Tips for Starting a Clothing Store

Run a Children’s, Bridal, Vintage, or Consignment Business

© Leslie C. Halpern

Feb 24, 2008

Good taste in clothes is not enough to sustain a clothing store business. You need to commit your money, time, and effort to the business for months – maybe years – before you see the kind of results that you desire. The newly revised edition of Start Your Own Clothing Store: Children’s, Bridal, Vintage, Consignment by Charlene Davis and Entrepreneur Press offers hundreds of great suggestions for getting started.

Tips for Starting Your Clothing Business

• Determine your specialty before you do anything else. Growth areas include specialty athletic apparel, maternity wear, and clothing for people over the age of 40.

• Whatever your area of specialty, present yourself as a problem-solver who helps customers find whatever they need – even if it means sending them to a different store after you’ve exhausted all your resources.

• Just because something sells well in New York City, doesn’t mean it will sell well where you set up your business. Study your local market before investing in any merchandise.

• Keep safety issues, traffic patterns, and parking areas in mind when selecting a location. These factors can make or break a small business.

• Be prepared to work up to 14 hours a day without much help when first starting your clothing store.

• Be aware that even 40-year-old mothers buy clothing and accessories at teen-oriented stores because they cost less, and the styles are often interchangeable.

• The ideal clothing store has adequate restrooms, places to sit, delivery service, phone shopping, refreshments on-site, and lighted parking nearby.

• Accessories are impulse items. Keep them stored by the dressing rooms and checkout counters for maximum visibility.

• According to a recent Global Lifestyle Monitor study, consumers worldwide visit retail stores for selection (45 percent), prices (36 percent), style (22 percent), quality of clothing (22 percent), and ease of shopping (21 percent).

• Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed said that price was the deciding factor whether or not to purchase a clothing item.

• According to MarketResearch.com, in 2005 the apparel industry generated total revenues of $827 billion worldwide.

• According to the NPD group, a retail research company, Americans spent $177 billion on clothing, shoes, and accessories in 2006.

• Start-up expenses differ according to store size, location, and merchandise. For example, your initial inventory might cost anywhere from $15,000 to $35,000 or more.

• According to BizStats.com, clothing and accessories retail stores have approximately a 41 percent chance of failure during the first year.

• The same group determined that loyal customers of upscale retailers buy more than 25 percent of their apparel from high-end clothing stores and spend an average of $95 per shopping trip.

Clothing Store Tips and Facts From the Book:

Start Your Own Clothing Store

Children’s Bridal, Vintage, Consignment

Entrepreneur Press

Charlene Davis

978-159918125-7

188 pages, 2007

$15.95 U.S.

To learn more about clothing, read Clothing in the Movies and on TV and Clothing in She's the Man.

Print Article

View All Articles

How to subscribe to feeds