How Shopify is Transforming the Fashion eCommerce Industry?

Shopify provides businesses with a robust platform to showcase their brand and products and smoothly thrive in the fierce competition of the eCommerce world. Globally popular fashion eCommerce brands like Gymshark, Penguin Books, and others trust Shopify to sell their products.

Shopify holds 10.32% of the eCommerce platform market share worldwide. Various big and small clothing stores choose Shopify for eCommerce development and launching their business online. 

Let us take a look at how Shopify is leading the fashion eCommerce market and how to start a clothing Brand successfully.

Here are the Top Fashion eCommerce Trends

• The worldwide fashion eCommerce market is estimated to touch $1.2T (£92b) by 2027.
• UK’s revenue in the apparel market was forecast to be £10.2 billion (+14.56%) between 2023 and 2027.
• eCommerce accounts for 21% of global fashion retail sales.
• In regions of Europe, Oceania, and America, online selling accounts for 30% of the fashion industry’s total retail sales.
• The eCommerce trends 2024 are largely dominated by Hybrid Commerce, AI integration, Augmented and Virtual Reality, and Social Commerce.
• Women between 26 and 35 constitute most of the fashion trends eCommerce buyers.
• Europe’s three largest fashion retailers are Zalando, ASOS, and About You.
• The compound annual growth rate of the global eCommerce fashion industry is projected at 14.2% between 2017 and 2025.

How to Start a Clothing Brand in 5 Simple Steps

Whether you are setting up a brick-and-mortar store or selling the clothing line online, there are various aspects to take care of. Deciding the business model, narrowing down the niche, budget planning, and other steps might feel overwhelming. We have simplified the process for you in five simple steps.

Step 1 – Choose a Viable Business Model

The journey begins with deciding on an optimum business model. The three popular options for starting a clothing store are:

1. On-demand / Self-designed Printing: This business model involves buying blank or solid colour attire like t-shirts, shirts, etc. and branding them with your logos or printing them with designs. You can also provide custom services and it is a proven effective option for starting the business at a low budget. 
2. Wholesale Customisation: This model involves buying clothing items in bulk quantity and personalising them with your brand designs, prints, and logos. This requires significantly higher investments but also offers scope for greater returns.
3. Designing From Scratch: As the name suggests, this model requires you to do everything from scratch. This means you need to source the raw materials, tailor unique designs, and produce the garments by collaborating with a manufacturer or on your own. This option requires the highest investment and has considerable profit margins.

Step 2 – Focus on a Niche

The next step in starting a clothing line in the UK is deciding on a business niche. The apparel industry is huge and voluminous. A fine-tuned approach focused on the niche selection can help you stand out in the Fashion eCommerce industry,

When deciding the niche, there’s a huge range of options like kids clothing, women’s clothing, men’s clothing, sportswear, and more. You can also build the brand around specific clothing items like socks, outerwear, skirts, bow ties; or even on a particular value such as ethically sourced materials, low-carbon footprint or highest quality fabrics.

Step 3 – Plan Your Budget

The budget for starting the clothing brand depends largely upon the business model, product niche, and various other factors. Overall, you can start a small-scale business with a budget of £5000.

The size, target location, and other factors also influence the deciding budget of the clothing store. It is also essential to consider the cost of setting up an online store to launch the clothing business. A flexible budget can help you build a good business brand.

Step 4 – Create a Personalised Brand Name

A unique brand name that is also easy to remember can yield popularity for the business. The first impression is a lasting impression, and when it comes to a brand’s name, the proverb is largely true. The name of the brand can help customers identify the business offerings and also help to make a long-lasting impression.

Overall, the name should have the following characteristics:

• A strong brand name should be distinct
• Accurately represent the mission & vision 
• It should be simple, easy to pronounce, and evocative
• It must last and be relevant as the business evolves
• You must be able to obtain complete legal rights to the name within the apparel industry

Step 5 – Fashion Brand Store Set Up

The last step is to understand how to build a Shopify store, as you need an online presence for reaching a wide customer base. Shopify offers a range of benefits for launching a fashion brand like availability of tons of beautiful and customisable themes, standard eCommerce functionalities, and helps to build a highly scalable store.

Here are 5 Reasons Why Shopify is Best for Launching a Fashion eCommerce Business

1. Plenty of Customisable Themes

The look and feel of the online store plays a vital role in building credibility among customers. Shopify offers a myriad of free and paid themes to choose from based on pricing, functionality, and designs. A Shopify agency can personalise themes to help you build a unique and appealing digital store for the business. 

2. Endless Categories

Categorisation is essential when it comes to selling clothes on fashion eCommerce sites. With a Shopify store, online retailers can access an endless number of categories that help arrange products and make them easily accessible to online shoppers. For example, you can categorise products by gender type, dress type (shirts, trousers, etc.), size, colour, and any other relevant attributes.

3. App Rich Platform

Selling on eCommerce platforms requires you to offer a wide range of trending features to customers to ensure high online sales. Shopify apps easily integrate into the systems, and there are many options available for use. This helps to extend the functionalities of the online store efficiently. 

4. Scalable Solution

When the business grows, merchants can easily scale by upgrading to higher versions like Shopify Plus. This powers the digital store with capabilities to handle greater traffic and also offer a better purchasing experience to clients. Shopify Plus provides additional features designed to aid merchants with higher revenue and sales.

5. Secure Checkout with Multiple Payment Gateways

Online buyers avoid shopping from stores when they smell something fishy. Shopify is not an open-source platform, which makes it difficult for hackers to target or attack it. The platform offers strengthened security with multiple secure payment gateways like PayPal and Authorize.net, which helps to drive the conversion rate efficiently.

We have Built Multiple eCommerce Fashion Stores on Shopify

At chilliapple, as an award winning eCommerce agency, we can help you build flawless digital stores that drive traffic, sales, and revenue. We feel every project is unique in terms of mission & vision, target audience, chief selling products, region of sales, and more.

We consider minute details to tailor bespoke online stores that can help emerging fashion brands achieve high business growth and build brand values. Some of our earlier Shopify Projects are:

1. Jumpsuit eCommerce Company

An aspiring jumpsuit eCommerce company approached us to build a vibrant yet serene store that reflects its design and values. Our Shopify team built a unique and bewitching store that offers customers a seamless online shopping experience. The project involved the following:

• Shopify Theme customisation
• Third-party integration
• Social media platforms integration
• Product page building

2. Handmade Children’s Felt Gifting Company

An international handmade children’s felt gifting company with workshops across England, Switzerland, and New Zealand approached us to build a modern eCommerce store that streamlines day-to-day operations efficiently. The project involved the following:

• Building the ecommerce site on Shopify with smooth navigation capabilities
• Powering the site with membership-adding capabilities
• Ensuring website performance optimisation
• Enhancing SEO & UX
• Server Deployment