If you are interested in fashion industry and want to build a boutique of your own, why not considering the establishment of a children’s clothing store?

If you are interested in fashion industry and want to build a boutique of your own, why not considering the establishment of a children’s clothing store? A recent market research study conducted by Deloitte shows that children's clothing revenue takes more than half of families' spending and the figures even accelerates during holiday seasons, reaching about $27 billion US dollar. This field appears to be a worthwhile business that you should consider if you have had the intention to open a fashion store of your own. So how to start your own fashion store? What are important things that you should pay attention to when starting up a children’s fashion boutique? This article will clarify some important issues that can provide you with a better visualization about it!

Sourcing children clothing products

There are thousands of suppliers out there and the selection of a good working partner among them is obviously challenging, especially when you are first going to this business area. In general, you can source the products from a domestic supplier/manufacturer or an oversea one. Each of them has its own pros and cons derived from their commercial characteristics, such as differences in purchasing policies, pricing, commercial practices, taxes and duties fees (if any) and so on. Just take it into very careful consideration, list all your own criteria for your expected supplier, then do a thorough market research from various sources, from your friends, relatives and on the internet. There is a very valuable advice that you should choose a supplier or manufacturer whose business specializing in the production of children clothing, and they could be your great working partner!

Document your business

Document your children’s clothing store by creating a certain business structure by a certified public accountant familiar with retail business. Sole proprietorships, limited liability and Subchapter S corporations are common structures. Especially, remember to do the following things:

• Meet with a commercial insurance agent regarding liability insurance.

• Obtain a business license at your city or county clerk’s office.

• Contact your state department of revenue for a sales tax license

Choosing store location

It is important to choose a location that is both visible and accessible to draw the attention of customers. A building by the main roads with sufficient parking space and spacious display window seems to be perfect. In addition to that, look for a site near family-oriented businesses such as day care center or nursery school, child-friendly restaurant, etc. After that, decorate your children’s clothing store with eye-catching colorful child-themed graphics which can forge the identity of your brand store.

Listing your competition

No business could achieve success without a comprehensive understanding about their market rivals. List all of the children clothing store in your area, including both downscale and up-scale store. After that, observe each store's product lines, general cleanliness as well as staff integrations with customers. This will give you an overview about the children fashion market and helps in the identification of high-demand products. Furthermore, this may also helps you see the market gap, for example, potential products that have not been sold in local stores, thus, represents a potential profitable business opportunity.

Purchasing necessary equipment

To operate a fashion store, you need to prepare quite a lot of stuff. Display fixtures, mannequins, clothing racks, hangers and other clothing display equipment. Again, just list all substances that you need and find a supplier offering good prices since you may have to buy them in a fairly large quantity. In addition, the purchase of equipment should go hand-in-hand with your idea about the store's decoration. If you want to design and decorate the store by yourself, then you will have to take charge of purchasing all stuff to realize this design. On the other hand, just use the service of a professional designer/ design company.

Investing in Advertising Campaign

Advertising activities is indispensable since it is an effective tool to spread the image of your children clothing store as well as your products to customers. Successful advertising campaigns require you to find out the most effective methods to attract right customers at right time. There are quite a lot of advertising strategies, especially in the internet era as nowadays. For example, you can run your campaigns and advertise your products using Google adwords, facebook, instagrams, fashion platforms etc. However, there is no common formula for an effective advertising campaign. As a result, there is no way but you should run different campaigns to know which ones bring the high results. We learn everything from trial and error!

Conclusion

Like any business, starting up with a children fashion store is not an easy matter and will surely take you a lot of time and effort to achieve the success. However, it is believed that if you really put your devotion and love in what you do, success will surely follow your steps. The article just gives you an overview picture about what you have to prepare to open a children’s clothing store and how to take it into operation during the early stage.  Hope that it is useful for you!