Entering the online apparel market can seem very lucrative but highly competitive. This leaves many prospective sellers wondering – what does it take to sell clothing on Amazon’s massive marketplace successfully? How can you make listings stand out in the crowded fashion space?
As an experienced Amazon seller who has profitably grown multiple clothing brands, I’ve discovered proven methods for surfacing your listings, building credibility, and maximizing sales on Amazon.
In this introductory guide, I’ll outline a strategic approach to launching and growing apparel products, covering the fundamentals of inventory, branding, marketing, and optimizing a clothing line.
Is Selling Clothes On Amazon Profitable?
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, online shopping became extremely popular, and people started buying almost everything online. This also improved the revenue of Amazon a lot. Now many people are buying clothes online and mostly from Amazon, so selling clothes on Amazon is still a profitable business.
If your profit margins are good, then you can easily earn a lot of money selling apparel on Amazon. But the only issue is that there is a lot of competition for selling clothes on Amazon. You need to offer something new and unique to stand out from the crowd. So you may also need to take losses in the beginning to become profitable in the future. If you stick to the business long enough, it will eventually become profitable, but you also need to follow all the latest trends.
Step-By-Step Guide On How To Sell Clothes On Amazon
The following are steps for starting a business online from scratch on Amazon:
- Become familiar with the process
To start any business, first, you should understand how the process works. For this, you need to do detailed research on Amazon selling profitable products, how to get started, how order fulfillment takes place, etc.
When it comes to fulfillment, There are two options available by Amazon for fulfillment: fulfillment by merchant (FBM) and fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).
When you sell on Amazon through FBA, they handle your inventory management, packaging, shipping, returns, and customer service. This method is suitable for someone who doesn’t have time to handle all the work from their end. But you will be charged for these services and receive additional functionalities like Amazon Prime eligibility.
In contrast, Amazon FBM gives you the power over packing, shipping, and customer service. You can also include personalized notes with the package, among other options. The advantage of this model is that you can have a higher profit margin than with Amazon FBA.
You need to know a few fundamental things before starting an Amazon business.
- Choose a business model.
You have the option to choose from many business models while starting the Amazon clothing business. I have named a few of them: Private Label, Wholesale, Retail Arbitrage, Online Arbitrage, Dropshipping, and Handmade. Now let’s have a clear idea of how these models work.
Private Label: It is the most well-known and profitable company model. It involves selling clothing with your brand name as the first party on Amazon. Initially, starting with the private label might not seem to be easy, but it helps to build your brand awareness.
Handmade: This is the best option for designers or artists who create and sell clothing. In this model, rather than paying monthly sellers’ fees, you’ll pay a flat percentage. If you do not wish to manage fulfillment, you can use the FBA fulfillment method, for which you will be paid.
Retail Arbitrage: With this model, you will purchase clothing from a well-known brand from a marketplace at a discount and resell it on Amazon. If you are someone who wants to start selling quality products, this can be the preferred option.
Dropshipping: In this business model, you will not store any inventory. Instead, the order is fulfilled directly through the product supplier or manufacturer.
Wholesale: In this method, you purchase clothing of different brands from wholesalers and resell them on Amazon. You must have Amazon’s approval for each brand you sell.
These are the most commonly used business models in Amazon to sell clothing.
- Register as an Amazon Seller Account
Registering as an Amazon Seller Account is officially the first step to starting your Amazon clothing business. In this process, you must provide details like name, legal name, and contact number to make your Amazon seller account. It is equally important to read all the terms and conditions while providing the details.
- Get approval from the Amazon team.
After registering as a seller account, you need to fill in some important details to start listing the products. The information required in the form are
- Enter the Store name and Select Clothing & Accessories category
- Fill address and choose the shipping details of the order.
- Enter your GST details
- Request for approval
- List the clothing you want to sell through Amazon.
After getting approval, you can list the clothing you want to sell. You will have four options to list the products on Amazon; choose one of them.
- You can use the ‘Prepare your listings’ feature or’ Custom inventory template’ to list products in bulk.
- You should find all the necessary details on the product page, including pricing, images, barcodes, product categories, descriptions, labels, shipping options, etc.
- Create product variations like color, size, etc., to make navigation and shopping easier.
This is the step-by-step guide on how to Sell Clothing On Amazon. In the next section, I will give some handy tips for increasing the profitability of your business.
Useful Tips to To Sell Clothing On Amazon
After starting your online store, it is important to make it profitable. Here are a few tips to make your clothing shop successful:
- Choose the profitable clothing category: There are several categories in clothing like, women’s clothing, men’s clothing, kids’ clothing, bridal, casual, etc. So choose the category that is in demand and necessary in all the seasons and cater to that particular category. This is the best way to make your business profitable.
- Optimize the Product pages: You should make the product pages catchy for customers who visit your page. Some of the necessary optimations you need to do are to include high-volume keywords, high-quality images, product descriptions with good copy, etc. It helps to convert visitors into paying customers.
- Innovative marketing strategy: You should experiment with different strategies to increase your product page’s traffic. You can run paid ads and social media campaigns and use influencer marketing, providing discounts, coupons, etc., to increase awareness about your product. These are a few marketing tricks to attract your ideal customers.
- Provide a great shopping experience: You should create a good impression in the first order of the customer by providing satisfactory customer service. Some things that attract are attractive product packages, personalized notes, giveaways, etc.
How To Stand Out While Selling Clothes On Amazon?
Here are some tips on how to make your clothing brand stand out when selling apparel on Amazon:
- Create high-quality listings with excellent photos, detailed titles, and full descriptions to showcase your products. Invest in professional photography.
- Offer quick shipping with Prime or Fulfilled by Amazon so your items have the “Prime” tag to increase visibility.
- Focus your clothing line within a specific niche or style so you become a go-to brand for that look. Avoid scattershot assortments.
- Provide great customer service by responding quickly, resolving issues, and encouraging reviews. This builds social proof.
- Run sponsored product ads to get your listings prioritized for relevant keyword searches.
- Utilize promotions like coupons and lightning deals to incentivize first purchases from your brand.
- Consider bundling items or sets to provide additional value over individual pieces.
- Design branding, packaging, and inserts to provide a branded unboxing experience.
- Curate your catalog over time, discontinuing poor sellers and expanding bestsellers.
- Analyze competitors frequently and identify where you can differentiate with faster shipping, better photos, or stronger branding.
Standing out requires optimizing every aspect of the customer experience, from browsing to unboxing. Small touches combine to make your clothing line memorable among the vast apparel selection on Amazon.
Pros & Cons Of Selling Clothes On Amazon
Here are the pros & cons of selling clothes on Amazon.
Pros
- It is easy to start selling clothes on Amazon, you just need to create an account and list your products on the platform, and this process does not take longer than a day.
- Amazon has a large customer base which is increasing day by day, so you don’t need to attract customers all by yourself.
- If you’re selling on Amazon, then the customers will trust you more because of Amazon’s reputation, so you don’t need to build trust yourself.
- You can take advantage of Amazon’s FBA service, where they will be handling all the packaging, shipping, and delivery processes for you.
- You can start selling clothes on Amazon as a side hustle to earn a few extra bucks while Amazon will manage everything for you.
Cons
- You need to pay 10-15% of every sale to Amazon apart from the monthly fees of Amazon’s FBA services.
- There is plenty of competition on Amazon, so it will be hard for you to build trust among the customers of Amazon.
Final Takeaway
Starting a clothing business on Amazon can result in lucrative profits. However, before you begin, you should understand the procedure and speak with people already in the same business. It helps you learn about the real-world experience that allows you to begin over without making any blunders. So, you must know how to start the Amazon business and the tricks to make it successful. I hope my article on How To Sell Clothing On Amazon has been useful in getting you started from scratch.
FAQs
To begin selling clothes on Amazon, you need to set up an Amazon Seller Central account, choose an Amazon seller plan, create listings for the clothes you want to sell, and ship your inventory to Amazon’s warehouses. You’ll need to take product photos and write compelling listings to promote your clothing.
Amazon charges two main fees: a monthly subscription fee depending on your seller plan, and a referral fee of around 15% on each clothing item sold. Amazon also charges storage fees for inventory kept in their warehouses.
Sellers can choose either Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), where items are shipped from Amazon’s warehouses, or merchant fulfillment, where you handle your own shipping. FBA makes order processing easier but has storage fees.
Focus on quality photography, detailed product descriptions, competitive pricing and promotions, positive customer reviews, and optimizing listings for search. Ensure a clear brand identity and have a range of product types, styles, and sizes to attract customers.
Yes, Amazon prohibits certain products like used underwear and clothing with offensive wording. All clothes must be unbranded or have approval. Listings must comply with Amazon policies or risk account suspension. Check guidelines thoroughly.
