How to Find a Niche for Your Clothing Store in 5 Steps

Posted 14 June 2022 in Uncategorized by wholawholesale

Successful fashion businesses across the globe have one thing in common: instead of trying to please everyone, they focus on being well-loved by a select few.

They sell products that cater to the needs and tastes of a specific group of customers. In other words, they serve a market niche.

Carving out a niche is important because it gives you the opportunity to become the best at something specific, rather than just average in something broad.

Once you’ve chosen a niche to specialise in, you’ll have increased your chances of knowing exactly what your customers want, building a loyal customer base and reducing the number of competitors you’re up against.

The question is, how do you find a popular and profitable niche that you can get excited about?

In this article – part of our series on how to start a clothing boutique – we’ll give you 5 steps to finding the perfect niche for your clothing store.

Whola is a wholesale marketplace that makes it easy for fashion boutique owners to buy hot-selling inventory with just a few clicks. SIGN UP NOW and start shopping the newest styles from our 90+ unique Australian brands!

WHAT IS A CLOTHING NICHE?

In general terms, a niche is a specialised segment of the market for a particular type of product or service. Similarly, a clothing niche is a subset of the entire clothing market describing a group of customers who have specific needs and expectations when it comes to things like style, quality, pricing.

On a basic level, clothing niches are determined by demographic factors such as age or gender. For example, women in their early twenties represent a very different market niche than men in their fifties.

However, a clothing niche can also be determined by other criteria, such as:

Size: For example, plus-size or petite clothing for women.
Style, taste, or fashion sense: For example, bohemian fashion or vintage clothing.
Lifestyle or hobbies: For example, athleisure and activewear or skateboarding clothes.
Values: For example, organic cotton clothing, vegan footwear or local, handmade jewellery.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO FIND A NICHE FOR YOUR CLOTHING STORE?

To help you understand the importance of targeting a niche, let us quote entrepreneur and marketing guru Meredith Hill:

“When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.”

In other words, if you want to appeal to everyone, you run the risk of being too generic to appeal to anyone.

When people think of your store, what will they think of? With no proper focus on a market niche to set you apart, you will become forgettable compared to other fashion businesses that speak to a specific type of customer.

Choosing a niche and sticking with it allows you to create a business that a select group of customers truly care about through:

Identity: With a niche, customers can easily remember you as “that ____ store”, rather than a generic fashion store.
Intention: Your niche will show customers that your business is here to fulfil their needs.
Personalisation: By catering to a specific customer group, you are showing your customers that you truly care.

These are the things that make your store memorable and worth coming back to repeatedly. If you manage to find the right niche, customer loyalty will go through the roof.

5 STEPS TO FINDING THE PERFECT NICHE FOR YOUR CLOTHING STORE

1. BRAINSTORM THINGS THAT YOU’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT

Nothing is worth doing if it doesn’t excite you. As a result, your clothing store should reflect what you are passionate about.

When you have an authentic personal interest in what you’re doing as opposed to mere business interest, you’ll be much more motivated to carry it to success. And, you’ll also have a good foundation of knowledge that could come in handy.

So first, start brainstorming what you’re passionate about based on the following:

Personal experiences: Are there any experiences in your life that encourage you to venture into a particular area?
Personal values: What values are important to you that you can maintain in the fashion world?
Hobbies and interests: What hobbies and interests could you transfer into a clothing business?

Once you’re done, try to link your answers to specific clothing items or market niches. How can these interests benefit you in the fashion business?

2. DO MARKET RESEARCH

Remember that serving a niche means responding to market demand. By doing some market research, you can find out what customers are searching for and identify gaps in the clothing market that need filling.

Depending on whether you’re planning to open a brick-and-mortar or ecommerce store, there are various methods you can use to conduct market research:

Brick-and-mortar clothing stores: Use local networking to uncover what people are searching for. A good place to start is going on local Facebook groups to see what types of products people are talking about, and what recommendations they’re asking for.
Online clothing stores: Harness the power of search engine data to find the most popular searches for clothing items. You can use Google Trends to monitor fashion-related trends or SEO tools such as Ahrefs, Ubersuggest and Answer the Public to find relevant keywords.

3. IDENTIFY A PROBLEM TO SOLVE

If the products you offer don’t solve a problem or respond to a need, they won’t sell. That’s why it’s crucial to find a problem that you can solve.

The best way to do this is by creating a CUSTOMER AVATAR and identifying your ideal customer’s main pain points. Think of your ideal customer as a real person: what challenges are they experiencing and how is it making them feel?

For example, your ideal customer’s problem may be that they can’t find any high-quality plus-size clothing in the city they live in. Because of this, they may feel left out and deprived of the enjoyment of wearing flattering clothing items that make them feel good in their own skin.

You can solve this problem by filling the gap in the market and offering unique plus-size brands in your fashion store.

4. DO A COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

So you’ve found your passion, done market research and identified a problem that needs solving… Let’s not forget your competitors!

It’s all about finding the balance between fulfilling a large demand by customers but also making sure that your product offering is unique enough that you don’t have to compete with hundreds of competitors in your area.

Again, depending on the type of fashion store you want to open, your methods and your approach will be different.

Brick-and-mortar clothing stores: What are other stores in your area offering? Make a list of as many clothing stores or boutiques in your town or neighbourhood as you can. What types of products are they selling? What demographic are they focusing on? This will give you great insight into what there is demand for in your local area.
Online clothing stores: How can you stand out from the crowd on the internet? Using your SEO research results from step 2, type the keywords relevant to your niche into the browser and see what competitors show up. What are they offering? At what prices? Is there anything that you can do better or differently?

Whola offers a great solution to stand out from the crowd. With over 90 brands on our wholesale marketplace, you’ll find the ideal clothing items for your niche. We offer geographic exclusivity for your brick-and-mortar store on specific brands and styles so that your store remains one-of-a-kind. SIGN UP NOW and we’ll show you exactly how it works.

5. TEST, TEST, TEST

Even after you’ve gone through all these steps, there’s no guarantee that you will get it right on the first try.

In fact, it usually takes up to a year for new fashion businesses to fully understand their customers. You need at least 12 months to have first-hand insight into the needs of your customers throughout all seasons. Plus, you can learn to fulfil their customer service needs, too.

When it comes to PRODUCT SOURCING, the best approach is to test and iterate. Here are some of our tried-and-true tips:

Find out what resonates with your audience. When you’re planning your store, start an Instagram account and share “inspo” images to see what styles resonate with your followers the most.
Always start small. At this stage, you can’t forecast your sales. That’s why it’s really important to buy very small quantities of styles you think will work and measure how quickly they sell. Even if you’re convinced a certain style will be a bestseller, order the smallest pack you can (4-7 units should be enough). Test it, and if it works, keep reordering it until it stops selling. This way, you won’t be left with dead stock, which is really difficult to move.
Don’t repurchase what’s not working. Sometimes new products are super successful, and sometimes they aren’t. Don’t fall into the trap of “maybe this time they’ll do better.” If it didn’t work the first time, it probably won’t work the second time. Instead, stop ordering slow-sellers, re-evaluate the demand and purchase accordingly.

3 EXAMPLES OF NICHE MARKETS FOR YOUR CLOTHING STORE

And now, let’s look at 3 examples of niche markets you may want to explore.

1. SUSTAINABLE CLOTHING

Nowadays, sustainability is a hot topic within the fashion industry, one of the world’s biggest polluters. To mitigate the damage to the environment, there’s a growing demand for sustainable and environmentally-friendly clothing. From carbon-neutral manufacturing to recycled or organic materials, there is a variety of niches within this market that you can get into.

If this clothing niche speaks to you, check out sustainable brands BAREFOOT BLONDE, PORTER GREEN and CAZINC THE LABEL (named 2021 Ethical Label of the Year) on Whola and start filling your store with fast-selling clothing and accessories.

2. PLUS-SIZE CLOTHING

This fashion market has been growing steadily, but size diversity and inclusivity is still an issue in many places around the world. Clothing stores that carry stylish items in larger sizes are often hard to find. This is a great market to get into by offering flattering cuts and high-quality products that people who live in larger bodies can enjoy.

Does this sound like just the niche for you? Head over to the Whola wholesale marketplace where you can shop amazing size-inclusive brands like KIIK LUXE (sizes 8 to 24) and ONE SUMMER (sizes 10-20 in all-natural fabrics).

3. HAND-CRAFTED JEWELLERY

If you’re an advocate for supporting small businesses and artisanal practices, then venturing into the market niche of hand-crafted jewellery may be for you. As we mentioned before, customers love the personalisation and intention that niche stores can offer. Carrying unique, hand-crafted jewellery is the perfect way to achieve those things.

If handmade jewellery is your jam, check out QUEEN AND CO. and MADELLA DESIGNS on Whola and order some luxurious handcrafted pieces to sell in your fashion store.

CONCLUSION: HOW TO FIND A NICHE FOR YOUR CLOTHING STORE

As you can see from the above, carving out a clothing niche for your clothing store is essential to business success. It allows you to fulfil real market demand, build a loyal customer base, and reduce your competition.

Once your answer to the below questions is “yes”, you’ve successfully found the right niche for your clothing store:

Are you passionate about it?
Is there a demand for it?
Does it solve a problem?
Can you do it better than your competitors?
Have you tested it?

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT FINDING A NICHE FOR YOUR CLOTHING STORE

HOW DO YOU FIND A PROFITABLE NICHE FOR YOUR CLOTHING STORE?

To find a profitable niche for your clothing store, you need to strike a balance between something that’s in demand by customers but not too saturated with competitors. Identify what you’re passionate about, do market research and competitor analysis, and test as you go along.

WHAT CLOTHING NICHES ARE TRENDING?

Currently, some of the main clothing niches that are trending include sustainable fashion, plus-size fashion, hand-made items, second-hand clothing, genderless fashion and vintage fashion. It’s important to note that these trends constantly change due to various factors, such as the time of year.

WHAT IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF A CLOTHING NICHE?

A good example of a clothing niche is athleisure-style lifestyle clothing. This niche is particularly sought after by young people (particularly Gen Z), young mums, and other active and outdoorsy demographics. By offering this type of clothing in your boutique, you can appeal to a group of customers with particular needs when it comes to the comfort and functionality of clothing items.