How to Use Dropshipping to Sell Kids Fashion
Drop-shipping is a term that describes a method of supply chain management, where the retailer (you) does not keep inventory but rather transfers the management and shipping of the products to third-party companies. If this is your first adventure in the business world, drop-shipping is a low-cost, low-risk solution that is suitable for beginners.
When you dropship your products, there's no need to worry about designing, manufacturing, or shipping inventory. Dropshipping companies do all this work for you. When a purchase is made in your web store, customer order data and shipping information are sent directly to the manufacturer who ships the product to the customer.
Drop-shipping allows you to transfer some of the burden of running a business to a third-party manufacturer at low costs. When orders are shipped directly to the customer, there's no need to worry about stockpiling inventory, shipping items on time, or being left with expensive overstock. Drop-shipping allows you to spend more time building an online presence and branding your website and social media profiles.
Buying in bulk from a wholesaler like Alibaba may be cheaper in the short term, but in the long run, the low risk of drop-shipping will likely be less costly. If you are looking to purchase products from Alibaba using the drop-shipping method, it can be done through AliExpress.
There is a wide selection of children's fashion products on AliExpress. You need to have an idea of your branding before you buy items, so you know what you're looking for. AliExpress offers clothes for male and female babies, as well as clothes for older children and teens. The wide range of options is perfect for small businesses, as with so many different types and designs, it makes searching the market easier. If you know which sub-market you want to target your brand to, it will make it easier to choose the right products for that style and build a social media sub-market audience.
Marketing your children's clothing business
Once you've selected the products for your submarket and established the audience you're selling to, you'll want to start thinking about finding that audience online. The easiest way to start finding an audience is through social media. Visual media like Instagram and Pinterest usually work best for promoting fashion brands – but keep in mind that in children's clothing, your social media marketing strategy depends largely on the age group you're selling to.
If you're selling to older kids and teens, the best option for you is to promote your brand through Instagram, where the demographics are down to younger age groups. Promoting on Instagram will allow you to promote directly to the older children who will purchase your children's clothes.
You can find an audience for your brand on social media by researching profiles and hashtags that are relevant to your audience. Think about the things they might be interested in, such as the capabilities and brands they'll be following. Understanding your audience will allow you to better understand what kind of content can resonate with your audience and allow you to build an audience slowly, over time. Make sure you like and comment on your potential audience's posts regularly – to increase exposure to your social profile.
A great tool for marketing to young people on Instagram is through the use of Instagram influencers. Influencers are accounts with larger, more familiar audiences. Usually – they are employed by brands to promote products on their Instagram profiles. The well-known truths of influencers will translate into well-known truths for your brand. Some influencers require payment to promote your products, but there are also smaller influencers for submarkets that are lower cost and, in most cases, more effective.
It is generally recommended to post photos of children wearing your products alongside other images for branding purposes. You are free to take the photos yourself or use the downloadable photos in our starter kit. In addition, later you can share photos of your customers wearing your products to promote brand recognition through word of mouth.
If you see Instagram as a primary social network to promote your brand – it might be a good idea to consider adding Kenyan Instagram galleries to give your followers the option to purchase directly from your store through Instagram.
In short, when marketing your children's clothing business, it is important to understand the audience you are targeting and use the appropriate social networks accordingly. Means like influencers, compelling visual content, and connecting with your target audience can help you promote your brand and increase recognitions and sales.
Business Model
The biggest advantage of therapeutic delivery in children's fashion products is that it is both low-cost and low-risk. Since you are only buying inventory for sales that have already been made – the cost of goods sold will always be lower than your profits. Children's clothing prices may vary depending on the type of clothing you want to sell. Children's leisure shirts, for example, sell between $6 and $12 on the AliExpress website. This means you can sell the items at a price point of between $15 and $20 and still leave room in price for promotions and discounts.
Start Building a Children's Clothing Brand
Regarding building a children's clothing brand, you need to think about the brand's identity, what items you want to sell, and what age group you plan to sell. It's important to understand your target audience as early as possible. In children's clothing, branding may vary substantially depending on the age group you're targeting. Clothes for younger children tend to be more playful, with more patterns and bright colors, while clothes for older children are a bit more similar to adult fashion. Therefore, you should have a clear branding model before you start choosing the products you want to sell. Also, keep in mind that the age group you choose to sell to will determine the type of ad you want. If you're targeting younger kids, you'll usually advertise to their parents. However, if you're targeting older kids and teens, it's best to advertise to them directly. In surveys conducted by the Canadian NGO MediaSmarts, older children reported influencing their parents' buying decisions 95% of the time when it came to buying clothes. This means that success in children's fashion largely depends on your ability to connect with the age group you want to sell to.
Images and Media
All the images you see below and about 60 more images are available in high quality, as part of a complete kit to use on your website, for free to Shopify customers.
