Making Your Fashion Brand More Flexible

In Fashion Marketing, Retail & Sales by Melanie Shaw

Photo by Godisable Jacob Pexels – CC0 License 

When you think of fashion, which related words and phrases come to mind? We’d wager that dynamism, style, grace, confidence, possibility, and expression all apply. For this reason, fashion brands that live by these values tend to do well, while those that feel old-hat, tired, repetitive, and stale tend to fall by the wayside.

After all, fashion is never “complete,” rather it’s a seasonal celebration of life, perspective, and identity. For this reason, those hoping to establish even a minor fashion brand has to integrate these virtues into their very core, not only in the style they promote but the systems they use to deliver and make accessible the products they design.

Making your fashion brand more flexible and available is not just a sound business decision for any small startup to focus on, but it helps establish who you are as a designer, and allows you to trim the fact, cutting to the core of what makes you exciting.

Without action, however, all of the above is lip service. For this reason, let’s discuss some tangible steps to help you get there:

Accept Payments From All Angles

It’s important to accept payments in every and any way you can, because if someone is trying to provide you with legal tender, then that’s a good outcome. From implementing worthwhile chip and pin systems within your retail pop-up stores to adding the infrastructure that helps you accept online payments, this effort is worth it. 

You may also implement subscription offers for priority delivery (incentivizing people to stick with your storefront), and of course integrating support for Apple or Google Pay and PayPal. Some forward-thinking online brands even accept payments for cryptocurrencies. In the long run, this effort could help you curate a very reliable outcome.

Consider Selling Through Multiple Online Platforms

There are many online platforms you can leverage out there, and yes, some of them could be quite suitable even if they’re not mainstream or those you may think of first. For vintage items, running a Depop storefront could be a great choice, as the community of this platform are often interested in new, interesting styles, thrifting styles, and trying to reclaim past aesthetics in the best way.

However, you may also find success selling your clothes on Amazon, especially if it’s a functional sportswear brand, or eBay, especially if you hope to sell nationwide with secure selling protections.

Even social media channels can be used for selling, such as Instagram stores, TikTok shops, and Facebook Marketplaces. Formatting your store correctly, using good brand images, keeping a uniform approach to listings, all of this can go a long way towards developing your best brand image.

In the long run, an approach like this could help you determine a worthwhile outcome, but it may also help you pivot, remain flexible, and avoid being tied down to just one format or way of selling. In some cases, even temporary online stores can be helpful. Sure, you might bind this to your main website, but having that alternate form of verified outreach can also be more than worth your time. In the long run, that may make a profound difference to how your brand is perceived.

Run A Pop-Up Store For Promotional Purposes

Pop-up stores are not just fun social-media-addled events, but they can really promote what you have to offer with a sense of exclusivity, fun, and present relevance. A small pop-up store can help you showcase certain garments you’re working on, get the public’s reaction, and also help your brand seem cool, underground, worth paying attention to, and on the front lines of stylistic design.

Keep Active & Attentive To Social Media

It’s important to remain active on social media so you can understand the latest trends, how people are talking about your brand, and of course, what influencers you sponsor are doing with your clothes if this is a path you’ve chosen. 

Fashion is implicitly best advertised through visual material, for obvious reasons, and so shorts videos of models, furnishing known figures in your threads, and developing a consistent narrative or tone of voice online will always help you out. Sure, you don’t have to give away every single creative idea you hope to make good on, but it can also be nice to invite people to look behind the scenes of your brand, such as by hosting small interviews with your designers, or showing sneak peeks of the process.Making Your Fashion Brand More Flexible

With this advice, you’re sure to curate a flexible fashion brand.

About Melanie Shaw

Melanie Shaw is a fashion and lifestyle writer who has worked in the fashion industry in PR and communications, helping brands launch their latest products and collections.

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Melanie Shaw

Melanie Shaw is a fashion and lifestyle writer who has worked in the fashion industry in PR and communications, helping brands launch their latest products and collections.