3 Mistakes to Avoid With Your Fashion Startup

1. Not knowing your customer Whether you’re planning on starting a fashion startup, or you’ve already created your brand and are currently driving sales, not knowing your customer is possible the biggest mistake any fashion entrepreneur can make, as highlighted here. Without knowing who your customer is, in terms of their likes, dislikes, interests, buying habits and more, it can be very difficult to create and promote a product which they will be likely to purchase. Having an in-depth understanding of your customer is not only beneficial for creating a tailored product, but it can also help in the ways you choose to market to them. For example, if your brand focuses on an older audience of around 50 - 70 years old, spending your marketing budget on Instagram ads is unlikely to drive a positive return on investment, and will instead lead to clicks which do not convert into sales. 2. Buying too much stock upfront When it comes to producing your initial order of clothing or accessories, it may be tempting to order large volumes of items in order to achieve the discounts offered by many manufacturers for such large orders. However, without having tried and tested your new products in terms of how they are perceived and how they sell, you may be throwing away a much needed budget in the early stages of your business. A better approach would be to focus on a smaller range of products initially, for example, 3 - 5 different designs, and order in a much smaller quantity, even if it means having to pay a little more per item. This will allow you to see which designs sell well, and should be ordered again, as well as which designs do not sell as well (if at all) and therefore should not be ordered again. This approach may leave you with stock shortages in the short term for items which happen to sell very well, but it can be worth it in the long run in terms of any lost budget on non-selling items. In this instance, you should simply switch off any paid ads running to these now sold out items until they are back in stock. 3. Not focusing on repeat orders Many fashion startups put a lot (if not all) of their marketing budget into driving sales from new customers, and often neglected to focus on targeting their existing customers for repeat orders. In most cases, driving revenue from existing customers is much cheaper compared with trying to find new customers to buy altogether. Targeting existing customers can be achieved with free marketing tactics, such as email marketing and organic social targeting. In addition, an existing customer is far more likely to buy from you again, compared with someone who is unfamiliar with your brand.