Strategies for Producing Garments to Sell Online: A Guide to Profitable Fashion Entrepreneurship
In the world of online commerce, print-on-demand services have revolutionised the way creators bring their ideas to life. Gone are the days of sourcing and storing supplies, as these services eliminate the need for creators to manage their own inventory.
To price handmade clothing items effectively for online sale, a tailored cost-plus pricing method is advisable. This method involves several steps:
- Calculate Item Cost: Add the cost of all supplies used for the item, along with the value of your time spent making it. For example, if your hourly wage is £20 and it takes 1 hour to make a piece, your labor cost is £20. Add the total supplies cost to this to get the item cost.
- Apply a Markup: Multiply the item cost by a markup factor (commonly between 2.0 to 2.5 or more) to determine your wholesale price. This markup covers overhead, profit margin, and other expenses.
- Set Retail Price: If you sell retail (direct to consumers), apply an additional markup on the wholesale price to cover marketing, fulfillment, and retail margin.
- Consider Competitors and Market: Analyse competitors’ pricing for similar handmade items and understand your target audience’s willingness to pay. Adjust your pricing to position yourself either competitively or as a premium brand based on your unique value proposition.
- Factor in Psychological Pricing and Discounts: Experiment with pricing strategies like pricing just below round numbers or offering discounts strategically to boost sales without eroding your value.
- Overhead and Other Costs: Incorporate other costs such as shipping, packaging, marketing, and online platform fees into your pricing to ensure profitability.
Using this structured approach ensures you cover costs, value your time appropriately, and remain competitive in the online handmade clothing market. Many artisans use pricing calculators designed specifically for handmade goods to simplify this math.
For those who prefer to create their own clothing designs, manufacturers like Trends Jeans can help. They specialise in denim fabrics and can create clothing designs for smaller batches, with as few as 250 units, reducing the financial risk compared to traditional high batch runs.
Print-on-demand services, on the other hand, allow creators to upload their designs to a platform, and customers can buy them directly. While these services offer simple basics that can be easily screen printed with an image, they may not be suitable for specific or complex pieces of clothing.
Handmade clothing items are in demand and can be sold at craft fairs or online on platforms like Etsy. When selling handmade items online, it's crucial to calculate the cost of supplies and time spent to determine a profitable retail price, often by doubling the total. Following a pattern is common when handcrafting clothing, but some experienced individuals may design their own patterns or freehand items.
- To create a profitable handmade crochet or knitwear product, consider using a cost-plus pricing method, which involves calculating item cost, applying a markup, setting retail price, analyzing competitors and market, and factoring in psychological pricing and discounts.
- Handmade clothing patterns for knitting or crochet are widely available, and some experienced artisans may even design their own unique patterns or freehand items.
- A successful approach to bringing handmade fashion-and-beauty items, such as clothing, to the market is leveraging print-on-demand services, which allow creators to upload their designs and offer them directly to customers.
- When selling handmade items at home-and-garden craft fairs or online on platforms like Etsy, it's essential to price the products appropriately to cover the costs of materials, time, and other expenses, often by doubling the total cost of supplies and time spent.
- For individuals who prefer to create their own clothing designs, manufacturers like Trends Jeans offer custom denim fabrics and facilitate smaller batch runs for clothing designs, helping to reduce financial risk compared to traditional high-batch runs.
