Guest post by Rodney from EcommercePlatforms.io
The ecommerce world is full of niches. Some are oversaturated, some have very limited appeal, and some have such slim profit margins that it’s extremely difficult to actually make any money. But some are ripe for targeting, despite their popularity — and one of the most reliable performers is fashion. Why? Because established markups on clothing are highly variable, and there’s a huge amount of creative freedom in setting out your unique range.
Storing and transporting clothing items can be tricky, though, which is why there’s so much value in using Amazon’s industry-leading fulfilment system to handle the storage and shipping of your products. That way, you can build your ecommerce business without needing to invest money you don’t have in your own storage space and courier relationships.
Now, let’s assume that you either have an Amazon FBA fashion business already, or you’re planning to set one up very shortly. How do you scale it effectively to pursue your goals? Here are some basic tips to help you out:
Pick up More Reviews
Social proof matters in every retail niche, and holds a lot of influence online — but it has a special potency in the fashion world, because it’s fundamentally built on (and driven by) subjective experiences. Someone shopping for a dress, for instance, cares much less about getting the best dress in any formal way — the strongest fabric, the most detail, the richest color, etc. — and more about getting the dress that makes them feel great.
Shopping for fashion online, you can’t try something on as you can in a store, so you need information about how it feels to wear it, and you’re not going to trust the biased seller. That’s where reviews come in. Reading that numerous other people with similar needs to yours bought a product and rated it highly will make you far more likely to buy it.
Automating your feedback requests is a great way to easily pick up more reviews. Take a look at your main Amazon competitors to assess their reviews: are they long? Fleshed out with rich media? Aim to outperform them wherever possible.
Optimise Your Listing Copy
Given the aforementioned subjectivity of fashion, copy plays a significant role in the sales process. With careful phrasing, you can imply luxury, comfort, warmth, sensuality, confidence — almost anything you’d like to get the reader thinking about. To win more sales with your existing products, spend some time optimizing the copy.
This can be tricky to do in isolation, because a writer is never good at assessing their own work. That’s why you should run your product descriptions past some friends first — and, once you’ve implemented them, consider doing some simple A/B testing. Run one version of a description for two weeks, then another for two more weeks, and see which one converts more frequently.
Here are some useful tips for improving your Amazon product listings, getting them to appear more often in relevant Google searches and get more attention on the site itself.
Start Selling Internationally
Going global is a powerful option in ecommerce, and that particularly goes for fashion businesses that are able to maintain consistent branding (not an easy task when facing numerous distinct markets). Trends vary across international borders, after all, so when something goes out of fashion in one area, it may be hitting popularity in another — and if your brand earns international renown, it’ll be considered far more reliable and high-quality.
If that interests you, head to Amazon Global Selling to find out what you need to know. Will it be easy? No, because there are inherent challenges to shipping overseas — but with the Amazon service behind you, you shouldn’t have too many issues making it work.
Add Numerous Product Variations
This is a very crafty way to scale up, because it takes advantage of the established popularity of existing products to earn a lot of additional revenue. It’s a simple idea: you take the products you’re currently selling, make some minor changes, and add them as product variations. Some will cost the same (different color versions, for instance), while others can be cheaper or more expensive (smaller or larger versions, or versions using different types of material).
If someone reaches your product listing and decides that it isn’t quite what they want, then perhaps one of the variations will be better for them. And if you don’t find it economical to maintain a large stock of each type, you can have them made on request — one of Amazon’s hooks may be its speedy shipping, but people are often willing to wait for the exact fashion items they’re looking for.
Final Thoughts
Fashion is a fantastic ecommerce niche with a lot of room to grow and get creative, and it pairs superbly with the convenience and efficiency of Amazon’s FBA service. Accordingly, if you run an FBA fashion business, you shouldn’t settle for mediocre sales: implement these suggestions, and start unlocking more of your brand’s potential.
