As a clothing retailer, you understand how important it is for any item to look good in order for it to sell. You know your brand more than anyone else - the kind of customers it appeals to, what kind of need it fulfills, how it plays with other styles and brands in its niche. You want to take this knowledge with you when you design clothing websites for your line.
And while appearance plays an important role in the saleability of a clothing piece, function will also be influential as well. The same holds true for clothing design websites. Your site should not only look nice, it should also be effective as well. At the very least, your customers should be able to easily get around your website and fulfill the tasks for which they have come to it in the first place. In this post, we will guide you through how to make a clothing website that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also profitable.
Characteristics of successful clothes websites
1. Consistent branding
Your website should have the same look and feel as your actual store if you have one, or, if you’re a purely online operation, it should have a recognizable branding. It should reflect whatever tone, image and general personality that you want to present to your target market.
By now, you must have a good idea of what appeals to your target customers and the niche market that you want to tap into. Based on established personas for your potential buyers, you want to develop a brand that will appeal to them and implement design elements that will coincide with your branding guidelines.
Clothing website templates can provide you with a solid starting point for designing clothes websites. With over 3 million users composed of small business owners, startups, creatives and students from all over the world, Strikingly provides a host of editing capabilities to help individuals build unique websites that are consistent with their brand image.
Japan-based fashion designer Yuko Koike chose a minimalistic design from which to build her website. The site draws inspiration from fashion magazines, displaying images in a grid layout for easy viewing and simple and readable typography.
2. Search optimized
When you create clothing website content, you need to pay attention to search engine optimization. Websites are useless if nobody can find them on the internet. Having a clear SEO strategy and implementing it in your content will help build online visibility for your website and, by extension, your clothing line as well.
Using Strikingly’s SEO tools, create an optimized meta description for your website to let people know what your content is about. Increase your ranking by adding relevant content that your audience will find useful. If you’re building a multi-page clothing design website, make sure each page comes with complete descriptions and make sure all meta tags contain your target keywords.
3. User friendly interface
User experience plays an important role in the success of clothes websites. People shouldn’t have to wonder how to find key information around your site. For instance, contact details, store location and hours of operation must be placed prominently on your page. If you’re building an online store, make sure to keep the order and payment process smooth and pain-free. Keep custom forms simple. Users do not want to have to spend so much time completing purchases or signing up for newsletters. Keep the number of clicks to get from one key component of your site to another to a minimum.
Philippine Poplu’s site is a good example of simple and straightforward navigation. The website chose a simple template, with the designer’s portfolio divided into different categories to enable visitors to focus on a particular area of design that they are interested in.
Ready to launch your clothing line? Build your clothing design website now!
