Learn How to Build a Profitable Online Store in 7 Steps
So, you have decided to start your own online boutique? I am not shocked as to why you would want to do so. Getting into this industry is very lucrative. It is a multi-billion dollar industry that is also a low barrier of entry business, as well.
Even though this industry is booming, not many succeed. It is usually do to the fact that many just do not know how to start their online boutique correctly.
My guide below will show you exactly how to start your online boutique so that you have a solid foundation to grow your business upon.
Step 1: Take Time to Plan: Create a Business Plan
Before you start choosing your products that you want to sell, you should first research and construct a business plan.
Of course, the length of your business plan should be determined based on what exactly you are using the business plan for. You can use the business plan as a guide for your business or you can use it just to apply for a loan or acquire funding.
Whether you already have funding or not, you should still heavily lean on your business plan. Your business plan should lay out a plan for each stage of starting and managing your business.
You don’t have to have a strict plan, but it should look something like this:
Executive Summary
Tell you or your reader what your online boutique is and what it stands for in the form of a mission statement. You should also state why your online boutique will be successful, list products sold, list out your team members, and also if you are looking to obtain funding include financial information.
Marketing Analysis
You should know your industry that you are getting into. Here, you should detail your target market as well as your competition in your niche. Your marketing research should also state the trends and the state your industry is headed.
Organization/Management
Your need to know how your online boutique will be structured. Who will run day-to-day operations, labeling and shipping, marketing, etc.?
Also you should state whether you will have general or limited partnerships, will you have your online boutique incorporated or would you create a LLC? Basically, what will be the legal structure of your business?
Product Line
Here, you simply state your product(s) you will sell. You should also include the benefits it will provide your target market as well.
Execution of Marketing and Sales
Outline your marketing strategy in section. This should also include your sales plan, your marketing plan, and how you will attract and retain customers.
This should be reflective of current trends; meaning this will change as trends change.
Financial Plan
With your financial plan, you should aim to project revenue, profit and losses, cash flow, and a summary of why you are making your projections.
You can include any tools necessary to show your outcome, such as balance sheets, break even analysis, or even a mock financial statement.
U.S Small Business Administration (SBA) has a more in depth guide of various other business plans you can reference.
Step 2: Choose Your Online Boutique’s Niche
There are so many different options to choose from for your online boutique. You may be thinking, “Why can’t I sell everything?”.
You can eventually get to the point where you are a one-stop shop, but you should work your way to that point.
It is much easier to be successful if you focused on a single niche starting out.
This allows you to focus and hone in on your target market more efficiently.
From there, you can then cultivate your audience and it will be much easier to branch off later on.
Plus, it is much more cheaper to start off with one niche.
Think about it, if you are reselling or making the niche product on your own, you only have to worry about purchasing that one niche product or material to make that niche product. If you were selling several types of niche products, then you would have to shell out even more money to have these additional items in stock.
Also, by having one niche to focus on, you tend to develop a more focused product list to market to your audience efficiently.
Again, start off with one niche, grow your base, listen to your base, and add additional products based on feedback from customers.
Step 3: Decide on the Platform for Your Online Boutique
Next, you should decide on which platform you would like your online boutique to be on.
Whether you use an eCommerce such as Etsy or if you decide to establish your own site from scratch, you should look to choose that can communicate to your target market efficiently and also choose one that gives you the creativity you desire.
Use the Sell on Etsy App to manage orders, edit listings, and respond to buyers instantly, from anywhere.
There are pros and cons to both options above, so it should come down to what products you sell and how much creativity you want or need.
If you decide to create your own website from that ground up, keep mind that you have to buy a domain. Make sure that your domain reflects your brand, your niche, and YOU!
With your own site, you have full control of the theme (you will need to know some coding language or you can pay for someone to build it for you) and layout of your store.
You shouldn't rush this step by any means. Designing your online store should take time because when your visitors come to your store for the first time, they should be able to navigate your store without any issues.
Your design of your online store can make or break your sales.
Step 4: Create a Cohesive Aesthetic for your Platform
To have a more cohesive aesthetic for your online boutique, you should want everything to flow on your site.
When creating your aesthetic, keep in mind your audience and niche. Nothing screams Don't buy me! than a disorganized online boutique where nothing seems to go together from the layout design to fonts. Again, everything should flow well cohesively.
You may have to do a bit of research. Find out what your target market find appealing, what design or picture that can emotionally communicate to them, and what relates to them.
Also, your social media platforms should act as an extension of your aesthetic as well. If your theme on your online boutique is variation of red, then your the social media’s theme should also incorporate variations of red also.
Again, everything should flow well together!
Step 5: Develop your Brand
In the previous step, we discussed how building and designing your own cohesive aesthetic for your online boutique is important for the flow of your store. Your online boutique’s branding should be just as important.
Your brand should encompass the name of the your online boutique, your social media platforms, the appearance of your website, your target market, and it should also include your cohesive aesthetic of your niche as well.
No matter what you do, always think about your branding. Just like maintaining cohesive aesthetic for your online boutique, take into account of the colors you use, the content on all platforms, fonts used, and also pictures or videos you share.
When branding, be creative and relaxed. This should be really fun!
Just keep in mind, that everything should flow well together.
Step 6: Finally, Launch Your Online Boutique!
Once you have your branding in place on all platforms, it is time to launch your online boutique.
Just follow these 3 steps prior to launching:
What is your Launch Strategy?
Are you going to have a launch sale? Will you notify those on your email list with teasers? Will you have a huge announcement on your social media platforms?
Not matter which strategy you use, ensure that your online clothing boutique is functional and ready to go Day 1.
Your Social Media Platforms Should Be Ready
Social media is such a huge component of your overall business so it only makes sense to have your social media platforms primed and ready for the launch.
Keep in mind that you should have already been active on your social media platforms already, so this should be a seamless event for you. You should have be communicating with your audience prior to launch so your audience should be well aware of what to expect from you.
I know this may seem redundant, but you may be surprised how many online boutique owners wait until launch to do this, but please have content already on your platforms prior to launch.
If you have some content available, it makes it easier to communicate with your audience as well as grow your base as well.
The bigger your base, the better your launch.
Have Your Sales Funnel and Email Marketing Strategy in Place
Prior to launch, aim to have at least 1 -3 months worth of email templates ready to go Day 1. Just make sure that your email templates are targeting your audience with the intent to close sales.
Your overall sales funnel should be intact as well. We have talked about in sales funnels in detail here.
If you want more in depth information about sales funnels, you are in luck. We have an article where we go more in depth on how to construct a winning sales funnel you can use for any business.
Still struggling with sales funnels?
We can help with that. Just click here and we can get started building your sales funnel.
Step 7: Generate Traffic to your Online Boutique
Once launched, you need ongoing traffic. You cannot rely solely on social media posts to drive traffic, so what next?
The biggest traffic drivers today are PPC, content marketing, and use of influencers, just to name a few; although there are many other ways to generate traffic not listed here, we find that above listed works really well for online boutiques.
In my opinion, the best driver of traffic is PPC, so we will discuss this first. We would like to focus on Google Adwords for PPC, although there are other means for PPC.
By investing in Google Ads for your online boutique will do wonders for your traffic. By purchasing Google Ads, your ads will be shown in Google search results if done correctly.
you should look to incorporate video ads as well, because they seem to convert at a higher rate that copy ads. Also, your video ads will be shown on YouTube as well.
No matter if you choose ad copy or video ads, you should pay attention to your target market so that you can efficiently get ad placement in front of potential customers as opposed to having as placement in front of someone with no interest in what you are selling.
A few thing to look for when creating ads are target market interests and demographics. You can obtain this information for your social media audience. You can also submit surveys as well on your platforms to get more detailed info.
Once you research the data, then you can efficiently place ads to the right audience. Then from there, track results so that your next campaign can be even better.
Something else you should try for your online boutique is reaching out to bloggers and vloggers. Get them to to try and review your products or you pay them to “wear or use” your product as well. You and the influencer should decide the terms and conditions.
The main thing to look for in this is to make sure that the blogger and vlogger are influential enough to be worth it. You don't want to pay someone to wear your shoes if that person only has about 100 followers. You should consider that person with 100 followers if all followers are insanely loyal to the influencer, then it may be worth it.
Also, you should proactively engage on social media as well. Engage with you other people, not your followers, that are interested in whatever product you are selling.
A bit of searching goes into this, but it is extremely effective.
Keep in mind, once your traffic increases, you don't have to rely on these methods as much. I am not saying that you should neglect them, but you don't have to use PPC every day any longer nor would you have to use influencers as much as well.
You should start to focus on campaigns once you become more established. Then, you can increase marketing dollars again using the above methods.
Well, that is it. You have all the steps needed to start an online boutique.
It may seem a bit daunting, but I can rest assure that if you follow these steps, you will be successful.