use to filter out.
- What type of gender is the clothing for? (Men or women)
- What age group would be interested in these clothes? (Children, teenagers, working people, large size group, etc.)
- What kind of style do you want to feature? (Stylish, casual, formal, etc.)
- What type of clothing material do you think is popular? (Leather, denim, laces, etc.)
An Example of a Niche Brainstorming
Let’s say my target audience is working women between 18 to 40 years old who are looking for office wear. What clothing term would you use to categorize this specific niche? I came up with ‘professional dress’, ‘women work clothes’ and ‘office blouse’.
Using Google Trend, we are able to find out which term is popular.
So it looks like all three have upward trends. I decided to go with ‘women work clothes’ because I find that the term is more versatile. The next step is to elaborate on this term so that we can find something more specific and get our blog to rank higher in the search results.
For this, I would use Jaaxy, my favorite keyword tool to dig into some ideas.
Obviously, ‘women work clothes’ is a popular search term with more than 600 searches per month. But it is also a competitive one with more than 100 websites ranking for that term. However, if you look down the list, you’ll find other interesting keyword ideas that have extremely low competition (look at the QSR column) which means, they would be easier to rank for.
Hence, when selling your own brand, you would use these keywords to point readers to your online store. And if you are interested in recommending other women’s workwear brands, here are 10 affiliate programs and their offers that you can consider.
- Amazon Associate – Earn from 4% commission per sale
- Banana Republic – Earn between 2% to 4%
- ASOS – Earn 5%
- BlueFly – Earn 6%
- NordStrom – Earn 5%
- Matalan – Earn 5%
- Boohoo – Earn up to 7%
- Oasis – Earn from 7%
- Missguided – Earn up to 8%
- Austin Reed – Earn 8%
What’s Your Clothing Business Idea?
So, out of all the topics that I’ve just brainstormed with you, which is likely YOUR clothing business idea? I hope you would dig into it and build an online business around that niche. Remember, you don’t need to be a fashion designer to get started.
All you need is to learn how to create a clothing website, promote your own product OR brands from other apparel companies and your business will eventually grow from there. If you are interested, visit my recommended training at Wealthy Affiliate to find out more.
Do you have any thoughts or questions about this topic? Just leave your comment below and I would be happy to respond.
Finally I have come across a simple, well-explained article that explains how to choose a good niche! I know you have highlighted how to make a clothing website, but I really like the part about using Google Trend to find out what people are looking for. I guess this would apply to any niche or business online, and really helps choose what things to focus on right at the beginning, I had no idea there were so many clothing retailers who give commission on sales! Much more than I originally thought. This has really helped with my thought process and given me a clear path for getting something that works for me. Thanks you!
Hey Mara, there are plenty of clothing brands that can now be found online so the opportunity is vast for those who wants to get involved in this niche. If you find a well established online shop, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to look for their affiliate program application. You should be able to find one.
Excellent article! This was very informative. I didn’t realize that Nordstrom and Banana Republic had affiliate opportunities. Your information literally has removed any excuse for someone who is looking to make money from home for failure. I really enjoyed how you outlined the keyword analytic research and how to leverage and understand low competitive keywords and use that information for better SEO results. Clothing is an excellent niche because it is something that anyone can relate to easily.
This is a very thorough blueprint for any fashionista to start a clothing website regardless of their level of expertise.
It’s a great opportunity to either share their love of clothes with others around the world, or even expand it into a business based on something they love.
I remember that’s how I felt when I started my food blog recently. I love cooking and eating food, and now that passions is becoming a brand.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful guide Cathy. Monetizing from a website is a step many people are afraid of because they don’t wanna cross the line with their visitors and pressure them in to buying. But it’s important to remember that it’s okay as long as you’re offering them something valuable.
That’s a good point made. I think a large proportion of people do not know that they can actually ‘sell’ things through a website/blog without being ‘salesy’. There was a time when we used to see webpages that scream ‘Buy Me!’ but I don’t think that those technique would work in the modern marketing landscape anymore.
We now find more values through blogs, reviews, stories, discussion – content that makes us more transparent as a business owner and more engaging for the readers. A food blog is one such niche that can really benefit from all these type of content. I think you are really into a profitable niche, Diana.
Awesome post. I was just thinking that fashion for the over 50 crowd would be my next focus. Many thanks for the help!!! Sue
I like your post, the way you put all the information to build a clothing website for women, is amazing. It must going to help many of us who are really thinking for affiliate marketing in clothing. And you are right, this is a growing niche where we can try for success.
Hi there Sangeeta,
There are many niches that you can get involved with when it comes to affiliate marketing. If you can find a popular upward trend, those are niches worth researching. Wealthy Affiliate University has some step-by-step training on how to go about this, so do check them out.
I really enjoyed your article and the suggestions that you made for starting a niche website from scratch. I am very new to online marketing myself and am always looking for new tips on how to make a better website. Thanks for recommending Google Trends, I’ve never heard of that before and will use it for my site!
Hi Cathy,
What a great article about starting an online clothes business! You are so right that it’s a popular niche these days, and I like the way you’ve encouraged me to think about some basic questions about my audience too. One question I did have – what is Google Trends and can anyone use this to find out the popularity of a search term?
Google Trend is a free web program to show you the popularity of a search-term in relation to the total search volume across different regions in the world. Just type Google Trend online and you should be able to find the link.
If you are just starting up, you may also want to check out other essential Google tools to grow your online presence. Feel free to get in touch with me if you need anything else.
I used to operate a local clothing website back in the day so I am very familiar with the process of creating one with the Bigcommerce platform. I must say that your post was still very informative because I never created a clothing store using wordpress before.
Now that I see how easy it is maybe I will try it. Thanks so much.
Hi Shane,
There are many eCommerce platform out there but they don’t work and priced the same way. Although WordPress is primarily a blogging platform, it’s potential to get online traffic is indisputable. You’ll probably need to mix and match some plugins, but if done right, the power of WordPress will not disappoint you.
You can create a free WordPress website with SiteRubix to give it a try.