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Hi people,
I've launched a clothing brand that sells one specific product of lingerie. It's my first venture into the fast lane. It's a common product that didn't have a premium quality option, but it's largely imported and resold on Amazon at a cheap price.
Considering my previous corporate job in a luxury fashion corporate company, I felt the need to provide a safe product (certified innovative fabrics and fine laces) and well-made garment exclusively made in Italy.
I'm a photo retoucher (still am as a freelancer to finance the business), so I had zero knowledge about how to produce clothing.
Since the product already exists, I decided to concentrate on the quality of the materials and on the branding. I thought that both were crucial to differentiate from other brands and cheap options.
I've dived into these two books that i found very helpful:
Fascinate by Sally Hogshead
Brand Seduction by Weber, Daryl
The first struggle I encountered was dealing with the manufacturers to produce them. Here in Italy, the factories are very busy, they can't find employees, and the first huge difficulty was to find someone who actually wanted to take the job. If you are not a big brand, they won't even waste time on the phone listening to you. The first manufacturer that accepted the job dumped me after 3 months of unanswered calls, so I had to find someone else.
Regarding getting in touch with the manufacturers, I prepared 3D models of the garments. I've heard that providing them with drawings would be enough, but considering the attention span they give you, I sent them PDF files with renders, details on the fabrics and lace, measurements, and sizes.
About this, i found very helpful the video courses on skillshare made by Jeff Staple.
From when I started until the day I got the first batch of 200 pieces (a small amount for 6 SKUs, affordable), 8 months had passed.
Meanwhile, I've built the whole website on WordPress with Elementor, I found Shopify to be way to expensive to test the product. I took some pictures by myself to showcase the products as soon as I got them, but the start was very slow (and still is).
Later, I've invested some budget in a good photo shoot a month ago, and luckily, considering my previous career, I knew someone very good who would help me for a reasonable price (photographer, model, stylist and makeup artist = 2k). I hired a stylist to give a good taste to the shooting. I thought that associating the product with fine and classy looks would communicate its value better.
So at the moment, everything is set. I have the products, website, and professional good pictures. I've sold some pieces (5) and everyone is very excited about the product.
Now the problem is, it's been weeks since the last purchase, so I started to take advertising on Meta more seriously, and I found it crazy expensive ( CTR are from 2% to 3,50%).
I'm doing everything myself, so every step takes days or weeks. I've been working on editing a cinematic video, and that took me days to finish it, so those 'serious ads' have been running for a few days now. And nothing, I feel like the desert of desertion is a never-ending struggle.
I'm finding it very hard to reach people. My contact information is at the top of the page, I have an 'About Me' page, and there's a pop-up for the mailing list, but no one ever asks me anything except on Instagram. However, I don't want to rely on social media; I feel like they take too much control over the business. If one day Instagram decides to shadowban the profile, I can't do anything about it. I've been advised to create a landing page, and in fact, the home page is more of a landing page than a shop page. But I also think that in the clothing business, to gain trust from customers, you should look like a well-made shop.
So at the moment, I'm standing in the middle of 'what should I do,' reading books on advertising, creating some content, and working on a video to introduce myself to people, hoping that knowing me personally will charm them into purchasing a trustworthy product.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to read the story! Feedback is more than welcome. I hope it might enlighten or be helpful for anyone considering launching a clothing brand.
I've launched a clothing brand that sells one specific product of lingerie. It's my first venture into the fast lane. It's a common product that didn't have a premium quality option, but it's largely imported and resold on Amazon at a cheap price.
Considering my previous corporate job in a luxury fashion corporate company, I felt the need to provide a safe product (certified innovative fabrics and fine laces) and well-made garment exclusively made in Italy.
I'm a photo retoucher (still am as a freelancer to finance the business), so I had zero knowledge about how to produce clothing.
Since the product already exists, I decided to concentrate on the quality of the materials and on the branding. I thought that both were crucial to differentiate from other brands and cheap options.
I've dived into these two books that i found very helpful:
Fascinate by Sally Hogshead
Brand Seduction by Weber, Daryl
The first struggle I encountered was dealing with the manufacturers to produce them. Here in Italy, the factories are very busy, they can't find employees, and the first huge difficulty was to find someone who actually wanted to take the job. If you are not a big brand, they won't even waste time on the phone listening to you. The first manufacturer that accepted the job dumped me after 3 months of unanswered calls, so I had to find someone else.
Regarding getting in touch with the manufacturers, I prepared 3D models of the garments. I've heard that providing them with drawings would be enough, but considering the attention span they give you, I sent them PDF files with renders, details on the fabrics and lace, measurements, and sizes.
About this, i found very helpful the video courses on skillshare made by Jeff Staple.
From when I started until the day I got the first batch of 200 pieces (a small amount for 6 SKUs, affordable), 8 months had passed.
Meanwhile, I've built the whole website on WordPress with Elementor, I found Shopify to be way to expensive to test the product. I took some pictures by myself to showcase the products as soon as I got them, but the start was very slow (and still is).
Later, I've invested some budget in a good photo shoot a month ago, and luckily, considering my previous career, I knew someone very good who would help me for a reasonable price (photographer, model, stylist and makeup artist = 2k). I hired a stylist to give a good taste to the shooting. I thought that associating the product with fine and classy looks would communicate its value better.
So at the moment, everything is set. I have the products, website, and professional good pictures. I've sold some pieces (5) and everyone is very excited about the product.
Now the problem is, it's been weeks since the last purchase, so I started to take advertising on Meta more seriously, and I found it crazy expensive ( CTR are from 2% to 3,50%).
I'm doing everything myself, so every step takes days or weeks. I've been working on editing a cinematic video, and that took me days to finish it, so those 'serious ads' have been running for a few days now. And nothing, I feel like the desert of desertion is a never-ending struggle.
I'm finding it very hard to reach people. My contact information is at the top of the page, I have an 'About Me' page, and there's a pop-up for the mailing list, but no one ever asks me anything except on Instagram. However, I don't want to rely on social media; I feel like they take too much control over the business. If one day Instagram decides to shadowban the profile, I can't do anything about it. I've been advised to create a landing page, and in fact, the home page is more of a landing page than a shop page. But I also think that in the clothing business, to gain trust from customers, you should look like a well-made shop.
So at the moment, I'm standing in the middle of 'what should I do,' reading books on advertising, creating some content, and working on a video to introduce myself to people, hoping that knowing me personally will charm them into purchasing a trustworthy product.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to read the story! Feedback is more than welcome. I hope it might enlighten or be helpful for anyone considering launching a clothing brand.
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