A step-by-step plan for opening an online children’s clothing store

Online business is attracting more and more beginners and already experienced entrepreneurs. This is why it is much easier to create and promote your business on the Internet than in real life. Numerous problems with renting premises, recruiting personnel, and other factors immediately disappear. Choosing a trading niche, you need to understand which product is relevant on the market, how to attract buyers, keep them.

Baby products are exactly the category that does not lose its relevance, because each parent is to provide his child with the best. So, before you open an online children’s clothing store from scratch, you need to understand the intricacies and nuances of the case, conduct a market analysis, select an assortment, and think over a business plan.

Business relevance

Shopping on the Internet has ceased to be something inaccessible and new, the majority of the population has long switched to online shopping, thereby saving themselves time. It also happened with the parents of the kids, because with them it is extremely difficult to go shopping for a long time and choose something. The relevance of online shopping is based on the awareness of maximum time savings with a large selection among the entire assortment.

Most online stores provide the buyer with all the necessary information about the clothes, and you can always consult with the seller about the quality, material, and other characteristics.

Market analysis

Before opening a children’s online store, an entrepreneur needs to assess all the risks and analyze the market. The main nuances of the market are:

1. The relevance of children’s clothing, toys, accessories – although the birth rate in the country has decreased, it remains high, which indicates a constant demand for children’s products.
2. The absence of such a risk as seasonality – the niche does not stand idle, because every season a child needs different sets of clothes, you should also not miss the fact of rapid growth.
3. A small margin for – on average, it reaches 20-30%, and for winter clothes it can go up to 70-100%. There is a simple rule – the cheaper the product, the lower the margin on it. The profit does not come from a large price hike, but from the amount sold.

Target audience portrait

To conduct a high-quality advertising campaign and conduct a successful business, before opening an online children’s clothing store from scratch, it is necessary to draw up a portrait of the target audience. The main group will be represented by married women with children or planning to give birth at the age of 20-40.

It should be borne in mind that not all families have the same income, it is important to offer a variety of products from low to high price categories. The preference should be on the side of medium-priced goods, at about 10% for the category of branded items and cheap goods.

Online store options

There are three most common types of activities in such a business:

1. An ordinary store – an entrepreneur buys a product and sells it on his own website, thinks over advertising, communicates with customers, sending them orders.
2. Dropshipping is the same as regular mediation. The entrepreneur finds customers and acts as a guide between them and the seller. Profit in such a case comes by agreement with the seller or from his own margin, which the entrepreneur decides to put.
3. Opening a franchise business – there are many already well-known children’s clothing stores that offer to buy from them the rights to open a store under their name. Thus, the entrepreneur receives an already promoted business and general, supporting information from the main network.

The choice of the direction of work depends on the preferences of the business owner and is based on his own goals and beliefs.

And here we wrote about how you can open an online store Vkontakte .

Selection of assortment in the online store

An entrepreneur needs to carefully monitor the quality of the goods, it is also worth paying attention to the study of fashion trends, which will allow them to buy a batch of popular clothing before competitors. Basically, children’s clothing can be divided into 4 main sections:

1. For newborns (from birth to 6 months) – when purchasing such a product, it is necessary to carefully check the quality and composition. For babies, only natural fabrics are allowed, and all clothing should be comfortable and comfortable. There are no fashion trends.
2. Younger age, preschoolers – it is worth looking at the cut of clothes, it should not hinder movement, because at this age children are actively exploring the world. Also pay attention to the easily removable fabrics, this criterion will be interesting for moms.
3. For schoolchildren, there are no special criteria, except for the increased size, it should also be of high quality and comfortable. The category also includes a school uniform, it should be purchased in the summer, in a small batch and sold out in preparation for school.
4. Teenagers (11-15 years old) – when selling things in this category, you must carefully select the goods, guided by the latest fashion trends. In adolescence, taste already begins to form, so many guys carefully choose their clothes.

It is also worth paying attention to narrowly focused categories:

• Sportswear – suits, T-shirts, pants and shorts for outdoor activities.
• Party outfits – there can be suits for matinees, and fluffy dresses for girls, and suits for boys.

The choice of which product to trade depends on the entrepreneur – you can make a highly specialized store or buy a little of everything.

How to choose a supplier?

The choice of suppliers must be approached responsibly, before purchasing it is required to request documents confirming the quality of the goods, various certificates, licenses.

You should not build the store operation on one supplier, it is better to look through all the options, pick up several people – this way the assortment will be much wider.

Suppliers are of two types:

• Manufacturer – companies that are directly involved in sewing clothes.
• Dealers – wholesale suppliers reselling goods in bulk at good prices.

It is important to pay attention when purchasing goods for the season, it is better to order a batch of summer goods in spring, so that by the onset of summer there is a good choice in the store.

How to open an online children’s clothing store from scratch: step by step instructions

When drawing up a business plan, an entrepreneur must carefully consider all the main steps in the process of starting a business. Main stages:

• Business registration.
• Market analysis, target audience, competitors.
• Drawing up a financial plan.
• Search for suppliers, selection of assortment.
• Website development, content.
• Advertising campaign.

Business registration

To open an online store, a simple registration as an individual entrepreneur is enough, but if the business is planned together with a partner, then it is worth creating an LLC.

Documents for registration of an individual entrepreneur:

• Statement.
• The passport.
• INN.
• Receipt for payment of state duty (800 rubles).

Step-by-step instructions for creating a website

It is quite easy to create a website for an online store; this will require:

• Buy domain is the short name of the site.
• Develop an internal structure, website design.
• Order its creation.
• Fill the created portal with unique content, contact information, product cards.
• Create a landing page to attract buyers.

You can order development from a programmer or contact an agency for help.

What should be the site?

When creating a website for a store with children’s goods, you must adhere to simplicity and a combination of useful functions. The main functions of the system:

• Ability to apply discounts on product cards.
• A way to quickly upload information and new products to the site.
• Displaying the availability of goods in the store – enable / disable button.
• Creation of filters and ease of use.
• The ability to create an invoice with one click, also view all orders made.

There are also several basic requirements for the design and template of the store:

• Navigation should be simple and user-friendly.
• The design should be done in bright colors.
• Adding filters – the more the better.
• Sorting of goods.
• Possibility to place a large number of photos in one card.
• The card itself should be simple, but contain all the necessary information.

It is also worth taking care of adapting the site for mobile phones – many buyers browse catalogs and choose products from their phones.

Features of the assortment of the children’s store

To open an online children’s clothing store, you need to understand all the existing nuances. It is important to deal with all the issues related to the assortment – availability, quality, variety, relevance.

It is important to set up a website that will make it easy to track the number of views and orders for a particular product, understand customer requests and change the assortment.

It is necessary to constantly monitor the number of goods, if it runs out – you should immediately write about it in the card. Care should be taken to add a reviews section so that registered users who have bought baby clothes can share their impressions.

It is worth paying attention to various sites, forums, and communities for moms, where women share their problems, tell what things they like and what is fashionable now.

How to promote your online store?

For good website promotion, you will need to use a complex method consisting of contextual advertising, optimization of descriptions, and other information for search queries and promotion through social networks.

The first two items are widely used in promoting any online business. Particular attention should be paid to website promotion on various forums, women’s communities in social networks. After all, this is where most mothers on maternity leave or seeking advice live.

You can also use some advertising methods in real-life – place ads in schools, kindergartens, leave business cards in organizations for children’s parties. You can also attract partners from various fields by concluding an agreement on mutually beneficial terms.

Initial investment in business

Initial investments in such a business include:

• Website development – from 50,000 rubles.
• Purchase of the first batch of goods – 30,000 rubles.
• Business registration – 5,000 rubles.
• Advertising campaign – 30,000 rubles.
• Additional expenses – 5,000 rubles.

In total, to open a store, an amount of 120,000 rubles is required. It is worth considering the monthly expenses for replenishing the assortment and maintaining an advertising campaign.

Income from the children’s store

The profit that can be obtained if an online children’s goods store is opened as a business is calculated individually, based on the number of orders, the markup for goods, the region, and monthly expenses.

On average, a small business brings in from 100,000-200,000 rubles a month, but such figures appear after several months of work when the first client base will be developed.

Business profitability, its payback

On average, the business pays for the starting additions after six months of stable work. But the process can be delayed if a large trading floor was opened with a lot of goods, office, and warehouse rent.

Many entrepreneurs who decide to start a business on the Internet stop at the idea of ​​opening an online children’s clothing store, because the niche is relevant and has many opportunities for development. In order for a business to flourish, you will need to make an effort – to assess the prospects and benefits, find good suppliers and create a catalog, conduct an advertising campaign and constantly improve the functionality of the site.

The set of steps taken on the way to creating a popular store will allow an entrepreneur to open a stable business with a high income. In the future, a small business can be developed into a large-scale project by opening retail outlets in cities, providing a variety of services.