eCommerce retail is still in its infancy in South Africa. It currently represents less than 1% of all retail transactions. However, it’s growing rapidly, early adopters will benefit a lot in the near future. This is a step by step guide on how to start an online clothing in South Africa.
This article will focus on how to start an online clothing store, here is a more detailed guide on how to start an eCommerce business in South Africa. There are a lot of benefits to having an online clothing store. Here are some of them:
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1. Less overhead costs:
Online stores don’t have the same overhead expenses as your normal brick and mortar stores. This is because you don’t really have to pay rent or hire anyone, this is something you can start completely on your own.
It is also a business that you can start directly from your home, this saves you from a lot of other overhead expenses and can be an advantage.
2. Massive reach:
Your audience is not limited to your region, you can sell to people all over the country right from your home or headquarters. Brick and mortar stores are generally limited, they only sell to people who are around their vicinity, this is why a brick and mortar store has to be in a prime location, that will increase its reach.
An online store will make it easy for you to reach millions of people from one central location. You could be in Eastern cape and you can sell your clothing/products to people in Gauteng or Cape Town.
To start an online clothing store in South Africa; you should do the following.
1. Setup an eCommerce store
An eCommerce store is the website where people will buy from. You have a lot of options when it comes to setting up an online clothing store, there are a lot of different platforms and plugins to help you with this. However, I strongly recommend that you get a professional to do this for you, you can get an eCommerce store setup for you from as little as R4 500 from Promta Web Services, some designers charge in the region of R9 000.
Your designer will setup everything you need to operate the store and should also train you how to operate it on a daily basis.
2. Setup your clothing inventory
We are living in the age of drop shipping, I have been a drop shipper myself, I don’t recommend it, especially if you want to setup a formidable business. You can do drop shipping if you are looking for extra cash and not really in it for the long haul, but if you are trying to build a solid business then I recommend that you have all your apparel on hand before selling it.
Here is a guide on how to start a successful dropshipping business in South Africa. Stock up on all your products before putting them up for sale on your website.
3. Setup a payment gateway
A payment gateway is simply a medium that your customers can use to pay you. It’s how you are going to accept payments when selling your clothing online. Your web designer should help you out with this, some payment gateways in South Africa are PayFast and PayU, you are not likely to be approved by PayU if you are making less than R20 000 per month on sales through your eCommerce store.
4. Packaging
You should pay special attention to packaging, try to place your products in a neat package. Packaging can get ruined by your courier but you should try your best to make sure that you have good packaging, don’t give your customers a reason to complain.
5. Marketing
Here comes the hard part, doing step one up until 4 is not really that difficult, the most difficult part is marketing. Brick and mortar stores get some level of free marketing, especially if they are in a prime location, people could be passing by and decide to check the store out.
Things are different on the internet, people come to any website as a result of direct marketing efforts. Even SEO is marketing; SEO is basically receiving free traffic from search engines like Google or Bing. For online stores, you have to learn product marketing. You will most likely advertise your products on Google and Facebook, that’s where a lot of South Africans hang out. Here is a guide on Facebook advertising.
You can have the best eCommerce store in the world, selling the best products at the best prices but no one will buy if they don’t know it. People don’t just stumble upon your store; they are supposed to be led there. This is also where you will spend the most money, you will learn new concepts like lead conversion and get to understand the importance of numbers as you will be looking at analytics. Here is a super detailed guide on business marketing.
Things to know
Starting an eCommerce business is easier compared to starting other traditional businesses, but making it successful requires a lot of hard work. That is almost always the case when it comes to things that have a lower barrier to entry, you have to work extra hard to stand out.
You will deal with a lot of difficult customers, that will make you want to pull your hair, but that’s the fun part. It’s also highly difficult to make it without marketing, I don’t want to say “impossible” but you get the picture. You need to have the budget for marketing, how much exactly? It depends, but R3 000 is very good for a start.
Conclusion
This was a step by step guide on how to start an online clothing store in South Africa. If you are looking to start a clothing brand then sell it online; here is a more detailed guide on how to start a clothing brand in South Africa. Do you have any thoughts or questions? Comment below.
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