Regardless of what it is you have to sell, having your own amazing website is the most important step. Whether it’s something you craft yourself, or your unwanted second-hand clothes, a website is your virtual shop front – it must look good and be noticeable! For the purpose of this post, let’s say you have lots of old clothes that you need to get rid of. You never wear them, but they’re in perfectly good condition and it would be a shame to throw them out. People would pay good money for your clothes, so…why don’t you let them?!
Selling your clothes online can be a great way to make money on the side with very little effort. One way you can do this is by setting up your own website and listing your clothes on it for people to buy. Below, you’ll find a few tips on how to get started with having your own online shop and how to ensure lots of people can actually find your site!
Select your domain name
The first step is deciding the domain name of your website. Ideally, you want it to be as professional as possible as you’re basically coming up with a business name here. There are domains you can get for free, but don’t expect them to be that great. Instead, you’re better off investing in a domain name online, of which there are many sites you can go on to do just that. Effectively, this provides you with the address for your website.
Choose how to build your site
Next, you have two options on how to build your website. The first one is the simplest, which is to find an eCommerce website builder that does it all for you. An obvious one that springs to mind is Shopify, seeing as this is the most popular eCommerce site builder around. Of course, you can do more research into this topic before making a decision in choosing a builder that suits your needs. In essence, builders like Shopify let you select different templates, and then the site is just built for you in an instant. You’re site is also hosted on their servers, which may be a lot more affordable for you.
Alternatively, you can work with a design or web design agency to create a unique site from scratch. It’s more expensive, but you benefit from a site design that’s unique to your business and may attract more people. Bear in mind that you’ll also need to pay for a server to host your site on. Most of you may build towards custom web design in the future, but will be better off starting with a website builder instead.
Market your site
Following this, you should start adding products to your site to get it ready for people to buy from. Make sure the photos are clear and that you use a plain, neutral background. Now, it’s a case of marketing your site as best as possible. You need to drive traffic to your site and ensure it gets noticed, meaning you should focus on SEO and also on social media promotion. Working with an SEO agency can help you achieve this; optimizing your site for search engines to ensure you’re higher up the rankings and more visible. Social media marketing is also beneficial as you can start an Instagram page, gain followers, post photos of the clothes you’re selling, and direct people to your site. Consider all the marketing methods you can think of to get shoppers to your site to make some purchases.
The three tips above are crucial to help you get started. Also spend some time taking clear images of your products. This too is key!
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