Do you want to start a clothing business in Nigeria?. This will be among the best decisions that you have made. Clothing business is lucrative if you really knows how to go about it. A lot of things can prompt you into starting a clothing business from home. It maybe that you are a fashion designer who prefers to stay at home and do his or her work. You are a fashionista who finds it interesting to introduce some of his or her favourite Styles to other people’s wardrobe by ordering those Styles for retailing or wholesaling. Whatever your reason maybe, doing it right will earn you a great profit.
Are you afraid of getting customers if you start you business from home? You shouldn’t be because there are so many ways that you can comfortably market you products from the comfort of your home. Online marketing is a great relief for people who wishes to do their business from home. Having said all these, let me now give you the step by step approach of how to start a clothing business in Nigeria.
How to Start a clothing business from home in Nigeria
1. Narrow your business down to a specific niches
To be honest with you, clothing business is among the businesses with several niches. One thing that will give a good definition to your business is when you are identified with a particular niche. Having a defined niche will give you a great customer retention. It will also help you in competing favourably with others who may be selling similar products with you.
Let me give you an example of some clothing niches that you can go into. In Nigeria, is either you are selling clothing products for Ladies, Women, Guys, Men, Adolescents and Kids. To narrow it down again, it is either you are selling Fairly used clothes ( Okrika), Already Made or your own custom made. Defining your niche is a great way to start off.
2. Carry out a Market Survey
One of the unfortunate things that may happen to you in a business is selling a product that is in low demand and also not profitable. Some clothing items may look good to you but may not be acceptable to a lot of people, therefore, the need for a careful survey. You can carry out your survey in physical shops selling what you intends to sell, ask the shop owners the rate of such products patronage, you can be monitoring it yourself. Check on stores, boutiques and open Market places.
Checking online is also another good way. The first place that I will recommend you to start with is popular online marketplaces like Jumia, Jiji and Konga. Check for feedbacks and number of purchases. Visit pages on the social media selling similar products that you want to sell and also check their level of patronage. This will give you an insight on what next to do.
3. Choose Your Target Audience
I believe your market survey will give you a clue on how to choose your target audience. If you are already a fashion designer who produces clothes for specific group of people or age group, this may not be an issue because you will already have a clue on what the level of patronage will be like.
The various target audience you should consider is whether it is for Ladies, women, guys, men, adolescents or Kids. To go further, you may check the rate of turnover for clothing of the various target audience. Understand very well how to start a clothing business from home in Nigeria.
4. Create Your Brand
“Branding is the process of creating a distinct identity in the mind of your target audience and consumers. The most basic aspects of a brand is the company’s logo, company’s name, visual design, tone of voice and mission.”
In essence, your brand represents your business. Your brand identity will earn you more customers and also great customer retention. Let people your business be known for its high quality, efficient delivery and affordable prices. All these will be what will come in the mind of your customer whenever he or she sees you brand name.
Note; your brand name is the name that your business is Known with. Your brand identity is your mission, tone of voice and other feedbacks about your business. Therefore, it is good to have a good brand identity for your business to flourish. Let me also not forget to let you know that you have to choose a unique brand name for your business. One that have not been used already, easy to remember, this will help your business to stand out.
5. Choose Your Supplier
For you to have a successful clothing business in Nigeria, you must choose a trusted supplier. Have it in mind that what will earn you more customers and recommendations despite the fact that you are doing business from home is your product quality. People are ready to trace you to your home if they really appreciates what you are selling. Ask yourself; Why will people choose my product over others? What will I do to make my business stand out? When you have truly answered those questions, you will try as much as possible in getting a good Supplier.
If you are sewing the clothes yourself, try and get a supplier that will sell quality materials to you. If you are selling finished or already made clothing, also go for those with high quality. There are good importers of clothing materials that you can find in some commercial areas of the nation such as Lagos State and Aba in Abia State.
6. Set Your Price
The price of your clothing can either attract customers to you or scare away customers from you. Remember they will find out the real price from other people selling similar products with you. Set your price at an affordable rate. Consider the cost of all that it took you and add up what you think should be your profit. Do not make your products too expensive.
If there is something you think that is special and that should make the price of your products higher than what others are selling, you can equally specify it.
7. Choose Your Marketing Platform
Since you are starting your business from home, your marketing platform is going to be mainly online to reach more people. In addition to this, you can print a business card that you can share to people who wants to locate you. This will help in boosting your physical sales.
The popular online marketplace places that you can choose are; Jumia, Konga, Jiji, Etsy and others. Sign up with them, remember to read their terms and conditions. Create your own profile and start selling your clothings.
You can equally market your products on popular social media accounts such as ; Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It is better to create a brand page for your business, grow your followers engage and sell your products to your followers. To make things more simpler, you can have your own E-commerce website or create a website for your landing page when advertising.
8. Advertise your products
There are many ways that you can let people know about your brand. To reach more audience on social media, you can create an ad or a sponsored posts using eye-catching pictures of your products, this will attract more potential customers to your page and website. You can equally run your sponsored ads with popular advertising company like google.
Advertising your products by using cards, billboards, through broadcasts will equally get more customers for you.
9. Choose a reliable logistics company to partner with
As long as you are going to sell your clothes online, you need to also make provision on how the goods will get to your potential buyers. Specify the additional charge for the dispatch riders or waybills. Ensuring that your goods gets to your customers in time and in good condition is a great way to promote patronage.
Now that you have known how to start a clothing business from home in Nigeria. Go ahead and start one, try to make sure that your business stands out from others.
Also Read; Best Places to Buy Cheap Wholesale clothes in Lagos