Calling all fashionistas, some people will tell you that you need lots of money and experience to grow a successful indie fashion brand—but that's not exactly true! But if you want to become a successful female entrepreneur in a thriving fashion career, how do you grow a fashion brand without a lot of money or experience?
You can grow a fashion brand without money or experience by offering your customers discounts, building a more engaging website, collaborating with influential people in the industry, and becoming a more sustainable brand.
In this article, I'll explore these and other ways you can boost your brand as a female founder without spending a lot of money or being highly experienced.
9 Ways you can grow a fashion brand
1. Offer Customer Discounts
Who doesn’t love a discount? It is an easy way to boost your sales and grow a fashion brand. First-order discounts are a great example, and they encourage people to want to spend money on your clothing.
Offering discounts also help to positively shape your clothing brand in your customers' minds. It shows customers that you're well-established and successful enough to offer discounts.
Another way to increase sales with the use of discounts is to offer free shipping on large orders, especially because research has found that approximately 48% of people abandon their carts due to additional costs, such as shipping costs.
2. Start a Subscription Service
A subscription service can help your startup get repeat purchases from loyal customers. How it works is that your subscribers will receive special purchases and gain access to your unique services.
StitchFix is a creative example of a subscription service. However, it’s not strictly a subscription service, as it focuses on offering specialized services to its customers. How StitchFix works is that customers take a quiz to determine their clothing style, and then the company's stylists provide them with apparel that suits their style, taking the stress out of the shopping experience.
Rent the Runway is another clothing website that offers special services to its loyal members. By signing up for its membership program, people gain access to tens of thousands of designer clothing for any type of occasion.
An annual subscription can help customers to feel motivated to want to spend more money as it makes them feel that they're getting value for money as well as special features that aren't available to everyone else.
3. Build a Website for Your Indie Fashion Brand
You don't need lots of money or coding experience to build a website that drives more traffic to your brand. A platform like WordPress is great for startup e-commerce sites because it's free.
Currently, 40% of websites make use of WordPress. This platform comes with lots of free themes to give your website a smooth and professional appearance.
Here are other tips to bear in mind when building a website for your fashion brand:
Add Professional Images
Make sure your fashion website has tons of professional-looking images, which you can take yourself as long as they're of high quality. This will make your website more appealing. Always check how your website looks on both desktop and mobile devices to ensure that its content loads correctly.
Start a High-Quality Blog
A blog is essential for your fashion website. You should use it to write posts that discuss topics related to your indie fashion brand. For example, if your brand is focused on sustainability, you can write blogs on sustainable clothing and lifestyle topics. Always share your blog posts on social media so your followers will be encouraged to return to your website.
4. Offer Customers a Unique Element
What is your unicorn aspect? What makes your fashion brand stand out in the crowd? If you offer your consumers something that makes your brand unique, however small, this will drive more traffic to your website and brand.
Examples of creative or unique elements that your fashion brand could provide to consumers include:
The use of new fabric to make your clothes
Sustainable packaging
Creative graphics on clothing items
5. Engage in Sustainability Practices
Sustainability is a big trend in the fashion industry, and you only have to check out your favorite brands for evidence of this. On TikTok, for example, research has found that the hashtag #sustainablefashion has gained approximately 846 million views while #upcycling has earned 4.8 billion views.
There are easy ways to become more sustainable without having to spend a lot of money. For example, you could choose a local manufacturer to decrease your carbon footprint. This also enables you to ensure that your brand follows ethical work conditions.
Another way to make your fashion brand more eco-friendly and sustainable is to rethink your packaging. Compostable packaging is a fantastic way to make a difference and reduce waste. Tipa Compostable Packaging is an example of a company to check out. It offers compostable packaging solutions specifically for fashion. Some bags are resealable and come in zipper varieties.
6. Upload Videos to Social Media
High-quality videos that you can take with your own device are an excellent way to promote your clothing brand. This type of marketing helps people to see themselves using your products. Your videos should be fun and filled with personality so you can better engage with your customers.
Don't make your videos too long, and make sure you fill them with interesting information. If there's a current fashion trend you're interested in incorporating into your clothing brand, talk about it. Ask your followers what they think about certain topics to fuel engagement and get them interested.
7. Use the “View Shop” Feature on Instagram
Instagram allows you to set up your e-commerce store in such a way that when your followers click "View Shop", they are taken to your products directly. This is a great way to encourage more people to see and buy your clothing items. Go one step further to drive more sales. Tag your clothing products in your Instagram feed so that it's more accessible to your followers.
You should also take advantage of Instagram's "Stories" feature to announce new products or promote upcoming events. This is one of Instagram's most popular features, with more than 500 million people using Instagram Stories on a daily basis.
8. Start an Online Community
Groups on social media platforms like Facebook are a fantastic way to connect with your followers to grow your brand. Here you can do various tasks that will boost your business, such as:
Share content
Post exclusive discounts or events
Share your blog on the latest fashion trends/topics
Offer advice on clothing and style
Have Q&As
Gain feedback from your followers to improve your brand
9. Join Forces With Influencers & Micro-Influencers
Collaborating with women in business and female founders is a great way to grow your brand. These connections don't have to be super-famous. As long as they have a strong following and a good reputation (do your research!), you should reach out to them and suggest that you work together.
The work you do together could include things like:
Offering your products as giveaways during events that are hosted by the influencer.
Participating in live events or discussions on the influencer's podcast.
Tagging each other, such as when promoting each other's products.
Although you might want to reach out to the big-hitting influencers, don't forget about micro-influencers. Brands should collaborate with micro-influencers because, although they have relatively fewer followers (about 1,000 to 100,000), they build trust with these followers. You can benefit from collaborating with micro-influencers because you get a genuine endorsement of your products without having to spend a lot of money.
Final Thoughts
Growing a fashion brand doesn’t have to be a costly or intimidating process. You can take action to boost your indie brand's success in the following ways:
Offering discounts and subscriptions
Building a visually-appealing website
Offering something unique
Engaging in sustainability practices
Starting a social media community
Collaborating with influencers and micro-influencer