How to increase winter sale for fashion brand in Canada

How to increase winter sale for fashion brand in Canada

Winter is near! People are eager to buy clothes. More often than not, people await the sale promotions from their favourite fashion brands, such as a winter jacket sale. Sale promotions by season work so well because people expect discount campaigns whenever a season ends. But, it can only work if executed properly. With several feet of snow outside, people become hesitant to go out unless they need to. Naturally, this is bad news for some apparel retailers that operate physically and make most of their sales by face-to-face interactions. Fortunately, there’s a way around it. When done the right way, retailers like yourself may possibly experience exponential growth in sales!  If you’re a struggling retailer, or you’re a retailer who wants to increase winter sale for fashion brand in Canada or looks to launch a winter jacket sale in Canada, then you’ve come to the right place. Why? Well, in this blog, we’ll tell you the strategies to increasing your sales this winter.  Strategies on how to increase winter sale for fashion brand in Canada Here are popular strategies that can help you increase winter sales in Canada. Add light and color Days are short and gray during the winter season. Most, if not some, perceive gloomy atmospheres in winter. Probably because of heavy snow, rain, dark clouds or less crowd. As sad as it sounds for customers, it’s joyful news for the retailer. You can attract people to your winter jacket sale. You just need to bring in more lamps and spotlights, and then direct them to your display products and add a lively atmosphere inside our store. All you need to make sure of is that your store should be brighter inside and outside than the rest of the street.  Offer special promos and discounts Customers are always looking for good deals. In fact, people expect special sale promotions whenever before the winter season starts. Start promoting your products through discounts, for example, a winter jacket sale in Canada.  Also, you can clear out your older products by using clearance sale campaigns. This way, customers are already aware that you have a sale on those products before they find out they need them.  Start an online store When the weather gets bad, people would prefer to stay in the comfort of their homes and shop online. And considering the pandemic, quite a number of retailers are switching to online means.  To counteract this, you should have a website designed. It may sound difficult, but really it is not. There are web development agencies that will have your website crafted tailored to your needs. If you want to find out more, check out the best web design and development services the world has to offer.  A website can help you reach a higher number of customers, and you’ll be able to increase winter sale for fashion brand in Canada.  Lastly, with a website, you can market your products. Using the previous example, you can launch ad campaigns through your website to promote your winter jacket sale in Canada. Creative digital marketing This naturally becomes a requirement after you decide to have your eCommerce website. Digital marketing is marketing but through means of social media and the internet. You can do it alone, but investing in digital marketing services will seem more efficient. For that you must consult with the best digital marketing agency in Canada. To give you a crash course on digital marketing, you have to make your social media pages aesthetically pleasing to the eye. If you’re a talented photographer, then the job may be easy. If you’re not, then you may have to hire some photographers and editors so that some life can be added to your products.  Get your products manufactured with custom designs! Of course, to increase winter sale for fashion brand in Canada, you have to have new products designed and manufactured. The best way to do this is to find a company that can manufacture your apparel with trendy designs.  To increase retail sales, your store has to stand out from the blend of other retail stores. To put things into perspective, many retail stores have winter jackets to sell. Your winter jacket sale must be unique to the extent that it gives people a strong reason as to why they should buy winter jackets from you.   Now you might be thinking of where to find an outstanding custom apparel company in Canada. Well, ever heard of the Iconic Apparel House? It’s the house that’s filled with limitless opportunities inside. All you have to do is open the door. How to open it? Simply, contact us or send your inquiry. 

How to buy Packaging Bags for Apparel?

How to buy packaging bags for apparel?

Packaging is essential for all types of products. It helps keeps the product safe when delivered to the customer. Likewise, packaging bags keep the clothes safe so that they retain the qualities for your customers.  There are quite some packaging options to consider whether you’re selling t-shirts, socks, pants, underwear, jackets, etc. Some would use only one layer of packaging, while others use two or more layers. However, that all depends on your preference. So without further ado, let’s dive into these different packaging bags for your clothing brand. Boxes or Mailers? It’s rare to see clothes getting torn when in transit. So, you can use various shipping options to deliver the clothes. Custom apparel brands often use boxes or mailers. Both are valid options depending on the type of clothing business you run. Mailers are packaging envelopes so they’re more cost-effective, efficient as they take less space, and are environmentally friendlier as they use less material than a box. In contrast, boxes take up more space and use more material but, they’re good to make a statement. Boxes are made for exceptional presentation and can work well with custom clothing companies especially. Say, for instance, a customer wants a dress shipped for her friend’s birthday. She wants to add her personality and go extra since it’s a special day for her friend. Boxes can help you go extra and give unique experiences to your receiving. You can’t really do that with packaging bags or mailers.  Types of packaging bags, mailers, and boxes There are varieties of packaging bags, mailers, and boxes to choose from. Each type of packaging has its own pros and cons so let’s get into the details. The Recycled Poly Mailer The poly mailer is the cheapest in terms of price, but that does not mean it lacks good qualities. It has the lowest carbon footprint, hundred percent recyclable, weather-poof, reusable, and the lightest option. The bad thing about this is that it is plastic and so recycling uses a lot of energy. Recycled Apparel Mailer This is a plastic-free, biodegradable and compostable material. You can get various sizes and it’s strong enough to package a lot of clothes. Unfortunately, it is more expensive and paper is always weaker than plastic. One tear in the paper can cause the whole thing to collapse on its own. It’s also not weather-proof, thus it’s not good to use if your customers live in regions where it rains a lot. 100% Recyclable Shipping Box Again, it’s plastic-free, biodegradable and compostable. It’s also the most durable option out there. The box does well for presentations and giving your customers a unique unboxing experience. It is more expensive and requires more space for shipping. And you may need more material to at least keep the box intact. It also has the highest carbon footprint.  Self Sealing Glassine Packaging Bag These frosted packaging bags are made with supercalendered paper that makes them withstand extreme weather conditions. This is a good alternative if you want to contribute to the environment by going plastic-free. Some custom apparel companies use this to sell directly to their customers and ship them in large quantities.  Recyclable Flap & Seals Clear packaging bags serve as inner protection for apparel products.  Both the flap & seals and glassine bags serve two purposes. Wholesalers and clothing brands first package each item individually in a clear poly packaging bag. This not only protects the item but also makes sorting and sorting easier.  What Iconic Apparel House does? Our process is divided into five simple steps: Design and Development, Sampling Sourcing Product Development, Quality and Compliance, Packaging and Labeling, and Shipping logistics and Distribution.  Our fourth step is where we use our sophisticated packaging solution. We operate with top-quality standards, providing personalized labels, and special wash care and hang tags. Our fifth and final step involves shipping logistics and distribution. We’re partnered with leading shipping carriers. So, we ship worldwide in LCL and FCL quantities. We offer shipping at competitive shipping prices for sea and air. We also give door delivery and express delivery options. This is what makes our house the Iconic Apparel House.  Our trademark packaging is what makes us unique. We add character to our packaging by using high-quality packaging bags. It’s what makes your unboxing experience refreshing! Contact us now if you want to have your packaging customized. 

How to Find a Clothing Designer for your Business?

How to Find a Clothing Designer for your Business

Many things are required when it comes to running a clothing business. But the most important of them all is hiring a clothing designer. Having one can determine the success of your business and how far your brand can go. All you need to do is find one. The Iconic Apparel House is glad to help you with it. So hang tight and learn these steps on how to find one. What is a clothing designer? A clothing designer is a designer who is involved in all of the production aspects of a clothing line. Hiring one can go a long way for your clothing brand.  Currently, there are two types of designers that you can hire. You can hire a full-time designer or a freelance designer who would work from their home.  Where to Find Professional Clothing Designers?  There are three ways to find designers for your clothing business.  Searching on the Internet You can find talented and creative designers through freelancing websites and Internet forums. However, you must be careful, because unfortunately, there are as many time wasters as there are professional designers of clothing. Through Referrals Another approach to finding a designer is by speaking to people in the clothing industry. Some may be able to give you the contacts they’ve worked with and have found to be very beneficial.  Through a consultant If you’re not comfortable searching on freelance websites and talking to people, you can always hire an experienced professional to help you look for a professional designer. A consultant probably has experience in the industry, so they know what to look for in a creative designer.  How to Hire a Clothing Designer for your Clothing Brand Hiring the right person for the job will be tricky. It’s never a black and white area when you have to choose the right designer for your business as there are many talented individuals in the industry ready to work. So we’ve explained the hiring part into these simple steps.  Set a Budget The first thing to consider when hiring a clothing designer is your budget. How much can you afford? What’s the market rate per design for a professional designer? You have to set a budget for this part because if you don’t, then most likely you’ll run out of money to spare for other parts of your business.  Education, Training and Experience Though the educational qualification isn’t a determining factor when judging the competence of a designer. We recommend that you go for the one who had enough training and education to qualify as adesigner.  Also, you should consider the amount of experience the designer has. An experienced one should have worked on different projects for several years, therefore, knows how to handle challenges and difficult tasks.  The Designer’s Portfolio A designer’s portfolio is crucial when considering hiring a designer. Think of it as their “degree” or “certificate” of fashion designing. It should contain samples of the designer’s best jobs. Make sure to have a good look at the designer’s portfolio as it can show a lot about their knowledge, skills and creativity. Judging by the strength of these qualities will determine if the designer has what it takes to work for you.  Test the Designer Before making the decision, you should test their skills by giving them short and relevant tasks. Ask them to make some sketches for example. This can help you judge their creative abilities further.  Get More Opinions If you’re not an expert designer or you’re not using a consultant to hire a clothing designer, you should try to get second opinions. Preferably ask someone you know who happens to be an expert fashion designer before moving on to hire the designer.  Sign an agreement When you’re satisfied with the designer’s competence, then you both should start coming to terms and conditions of the contract. A contract can help you and your designer to stay on the same page. It also provides security for both you and the designer. That’s why having a contract is very important as it protects your rights, be it intellectual property or copyright infringement.  Provide Additional Training and Support Just because the clothing designer you hired may be talented on paper, it still doesn’t mean they’ll skyrocket your clothing business. Remember, the designer you hired is new to your business so, give the designer an orientation session and further training sessions. This will bring long-term value to your clothing business as the designer will get used to your brand. Also, make sure you answer their enquiries and questions promptly and give them the freedom of creativity.  The Iconic Apparel House The Iconic Apparel House can be the designer that you’re looking for. We’ve designed and manufactured custom clothes for you to sell to your customers. We’ve worked with numerous brands across the world. So, contact us now and learn more about what we’re good at.

How to Find Clothing Manufacturers for your Startup

clothing manufacturers | Iconic Apparel House

Finding clothing manufacturers may not seem as business visionists or entrepreneurial enthusiasts may think. There’s a lot more depth to it! The first manufacturer you may find could be the factory to deal with. Or, you may have to keep looking for other manufacturers until you find the right one. In this blog, we’ll give some of our advice to find a manufacturer for your clothing startup. Where to look for them? Before you pick your manufacturer, you need to find one first. Finding clothing manufacturerswill seem very overwhelming without the help of some guidance. And when you finally do find one, you’ll need to decide if it’s the right one or not. Thus, as a disclaimer, you might have got a lot of work cut out for you so, let’s take things one step at a time. Here’s how to find them. Networking One of the appropriate ways to find a manufacturer is by going to events and make friends who’re running or are involved with other startup brands. This takes a lot of time. That’s because people just can’t open their arms to you at an instant and hand over all the efforts they made to build their supply chains. You’ll need to develop a trusting relationship. The key here is to share when it comes to establishing a friendly business relationship. You’ll also have to give some information about your startup brand, whether you may like it or not. Clothing manufacturers aren’t desperate for their first order, especially the good ones. And even if they are, they also want to know what’s in it for them, not just for you. Internet Of course, how can we forget the internet? The internet is a great place to find a manufacturer and break the ice. Forums, Google, and social media groups are the places to go. You can set up an ad post or write a status in a forum or Facebook group asking for a collaborative partnership. You can look for custom clothing manufacturers‘ websites on Google and get their contact details to talk to them.  Arguably, this approach might be the quickest but might also be the least effective. That’s because some clothing manufacturers prefer to have a face-to-face conversation rather than a conversation over email.  Finding the right fit Unfortunately, most enthusiastic startup entrepreneurs want to work with supply chain partners that the big brands work with. Although the reason behind working with reputable manufacturers may seem understandable, it can still bring more harm than good to your clothing startup. Working with the big players as a startup is a rookie thing to do. So you’ll have to find the right fit. We all know life is not always perfect. Partnering with startup niche clothing manufacturers is also not good. Avoid them because they’re bizarrely expensive. The cost of developing samples of three clothing styles can go up to $14,000. And to be clear, they’re not usually sophisticated manufacturers either. Things can go terribly wrong considering they’re new to the business too.  Selecting the right one The perfect clothing manufacturer should balance the two extremes – big and small. A hands-on team The first thing you want from them is to produce the clothes that you want to make. Just don’t go to some generic garment factory and mass-produce the products. The manufacturer you should be looking for must be specialized and an expert in what you want to be manufactured.  You’ll also need to get to know the person that will be handling the production. Often, when you start working with them, the owner or the upper management will be talking to you to set out the terms. But you still need to bring clarity by talking to all your manufacturing partners that you know and learn who’s managing what. You need to understand the roles so that no big issue arises. No shady outsourcing Some clothing manufacturers may act shady and outsource production without being upfront and honest about it. As a matter of fact, they may not even manufacture your clothes at all! The reason why they would outsource is because of cheaper materials or cheaper labour. The rule of thumb is that they should be honest and transparent about it. If they don’t, then they’ll definitely harm your startup brand.  If they do outsource, then it’s not a bad thing as it’s industry standard. The reason being is that some things just don’t get made in the factory, such as buttonholes. Some offer to do buttonholes as a separate service and get paid for it. So it’s really not a big deal. But, always clarify yourself and keep note of who else is involved in the manufacturing process. Rule of thumb: middle-of-the-ground All in all, what we’re advising you is to go for the middle-of-the-ground sort of manufacturer. That’s perhaps the way to go to find a manufacturer. You don’t need to partner with a star player in the industry, and you also don’t need someone that’s too specialized on very specific and detailed orders, especially for a startup brand. You need to find the perfect balance for your startup. Otherwise, all your savings for investing in the growth of your business can drain rapidly due to high costs and a difficult supply chain. Most likely, finding clothing manufacturers will take a long time. But it’ll all be worth it in the end. Iconic Apparel House Now that you’ve read our blog, ever thought of partnering with us? That’s right. The Iconic Apparel House manufactures custom clothes for you to sell to your customers. We’ve worked with various brands, and we’re the clothing manufacturer to go. Contact us now to learn more about what we do and let’s get to work.

5 tips on starting a clothing business with wholesale products

starting a clothing business

If your dream is to have your own clothing business, then you’ve come to the right place. Did you know that selling wholesale clothes is a way of starting a clothing business? That’s right! All you got to do is “buy low and sell high.” But, the critical success factor behind this is how you take on your venture and execute your plans. In this blog, we’ll give you a few tips that’ll help you kickstart your clothing business.  Identify your clothing niche Buying and selling wholesale clothes doesn’t sound complicated. All you got to do is buy wholesale clothes at a lower price and then sell them at a higher price. However, the first thing you got to do when starting a clothing business is identifying your clothing niche, also known as your target market.  To get successful, you need to find the right opportunity. An opportunity is when the conditions of the market are in favour of your business goals. For example, in a particular region, you’ve found out that there aren’t many choices for big and tall teen males. So here’s an opportunity. You can fill that market gap and consider selling clothes to the underserved target.  Do the business and legal work Now that you’ve got a rough idea of whom your clothing business will serve, it’s now time to work to get things operational. In starting a clothing business, you’ll need to make sure that you’re legal to do business in your area or preferred area. You need to get the required permits and licenses to run your business. Moreover, you need to find a suitable location for your business also. If your target audience is big and tall male teens, perhaps you should consider opening a store at a mall or an area where the particular age group shops usually. You’ll also have to keep your marketing in check as you’ll need a grand opening to attract customers.  Working with wholesalers online Once you have your business plan and all legal work done, it’s time to get working with wholesalers. Just like with any business, relationships are the key to starting a clothing business, especially when getting in touch with wholesalers.  Finding wholesalers There are two ways to finding wholesalers. One way is to search websites for companies that represent different clothing brands. The other is to visit the website of the clothing brand wish to sell. Generally, you can find links to wholesale information on the top or bottom of these websites, though don’t expect a lot of detail regarding qualifications, order minimums, pricing, or terms. Instead, contact the brand or wholesaler by using the contact information provided on the website.   Contacting wholesalers Some websites allow you to apply for a wholesale account and then get straight to it. However, in most cases, the application process may not seem as straightforward as one might think. You may have to meet a lot of requirements and conditions to qualify as a reseller, at least when your business is new.  You’ll need to provide proof as well that you’re operating a legitimate business. This typically includes a scanned copy of your business license, your permit, and in some cases, copies of invoices from other wholesale accounts that you may already have. Be sure to ask the wholesaler or brand representative about their terms and conditions, including pricing rules and establishing credit terms.  Building supplier relationships Just like we mentioned, one of the keys to starting a clothing business is developing strong relationships with wholesale suppliers. One good relationship can determine the success of your business. When things go well with the wholesaler or wholesale representative, you’ll most likely be able to enjoy the many perks associated with friendly relationships. For example, you’ll be able to enjoy preferred pricing, access to in-demand merchandising, and accommodating payment terms.   To build a strong relationship, you have to be respectful of your wholesaler’s time, pay invoices by their due dates, and approach them about your concerns before a small issue ends up turning into a huge problem.  And that’s how you start a clothing business If you’ve had your experiences with trading, you probably have heard of this rule of thumb, “buy low and sell high.” That’s pretty much applicable to all kinds of trading businesses, even the clothing wholesale business.  Buying and selling wholesale clothes is arguable the best way to start a clothing business. Wholesalers typically sell their inventory at the lowest price, so that you can sell your product at a higher price and get a decent profit. It’s not that difficult once you keep our tips in mind. Happy wholesaling!