7 Tips for Establishing a Successful Online Vintage Clothing Resale Business

If you are passionate about clothing and fashion, you may have considered different ways to generate some extra income from this passion. One way to monetize on your stylish pastime is to buy and sell vintage or other preloved clothing online. This article will outline seven tips to help you get started with an online clothing resale business.

1. Find your niche.

The first thing you need to do is identify the style niche for your clothing resale business. You may want to focus on a particular style genre like bohemian dresses or maybe your focus will be on a certain fashion generation or decade. There are a variety of angles you could take to create a brand that appeals to your specific niche. This decision will be highly personalized once you outline your business goals and figure out the best possible set up for your new enterprise. To do this, you will need to get a broad idea of the current market surrounding your product by conducting Conjointly’s Van Westendorp PSM research to learn about pricing and much more. It is also important to learn successful ways to bring your product to market and position it for maximum sales growth.

For more information on product positioning as you launch your new small business, visit https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/product/positioning/.

2. Identify the platforms you want to use.

As you are considering the best niche for your new business, you also want to think about which online platforms you want to use for selling your products. There are the obvious online resale marketplaces such as eBay, Poshmark, and ThredUp. But there are also lots of other niche sites that focus on vintage clothing resale so be sure to look into those platforms as well.

If you want to expand your online clothing resale business, you may also consider setting up a sales booth at various vendor events like community fairs and farm markets. However, if you prefer to maintain your business solely from your home, you can keep your primary focus on online selling.

3. Make contacts for smart purchasing.

Building your inventory is one of the biggest challenges that you will encounter in establishing a new resale clothing business. Finding the best vintage pieces to add to your stock requires some trusted inside sources to help you snag up worthy items before other resellers find them and purchase them for their own inventory. You can visit your local thrift shops and build a working relationship with them so maybe you will get early to access to vintage items that come in. Start networking and making new contacts as soon as you know which niche you will be focusing on as this step is probably the most time consuming one to get your business started.

4. Use an alternative physical address.

In the interest of safety and privacy, if you are running a resale business from your home, you may want to think about obtaining an alternative physical address for mail and deliveries. You never know who is buying from your online shop so you may not want customers to have easy access to your home address. While this may not be a major concern for you, it is an option if you are worried about maintaining your privacy and ensuring maximum safety measures are in place.

5. Learn the basics of accounting.

If you do not already have a good understanding of accounting basics, now would be the time to learn. Running a business of any sort requires proper money management and if you have inadequate knowledge of this area, you will find yourself struggling to meet your business goals which in turn will jeopardize your profits and could ultimately lead to your business failing. You absolutely do not need an accounting degree to run a small home-based resale business, but if you want to make money, you do need to shift your focus from fashionable pastime to a serious business model and proper money management. You may also need startup debt funding to build your inventory and cover any other overhead costs. This type of funding is designed for small startup companies where an investor loans money for specified amount of time at the end of which the loan is paid back with interest.

6. Build a brand around your online selling business.

If you want your online clothes selling enterprise to have enduring success, you also want to create a solid brand identity for your new business. By establishing a recognizable brand, your business will stand out from all the other individual vintage clothing resellers. As customers begin purchasing from you and have repeated positive experiences, your brand will begin to grow its customer base and will become even more recognizable as a trusted source for quality curated vintage pieces. You might want to employ an expert in reputation management at this stage to help with brand building. A professional agency, for example, can work to remove negative glassdoor reviews and boost your online reputation while your business grows. 

7. Spread the word on social media.

Many of us have tenuous relationships with social media, but it is a necessary evil in the business world today. Whichever social media platforms are your favorite, use them to your advantage for marketing and advertising your new online vintage clothing business. It is important to create a new set of social media accounts using your new business brand name, but absolutely use your already established personal social media accounts as launching platforms to spread the word about your new business pages. The more traffic you can direct to your online resale site, the more opportunities you have for making sales.

These are just a few tips to help you get started with an online business. Once you have it all established and you begin making sales, there is still lots of work to do to maintain an adequate inventory and keep your customers coming back with repeat business. It is never easy work to run a successful small enterprise online, but the beauty of making money from your passions is that you can go as big or as small as you would like with your business goals.

Do you already run a successful online resale clothing business? Drop your brand in the comments so we can support one another in our endeavors. And if you have any words of wisdom to share for someone who may be getting started with a new online business, you can leave those below as well.

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

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