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Dress shops on-line, how to run a successful on-line dress shop.

Why run a dress shop on-line?

There are many pros and cons associated with starting and running a on-line dress shop.  As a Manchester based on-line dress shop trader I am fully aware of the pros and cons associated.  Personally I feel on-line shopping is the future, offering traders and customers advantages away from traditional high street shopping.  On-line shopping is a trend that is defiantly on the rise, with on-line retailers such as Amazon, ASOS and Next on-line shopping seeing massive success.  However some customers just do not trust the internet.  Read my guide below to the pros and cons of on-line dress shop trading and please comment in the box below.

Pros of running a dress shop on-line:

The internet is still a free market, anyone can buy a domain name, build a web-site and sell products for example starting a on-line dress shop.  This freedom means that small independents such as fashion designers can purchase a domain name for as little as ten pound, the costs associated with building a web-site are flexible, however it is recommended to use a professional web-site designer for a professional look.  Once the web-site has gone live they can start trading instantly, their first on-line dress shop.  This process removes any costly overheads associated with renting a dress shop retail unit.

Advertising, promoting, marketing a on-line dress shop, again the costs involved are flexible.  It is still possible on the internet to become a successful dress shop on-line without spending a large amount of money, by using free or low cost on-line networking and trading site to promote your on-line dress shop such as Twitter, Facebook, Gumtree and Ebay.  This is a move away from traditional advertising where dress shops would have to employ expensive marketing agencies, or pay for advertising in magazines in order to get their dress shop seen and to become popular.

The great thing about the internet and Google at the moment is that big companies are not able to pay to appear on the first page of all Google searches (discounting Google ads).  If for example you type in Google “on-line dress shops”, the web-sites that appear on the first page are the on-line dress shops you are most likely to visit.  This means that if you are a independent on-line dress shop and you produce a good web-site you can appear on the front page of Google along-side big names such ASOS through talent not by spending a fortune.  Only in this on-line market space can you compete with highly profitable, highly financed fashion brands.

After much hard work I appear on Google page one for “Dress shops Manchester” and page two for “Shops Manchester” above Harvey Nichols and Selfridges.

How did I make my on-line dress shop so successful with a much smaller budget then Harvey Nichols and Selfridges?

Firstly by building my on-line dress shop  with lots of content, key words SEO.  Google reads your web-site so the more interesting fashion related keywords you have, the more Google will rank it and higher up on the Google pages it will appear.  Lots of pretty pictures on your on-line dress shop looks great, however Google can not read pictures so your web-site to Google will look uninteresting when someone searches for on-line dress shops and it will instead show web-sites that mention dress shops on-line lots of time instead.  The question now is why not just write your keywords on your dress shop on-line over and over again, for example “Shops in Manchester”, “Shops in Manchester” so that Google reads it and puts your web-site on the front page.  Google is clever and will know that you are trying to cheat, the same if you simply cut and paste information of other web-site as a way of adding more information on to your dress shop on-line.  You need to write unique content, a great way of doing this is by writing blogs that visitors to your dress shop on-line will find interesting, such as “How to Organise a Fashion Show” or “Is sportswear Still Fashionable?“.  By choosing interesting topics for your fashion blogs, writing content for your dress shop on-line will become fun.

Advertising your dress shop on-line through networking website and by linking to other web-sites is a great way to bring visitors to your on-line dress shop.  The more visitors that come to your web-site, the higher Google will rank it and the more visitors you will have.  It is like a snowball effect.  The mis-conception with links on web-site is that for example on-line dress shop owners think, great I will links to all my favourite web-site and visitors will find this useful.  The idea of links is that you get another on-line dress shop to link to your web-site (advertise) and you link back to their dress shop on-line.  This link gives both web-sites more power, as in a way you have two web-site for Google to find rather than one.  That is why as a on-line dress shop owner when you get approached for a link, it is a positive that will benefit your web-site rather than a company asking for free advertising.

What are the practical benefits of running a on-line dress shop?

Other pros associated with starting a on-line dress shop can be practical.  The on-line dress shop space is virtual, you can redecorate and redisplay your fashion products with a click of a button.  Dresses, skirts, shoes can be sold in large or small quantities, without the worries associated with traditional retail stores that the shop unit may look to cluttered or empty.  A on-line dress shop offers staffing flexibility, no need to pay a shop assistant to stand in the store just in-case a customer comes in.  Your staff can be dealing with on-line customers orders and enquiries while for example marketing the dress shop on-line or making products such as skirts to sell.  Your stock such as fashion shoes and dresses are safely stored until sold, so no need to worry about shoplifters or items getting damaged.   One of the biggest factors when writing a business plan is to consider your target market, effected by retail location and the types of people who live in that area.   As a on-line dress shop owner your are not tied to traditional opening hours or to local customers as you would be with a traditional retail unit.  While sleeping on a Sunday night a customers in Asia or the USA maybe in your on-line dress shop and buying your latest summer skirt.  You can find fame in fortune in countries you may even never of hear about, let alone visited.

Cons of running a on-line dress shop:

The pros of running a on-line dress shop I feel far out weight the cons and that many of the cons are now associated with the customers misapprehension to pay for products over the internet a trend that I feel will change greatly over the next decade.  On-line payment for goods on the internet is a big issue for some customers, they are worried about security, using fake web-site and having their banking detail stolen.  This is a issue, as I stated in the pros related to running a on-line dress shop anyone can create a web-site and start selling.  Unfortunately if it is a fake web-site and the customer has made a payment there really is little they can do to get their money back.  As a dress shop on-line retailer it is then your job to make customers trust your on-line dress shop.  This can be done by having the option for customers to pay with Pay Pal at your checkout, display a picture of yourself and write a blog.  The chances are a internet scammer would never do this.  Display your company office address and always reply to all customer e-mails.  Be patient, if customers see your dress shop on-line has been active for a number of years and is constantly up-dated they will begin to trust the web-site deeming it to be real.  Unfortunately this where high street names have a advantage over independent designers, as they have built a trusted brand through high street trading and this converts to on-line trading.

Finally the main practical con associated with trading as a dress shop on-line is that customers are unable to physical view the items or try them on.  As on-line dress shop trader I work hard to counteract the negative effects of this.  I offer customer a full refund on all items purchased no questions asked and always respond to all customer enquiries immediately explaining this.  Many customers ask me if I am stocked in boutiques so they can try the dresses, skirts I sell on.  Yes I am stocked in Moo Boutique and Junk Shop.  However as a on-line dress shop trader it is important to offer your boutiques something unique, that cannot necessarily be purchased on the web-site.  Customers trust will usually built when they hear you are stocked in a boutique, it is building this customer trust that will bring the sales.