# Business strategy questions



## krzymorek (Sep 16, 2014)

Hi! I have found hundreds of cool t-shirt ideas on websites such as istock. Some of them are quite similar to those that can be found on t-shirts produced by leading youth clothing manufacturers in my country. The question is: would people be interested in buying similar t-shirts from a small, new manufacturer? What would be the best selling and advertising strategy? Would it be better to open an online shop or a small store in a big city? How does the market look for business ideas like this?

Thanks in advance for your help!


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## NBG (Feb 1, 2015)

istock is very expensive... a license for selling printed tees costs €118/design .-(

and don't forget that such noname tees are available for €3 - €6:





































you need a brand on top of those designs...


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## JNSP79 (Jul 30, 2015)

I would do an online store. You can sell so much more product without having to pay employees to stand in a store, pay rent, utilities, and much more.


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## XXI (Aug 1, 2015)

JNSP79 said:


> I would do an online store. You can sell so much more product without having to pay employees to stand in a store, pay rent, utilities, and much more.


Agreed. A brick and mortar store is a significant chunk out of your monthly revenue. Starting online gives you the chance to identify what designs work for your business. You can also find ways of promoting the online service locally. Be creative and think outside the box.


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## STEFFIE268 (Aug 2, 2015)

Hello,

I may be a total newb, but I do disagree with the above...
Clothing internet sales usually come from people who are re-stocking their wardrobe - they're buying stuff they already own or know pretty well...
For a new brand, it's important that people can feel, touch etc to establish the quality of the garment...Also, 70% of internet sales are returned...
Perhaps these things work differently when it's "only" t-shirts, my view comes from the "general" fashion business...
There is a series of seminars on youtube that I highly recommend...they were held at TexWorld USA by Mercedes Gonzales from GPC...here's a link to one of the video's...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NeP88LALN4
Another great one is "how NOT to start a fashion business"...
Well, so far for my 2 cents 

kindest regards
Stef


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## NBG (Feb 1, 2015)

STEFFIE268 said:


> Clothing internet sales usually come from people who are re-stocking their wardrobe - they're buying stuff they already own or know pretty well...


I just can speak for my girlfriend and she's buying this and that... brands he she didn't own/know etc.



STEFFIE268 said:


> For a new brand, it's important that people can feel, touch etc to establish the quality of the garment...


But what do you do when you live in a small town with no cool tee stores?



STEFFIE268 said:


> Also, 70% of internet sales are returned...


Depends on the goods you are selling...

If only tees then the return rate is >1%


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## Quartier (Apr 29, 2014)

If you're just selling generics then an online store and some advertising is all you need. People will buy from you if the garments are cheap and they'll return if the garments are good quality. If you're building a brand you will need promoters to vouch for your products and some other things which I won't go into. Suffice it to say, building a brand costs a lot more money and energy but it generates a lot more money if it succeeds.


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## XXI (Aug 1, 2015)

Quartier said:


> If you're building a brand you will need promoters to vouch for your products and some other things which I won't go into. Suffice it to say, building a brand costs a lot more money and energy but it generates a lot more money if it succeeds.


Perfectly stated. Brand building, third party validation, and sizable marketing budget are what you need.


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## tchandler52 (Sep 17, 2012)

I agree with this post. It is not easy to build a brand. Also Social Media is your friend.



Quartier said:


> If you're just selling generics then an online store and some advertising is all you need. People will buy from you if the garments are cheap and they'll return if the garments are good quality. If you're building a brand you will need promoters to vouch for your products and some other things which I won't go into. Suffice it to say, building a brand costs a lot more money and energy but it generates a lot more money if it succeeds.


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## teehugger (Jul 6, 2015)

> would people be interested in buying similar t-shirts from a small, new manufacturer?


if you're ever doing something SIMILAR to others, then be prepared to face stiff uphill competition as you'll be entering a crowded niche that cafepress & zazzle probably already have 10,000 designs each on whatever subject. if you REALLY want to sell teeshirts, try to come up with something unique, in a market no-one's really covering yet, or using eye popping graphics



> I may be a total newb, but I do disagree with the above...
> Clothing internet sales usually come from people who are re-stocking their wardrobe - they're buying stuff they already own or know pretty well


i disagree with your disagreement. the way i see it, the two top potential customers online are #1, people looking for a better deal and comparison shopping & #2, looking for something specific. anytime i've looked for teeshirts online, it's ALWAYS been because i'm looking for a specific topic except that one time i bought a bunch of teeshirts with *the mountain* designs because i really like their art. brand names mean nothing to me and generally i AVOID brands.



> But what do you do when you live in a small town with no cool tee stores?


sometimes even good sized cities don't have anything better than spencer's gift stores in their malls. i haven't seen ANY inspiring teeshirt outlets here and it's a pretty big city



> Perfectly stated. Brand building, third party validation, and sizable marketing budget are what you need.


*no! no! no!*
there are a lot of great ways you can market a business online for FREE!

*- social media sites*, ESPECIALLY newer ones even though most books will parrot facebook/twitter/linkedin (not the best for teeshirts), but a really good recent book i read took a different stance saying those markets are already oversaturated, especially if you're buying ads, while if you can get your foot in the door in a new emerging channel, you'll really grow there
*
- search engine optimization* a lot of teeshirt sites in particular and business in general are CLUELESS about this, and it's 100% free of you're building your own site using a free template from your host, or buying a cheap one in a "bulk art" CD for about $20 on ebay. (i never knew you could buy website templates in bulk like that)

even within the search engine optimization (aka SEO) field, there are plenty of BOGUS experts who don't know the latest tricks like using schema.org, for example, or even worse, will use black hat (sleazy) tactics that will get you quick ranking at first, but then penalized for it later when google figures it out.

*- create content* this is another form of SEO. "content is king" is an SEO mantra. if you can offer potential customers either great info related to your niche like news and how tos, or even create a blog using your keyword search terms, then you have "content" that search engines love linking to, and it will be even better when you have OTHERS linking to your site as search engines love that too.

*- create a VOLUNTARY mailing list *mailing lists are one of the BEST ways to market as you're contacting people that are already interested in your products and you keep them interested with content, news or even better, sales and coupons.

*- find outlets where you can promote yourself for free* forums like this related to whatever topic CAN be a great place to get the word out about your business, but most forums have rules about using them for business and self promotion, but ONE "trick" you can use is to put your website's address in your signature and not directly promote your site, but join as many conversations as you can and add the kind important content that would get you "thumbs ups & +reps"

you can also look for free classifieds places like craigslist to make people aware of your brand. 

free marketing techniques are generally very labor and time intensive, but they ARE free and can work, especially if you can find some great angle that will make people want to talk about you and share links back to you. incoming links are search engine GOLD. there are SEO books on that specific topic.

the LATEST trends in e-commerce are the "trust funnel" where you use the techniques above and slowly ease your potential customers into making purchases without driving them away with pushy ads, but subtle "calls to action"

that, and "conversion" are the latest hot topics. conversion is where you don't concentrate on getting customers to your site, but getting them to purchase when they're there. one way to do that is with what's called "split testing" where you have people go to 2 different versions of a page and see which one gets more conversions. then you go with that, and try again with another change, like changing button colors, or alternate sales copy. THAT too is labor intensive, but if you can make your sales per visit go up from the average 2-3% to 10%, then you will make more money

*- use affiliates *this one probably doesn't work as well with teeshirts because the margins are so low, but there are people out there who will promote your products for a cut of your profits. one related idea i got that wasn't for me from an advisor was to look into putting my designs in catalogues that are always looking for new products to sell.

if ANYONE wants to read some GREAT books on e-commerce, these will all help you with every aspect of your business, and are better than 3x their number in crappy books i've read on the subject like guerilla PR wired and epic content marketing when both suck rotten eggs

*5/5 Search Engine Optimization for Dummies *– Peter Kent
Don’t let the title fool you, this is a serious text full of essential information by a knowledgeable author who gets right to the point without a bunch of useless fluff like so many authors, though he does throw a joke in here and there. Most of the info isn’t too technical and is easy to read. I took pages of notes on what was covered (my definition of what makes ANY business book important) and in the end, felt as though I knew more than even some alleged SEO experts and web designers. Consider it essential reading whether you’re building your site yourself, or telling your programmer what tags and keywords etc. you want on every page.

*5/5 Entrepreneur Magazine’s Ultimate guide to Link Building* – Eric Ward & Garret French
Is a perfect companion to SEO for Dummies as it covers different territory, but does add a couple SEO tips of its own to the mix. Sometimes it gets a little technical, and tends to be aimed at larger companies, but it’s still a goldmine of crucial info for any e-commerce site owner. UNLIKE crappy books like Guerilla PR Wired, and Epic Content Marketing, this one actually thrown in some inspiration on how to come up with interesting content. The author doesn’t just stick to the subject of link building, but provides tons of great info and ideas.

*5/5 e-Commerce: Get It Right! *– Ian Daniel
Offers a lot of great info on what it takes to create a successful e-commerce site along with some basic SEO tips. About the only thing I DIDN’T like about the book was the author totally dismissing the idea of owners creating their own websites and insists on hiring expensive programmers. To make up for it though, he makes himself available with a direct e-mail link so that you can ask questions directly. Perhaps this is the FIRST book one should read when thinking about starting a website selling anything.

*5/5 Get Rich Click! The Ultimate Guide to Making Money on the Internet *- Marc Ofstofsky
It might sound like the title of a book in some sleazy “get rich quick scheme” infomercial, but this book is full of practical tips on how to improve your website along with some nice original SEO tips not covered in other books. It even offers ideas on alternative business models so some readers can make money in affiliate programs, for example, using nothing but the info in this book. On it’s own, it had more useful info than 3-4 other crappy e-Commerce books combined. It’s an excellent supplement to the 3 previous books.


there are acouple other great books i read recently i've temporarily forgotten the titles of i can add if anyone's really interested in these subjects.
*
*
*5/5 ultimate guide to optimizing your website* - jon rognerud
i have to go back and look at my notes to see WHY i liked this book, but it was really current and covered a lot of stuff the others didn't


the other book was named after some online "hackers" group and had input from a lot of authors and plenty of fresh ideas. these books, if you're willing to put the work in, will really help you market and convert without gambling on alleged experts


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## teehugger (Jul 6, 2015)

if anyone's still following this thread, i went back to the notes I made on three other great books on e-commerce and SEO for anyone looking to be a website ninja

*5/5 Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers* – Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares the books starts off really slow in the first few chapters & covers commonly discussed marketing channels, but really takes off when it starts comparing them. For example, it does an excellent job of comparing various social media banner ads and goes beyond the standard FaceBook/Twitter/LinkedIn discussion every other book covers and talks about the value of emerging channels. It’s a great shopper’s guide for what marketing options are available with tons of great UNIQUE suggestions and even offers inspiration. It TOTALLY destroys Epic Content Marketing and Guerilla PR Wired and a few other books combined.

*5/5 Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Website* – Jon Rognerud covers much of the same territory as other e-commerce books (eg. SEO, keywords, link building and social media), but does so with a very unique perspective adding TONS of new and up to date tips and tricks others miss. It’s loaded with great resources too, and like E-commerce: Get It Right!, the author provides personal contact info and openly encourages readers to contact him many times on virtually every topic throughout the book! Sometimes it gets a little technical or scatters bits of related info between chapters eg. 3 different lists of directories to submit your website to, but overall, it’s an amazing resource as either a really deep primer on building a successful site, or as a supplement to a stack of the best books on e-commerce and SEO. It is simply a GOLD MINE of info… even too much to remember or even take notes on eg. What to look for in a webhost.

*4/5 Inbound Marketing and SEO: Insight from the MOZ Blog* - Rand Fishkin & Thomas Hogerhaven sometimes gets technical and sometimes doesn’t explain content adequately, eg. Using schema.org “markup vocabulary” to enhance your SEO, though it’s the ONLY book I’ve read that ever even mentions this new innovation. It also very often lists links to outside sources for more info making it less useful without net access, but it covers a lot of original content not in other books provided by dozens of experts at MOZ Blog. It’s an excellent supplement to the other books listed.

that's a lot of reading, but also a lot of great info for putting your website ahead of the competition if you're willing to put the work into it.


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