How to Start a Fashion and Clothing Store Online: Complete Step by Step Guide for Indian Entrepreneurs

Step 1: Sign Up on Shopify to Start an Online Store

Sign up on Shopify with an email address you'd like to use for managing all your admin tasks related to the store. Set a domain name that is the same as the name you went by offline.

For instance, if your brand is called XYZ, your domain will look like - www.XYZ.com. You can go into personalizing your domain name later on, which is also covered in this guide on how to start an online store for your clothing brand.

Step 2: Design Your Store

Your first step in getting your store ready is to customize your store design. By default, you will have a theme set for your store. But, we need to ensure that your theme suits the kind of products you are selling and that it reflects your brand.

1. Pick Your Theme

You need to first pick a theme that suits you and the products you are selling. All themes that are built for fashion stores can be found on Shopify's theme marketplace.

2. Customize Your Theme

Once you've selected your theme, you will be brought back to the 'Online store' page. Within the 'Live theme' section, click on 'Customize' to give the theme your brand's personality.

3. Customize Your Menu Navigation

The menu navigation simplifies how your shoppers look for products and pages on your store. On the Shopify dashboard, click on 'Online store' and then select 'Navigation' from the dropdown.

4. Add Important Pages

Next, you need to add relevant pages like your brand's About page, Shipping information, Privacy Policy, etc. Here's how you set up a page:

Step 3: Adding Products

Now that you have your design set up, it's time to add your products to your store. There are two ways to do this: upload products manually on the dashboard or upload products using a CSV file/product spreadsheet.

Uploading Products Manually on the Dashboard

Uploading Products Using a Spreadsheet/CSV File

Step 4: Assist in Making the Right Purchase

Customers who are used to walking into your brick and mortar store to make a purchase will probably find it challenging to make the right purchase online. To deliver a great shopping experience (and reduce your return rates), you need to offer more assistance to online shoppers.

Step 5: Customize Your Cart

This is the make or break stage of your online store. You need to ensure that your cart page clearly lists down the products added to it and its pricing. You also need to ensure that it is devoid of any distractions that might take the shopper away from completing the purchase.

1. Design Customizations

2. Add Payment Methods

Set up multiple payment options to allow shoppers to choose the payment type they prefer. This makes it easier for them to complete the purchases online.

To add payment methods to your store, click on 'Settings' and select 'Payment Providers'. Shopify supports all the popular payment methods in India - including cash on delivery.

3. Include Shipping Fees

Add shipping prices so that it gets automatically added to your shopper's order.

4. Customize Checkout Processes

On the 'Settings' page, you will find the 'Checkout' page to allow you to customize different aspects of the checkout. You can choose to ask your customers to create an account when they check out, select what information you want to collect from your customer, etc.

Step 6: Customize Emails

You need to keep your shoppers updated about their order and its status. This can easily be done with transactional emails, which are automated, real-time messages sent to a user about their order.

With this setup, your customer will instantly receive an email when the order is confirmed, shipping, delivered, etc. This keeps them informed, ensuring positive customer experience.

Step 7: Delivery

1. Partner with a Delivery Company

Take a look at the delivery companies in your area that are operating right now. Based on what your products are, who your customers are and what delivery speed they expect, choose a partner accordingly.

Shopify India has integrations with all major delivery companies. You can find a partner through the Shopify App Store.

2. Add No-Contact Delivery on Your Store

It is important to provide a safe way for customers to receive orders without any contact with the couriers. A no-contact delivery option is also a way to safeguard those who deliver the orders.

You can offer this on your store easily with the app, No-Contact Delivery. The app enables you to let your customers add more delivery instructions like leaving the order at the gate, door, or giving them a phone call one hour prior.

Additionally, you can also let your customers choose a date and time for delivery using apps like Order Delivery Date.

3. Keep Customers Posted About Delivery

The next step is to keep your customers informed about their order status. This is especially important now as it will help them plan their next purchases accordingly.

You can do this easily by installing the app, AfterShip on your store. While email and text updates on order shipping and delivery work well, you can also consider adding Messenger and web push notifications.

Step 8: Offer Pick Up at Store

There are some localities in cities that are not allowing doorstep deliveries. Consumers have to go outside within a defined time frame to make purchases.

In this case, it's a wise idea to also offer 'pick up at store'. This gives customers flexibility and ensures you don't lose sales due to delivery restrictions.

Step 1: Pick a Plan on Shopify That Suits Your Business Needs

Once you have set up everything above, it's time to take your online store live. That's when you need to pick a plan that suits your business's current needs the best. Remember, the idea is to get started and scale as you need - so even the Basic Shopify Plan is all you need to offer a 'buy online, pickup at store' experience for your customers.

If you're worried about taking hosting separately or choosing the right bandwidth or have concerns around security about your products and customer information, fret not. Shopify plans include hosting with unlimited bandwidth capacity and all security aspects are also taken into account.

So you can run high traffic campaigns on even high-value products without worrying.

Step 2: Inform Your Existing Customers About Your Online Store

First things first. Once your online store is set up, you need to inform your existing customers about it. In fact, you should be reaching out to all the shoppers who knew about your brand, interacted with you in some way at the store and who you have contact information on.

Step 3: Accepting Orders on Your Store

Once a customer places an order on your store, you'll receive an email from Shopify. Log back into your store admin dashboard using the same email address. All your orders will show up in the Orders section of your Shopify admin.

Once you've prepared the order for pickup, capture the payment. Then select Mark as fulfilled to see your own progress. This will do two things - capture payment from a customer's credit card and send the customer an email notifying them that the order is either out for delivery or ready to be picked up.

In the Summary section, press the Fulfill items buttons. Tag the orders that are ready for delivery/pickup clearly. This way, you will get clear visibility on the progress of all your orders.

When the order is picked up or delivered to the customer, remember to change the tag.

Step 4: Accepting Payments for Your Orders

Shopify offers all leading payment providers in India to make it easy for your customers to pay for the orders they place. You just need to enter your payment account details and you're all set to accept payments from customers.

Setting Up Cash on Delivery (COD)