There are a lot of reasons to drag your feet on the online issue as you build the brand and identity of your physical store. “But all my customers are local…”, or “They’re just not online shopper types.” Not to mention the money involved in startup, and the hassle of inventory control and shopping carts. You might be surprised how much an online presence can really help your sales and community identity. These days, women’s wholesale clothing stores are everywhere.
Online stores are open 24 hours. Your customers may like to come in, try on the goods, and speak to you personally, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get a sneak peek at the new clothing trends. Put your website on your business card, and let them know they can look at items any time. They’ll come in as soon as they see new things, rather than stopping in randomly and being upset when you’re sold out of their size.
Online stores can track your customer demographics. Using analytics, you can see what your customers are looking at, what items they like, and you can even do surveys in exchange for clothing discounts to get more information to better help you stock your store.
Some online store systems let you sell items that you don’t physically have in stock. Some online clothing websites are affiliates of bigger companies who will hold the inventory for you, so you never have to store it in house.
Online stores make an attractive placeholder for your contact information. If someone wants to know what your address is, or what your hours are, do you want them landing on a generic yellow pages page with little or no information? Of course not! Your online store should be as lovely as your real storefront, and it should prominently display important information on getting to the store. Even if your customers don’t want to shop online, they’ll see that you are a professional, established business.
A great plus to women’s clothing websites is – you can let someone else do all the work for you! Ask your Julie-Ann sales rep to tell you about our affiliate program, which will provide all web design, shopping cart, inventory control, and customer service for you.
