How to open a lingerie shop

If you decide to open an online lingerie store in addition to existing points of sale or immediately want to go online, read the article to the end to get instructions from the first steps to real sales on the Internet.

Activity formats

Below we will show not only options for where and how to sell underwear, but also the pros and cons of each method.

If you decide to start a lingerie store from scratch , any of the options above will work. And it's even better when they complement each other. But if you do not plan to invest in offline, then make an online store + connect bloggers, ad sites and other channels, which we will talk about later.

Pros and cons of selling lingerie online

You can sell over the Internet not just a lot, but "infinitely" a lot. Setting up an online lingerie store may not be easy, but it's possible. At the same time, it is important to understand that not everything is so “sweet” and there are peculiarities of doing business.

What are the strengths:

• high marginality. Markups are 100-200%, and sometimes even higher. If you sell well-known brands or custom-sized lingerie, the demand for such offers is higher;
• no seasonality. You can sell different groups of goods all year round, including thermal underwear, pajamas, swimwear, dressing gowns, accessories;
• the audience. Can be immediately sold to women, their men and children. Why them? Because most of the online sales of lingerie goes to the female audience. Men continue to shop rationally;
• regular demand. Everybody needs new underwear from time to time. Product quality , service, order and return, assortment, gifts and bonuses - all these criteria affect the growth of the customer base.

Minuses:

• people have a lot of doubts and questions. How to try on yourself? And if you don't like it? How to return and not lose money? What if I want to choose one of three sets? And if there is an uneven seam and marriage? What to do and where to run? - Think about how to fulfill all these needs for online orders and women will be grateful to you;
• competition. Yes, there is a lot of it. This niche cannot be called narrow. Therefore, the previous point is the first one that you need to think about in order to stand out in the market.

In the United States and Britain, they made an analysis and presented a statistical report on online sales of lingerie in 2018, and compared the growth in sales with previous years. For example, the most purchased items in descending order were: padded - a padded bra, bralette - a model without push-up, sport - sports options, and push-up in fourth place. And 40% of all products sold were black. The full report in English can be found at this link .

Registration of an online lingerie store

Doing business legally is a fundamental rule of all ecommerce entrepreneurs. To start online activities, it is enough to become a private entrepreneur: individual entrepreneur, sole proprietor - different abbreviations are used in different post-Soviet countries.

What are the benefits:

• to issue quickly and easily;
• minimum taxes;
• minimum reports to the tax and pension fund;
• you can withdraw money from the current account;
• no need to make a statutory fund;
• there is no need to register a legal address.

We considered the main differences between an individual entrepreneur and an LLC in one of the tables in this article.

Required documents

In order to become a private entrepreneur, you need:

• apply to the state registration authority via the Internet or at the place of registration;
• choose the types of activity according to the Classifier of Economic Activities (OKVED) - a classifier of types of economic activities;
• register with the Tax Service and the Pension Fund, if necessary;
• open a bank account;
• make a seal if needed.

To register, you need a passport, and for registration, opening an account and making a seal, you also need registration documents that will be issued to you. It may take several days to resolve all issues. If necessary, you can register an LLC later at any time. For work without registration in each country, fines are provided, up to the confiscation of goods and proceeds from sales.

Naming of an online lingerie store

When you brainstorm, check your ideas by name right away on domain name registration sites, because it may already be invented and purchased by someone. A domain is a unique character name used to identify a resource on the network.

To open an online lingerie store , choose your country's domain: .ru / .ua or com.ua / .by / .kz. If you have a store without any region binding - then .com or .net

What options are used when they come up with a name:

• female names. Janna, Afrodita, Alisa, Iren, Lusi, Karine. You can find foreign names that you like and check if lusi.ru or lola.com.ua will be free. In this case, in terms of association, the name does not correspond to the product and this is a minus;
• the name of the linen in transliteration. Kolgotki, Nosochki, Pijama, Lifchik, Trusiki. You can check all the free names and choose what will be closer to you in terms of assortment and brand philosophy. Such names are more associative;
• compound words. Victoriassecret, Milashop, Vbikini, Olabola, Tinybikini. You can remember it, but the shorter the better. Option has the right to life, but also difficult;
• associations with a feminine theme. Koketka, Sharm, Krasotka, Modelka. Seeing an ad with this name, the buyer also won’t understand what you are selling.

Of course, you can choose such options as well. And if you want the name to also influence SEO promotion in organic SERPs, then you have to try. In order to get additional advantages in "search karma", the domain must contain:

• the keyword for which your most popular product is being searched. Then Google or Yandex will perceive the name as a key, and if the same word is repeated on pages and in meta tags, this will further increase the site's trust. For example: semena.ru (sell crops).
• brand as a name: Apple, Google, Samsung. Such a move will contribute not only to brand awareness, but also when writing the name of your online store, you will be the first in the search.

Good examples of naming

vbikini.com.ua - the name of the business is clear.

kolgot.net - what is there? An interesting name that makes you want to click.

trusiki.ru - the assortment is clear.

Bad examples of naming

a-mur.com.ua - do you know what you will find on this site? It is difficult to determine by the name, right?

alisa.ua - and on this resource we should learn about the girl Alisa?

ulala.com.ua - do you think this is a lingerie store? Maybe yes, maybe not. Come see.

valeriassecret.ru - this is not necessary! Famous names should not be repeated or copied.

As you can see, the name plays an important role in the marketing and store development strategy. For all the recommendations, check out the full article on How to Choose the Right Domain Name for Your Online Store .

The target audience

More than 85% of online lingerie buyers are girls. The remaining 10-15% are men. We did not find accurate statistics, although many sources and polls point to this.

Knowing your audience of clients as accurately as possible, you can:

• narrowly customize advertising and spend less money on it;
• choose wisely the assortment of your store;
• conduct special sales and promotions ;
• make personalized offers to each client.

To analyze your audience, work through the following topics:

• regional signs. Where do your customers live, what is the standard of living in that region, what are the prices for products in retail outlets for your assortment;
• demography. Gender, age, social status, marital status, number of children, education, position;
• the purpose of the goods. Who and what from your assortment really needs. Here it is important to paint all the portraits of the client as detailed as possible;
• price policy. Income below average, average, above average, premium segment - do you have something to offer everyone? Or will you only sell products for one segment?
• the need for goods. When, how often, why do they need your products? What emotions does this product evoke, what levers of influence can be used to make a decision by a person?

Assortment and structure of the online store of lingerie

Panties, hosiery, bodysuits, corsets, T-shirts, shorts, pajamas, shapewear, swimwear - choose a product group. Will you have one type of product or all at once. These are different methods of going to market, different advertising budgets, and different store maintenance costs.

The structure of an online lingerie store should be clear from the first page to the completion of the purchase, and the site itself should be responsive on any device. For a quick start, you can create an online store on OkayCMS .

Recommendations:

1. Home page. There is no need to write long texts in this place, the person immediately wants to understand: who you are, what you are selling, what new items, hits, promotions, where and what sections are there. Display promotional offers and new arrivals on this page. This can be done using banners, and then lead the person to the required category .

Lumpy, shallow, too many different information, vigorous lilac color, distracting elements. Did you find a book of complaints on this site? Don't do that.

Answear has a cool homepage. There is a choice for the target audience. On the left is a call and chat button. Above is information about free shipping and even returns ! 300 UAH are given for registration + discounts for participation in the club. Usability is great!

2. Product categories. Pay attention to the sections so that you can quickly find the type of goods you are interested in: women's and men's products, children's underwear. The more detail you detail, the easier it will be to navigate and the higher the chance that a purchase will be made

Detailed and convenient side menu + immediately banners for discounts and new arrivals.

3. Card Product. The most detailed filters. Look at competitors and do better. Further in the article, we will not only give examples, but also describe how a good product page should look like so that there are more conversions.

Detailed filters + product photos on the model = claim to win and sell!

In this store, the filter is terribly inconvenient and incomprehensible.

4. Cart . At this stage, it is important to register all the details for price, discounts, bonuses, conditions, methods of ordering and shipping.
5. Contacts. This page should be for the client to contact and ask all questions.

Contacts are placed in the header and the phone number is indicated immediately, this is the right decision. No need to hide contacts in the footer.

Site functionality

In addition to the previous point, what else can you do:

• chat with a consultant. Not all people want to ask questions by voice, someone wants to write them in text. Give them that opportunity! Only it is possible without pop-up windows, but simply to make an understandable button;

Citrus.ua made a very correct new chat format. By clicking on the button, several options for communication are offered. Conveniently? Conveniently!

• product recommendations. Many online store templates already contain these blocks. Offer related products and make more sales!

Filling product cards

1) Pictures of products.

Before talking about the product card itself, let's discuss the design of the product. What are the options for presentation on the Internet:

1. Mannequins. Buy different body sizes and gender. Men, women, small children - depending on the products, choose the models you need. Order full length first to showcase all types of products. Purchase other options later.

2. Girl model. Or maybe a few girls if you have non-standard sizes and for different age categories. It will be silly if you wear 60+ underwear on a 25-year-old girl. This format of shooting will be more expensive, while the effect is better. It will be easier for customers to understand how the product looks on a real person.

• Find a photographer and studio to take high-quality photographs of all products.
• And along with the photo, you can immediately make a video.
• Pay attention to the light. So that the lighting is soft, without shadows and overexposures;
• Photophones. A different background will allow you to correctly display your product (for each collection or brand, take different options), while it should not be distracting, so it is better without clumsy prints;
• Details. Detailed shooting is the key to success. Each product should be photographed from at least 4 sides, close to take pictures of seams, fasteners, elastic bands, lace, patterns, material texture.
• Compositions. Take pictures of the products separately and together with pareos or tunics. Display items in sets - women love that.

An example of a product presentation, they even indicated that the model is 180 cm tall and is trying on size S. Super!

2) Description. Tell us more for those who don't know yet:

• what kind of fabric, materials. Not a listing of names, but an explanation of how they feel on the body, what function they perform;
• what makes this model unique and interesting;
• describe in detail the details in terms of convenience and benefit: seams (not only external, but also internal), accessories, cut;
• what are the advantages of this product, what benefits a person will receive from use;
• write about safety and environmental friendliness in detail;
• what additional things or accessories can be combined with this product;
• what are the limitations or features.

All of the above recommendations for filling online store cards are in the OkayCMS Pro engine .

Information about the manufacturer, quality certificates, composition - can be placed in a separate block or table.

The Kolgot.net website has a size chart on each product page + a description of the product in the case, with explanations of the benefits and benefits.

3) Price and block "Add to cart" and "Buy in one click".

Make the buttons visible in different colors. The cost must be relevant, understandable, with all taxes (or discounts). If the product is out of stock, make it possible to be notified by e-mail.

The Intimo.com.ua website even has a "Put aside in a fitting room" function. This is almost the same shopping cart, just one more intermediate stage where you can think about, and the store will offer you additional products. An interesting solution!

4) Terms of order, payment, delivery .

Do not put it on other pages, show all the necessary information to the client in one place.

Information about the price, purchase by installments and credit, as well as all delivery options is in a prominent place.

5) Dimension table.

Add to each product page to make it easy for the customer to take measurements and order the desired product. Please indicate the sizes according to Soviet, European and American standards. This will make it easier for him to make a choice .

Rozetka.ua made a separate page where they create size tables for each brand, and put a link to this page on the product card.

6) Recommended and optional products.

By selling multiple items to one person, you can easily increase your average check. Offer to buy two units of products at once, for example, if they are underpants. Show your beach bags, pareos and towels along with your swimsuit. Thanks to such tips, the client himself will benefit and you will receive additional profit.

Alisa.ua offers to follow the link to the brand page to create a set. It is better to add related products and additional pictures with prices under the product presentation. Better yet, do both.

7) Reviews.

People trust reviews. Not customized, but real, which will be left by your customers. If there are more negative reviews, this is normal. When people like everything, they often don't write about it on the Internet, it's just important to separate emotions from rational things.

Real customer reviews inspire confidence. Rozetka.ua gives 100 UAH bonus for a review with high-quality photos.

8) Subscribe to email newsletters.

For example, the Answear.ua store gives a bonus of UAH 300 for registration (when buying goods over UAH 1,500), and if you fill out the profile completely and join the club, they will give you another UAH 150. They also promise surprises for their birthday. For such gifts, people will be ready to leave you not only their email, but also a phone number. Then you can turn their contacts into a marketing funnel and turn them into a regular customer.

At the first stage, they ask for an email, but then you will need to enter the phone number in your personal account. Right away there is a choice of OH and SHE to send examples of goods and discounts in a more personalized way.

Useful tips for website optimization

You can't do without an SEO specialist. Optimization is needed. Collect semantics, make technical specifications for copywriters, write meta tags, do linking, link building and many other tasks. All this is necessary for your site to go to the first page of the search network Google and Yandex for different key queries.

Don't forget to blog. Selling lingerie online will be more efficient by publishing regular content. Your main audience is women. And they will be happy to read sensible articles, tips, life hacks and reviews. Only not trivial articles "how to choose panties", but more expert, useful and detailed content. Such texts will help the promotion and growth of the community around the resource, and thanks to articles with keywords, you can improve the position of the store in the search.

Blog Answear.

Features of such a business

So that at the very beginning of your activity there are fewer risks, unnecessary expenses and rash actions - draw up a business plan . In what format you do it - it doesn't matter if you do it for yourself and not for investors. Usually the document contains the following points:

1. Description of your company. Name, registration date, legal form, business goals.
2. Products. What and how you will sell, assortment, characteristics, competitive advantages of your products.
3. Marketing plan. Market and competitor analysis, strategy for achieving targeted sales goals, tools and methods, advertising channels and budgets.
4. Financial plan and capital. Budgets for purchases of goods, salaries and advertising costs. The income and expenditure part is spelled out in detail for several months in advance, it is possible in the table, an example in the article by the link .
5. Organizational structure. What kind of staff is needed, responsibilities, salary.

These are brief notes on the business plan, you can find examples of complete documents on the Internet.

Work with providers

Choose suppliers with good quality products. If after washing the seams creep apart, the sewing will be crooked, and the threads stick out in each model - you will not have clients. Get feedback from each person, set up automatic surveys or post-purchase satisfaction surveys sent by email.

You can work with dropshipping suppliers, manufacturers, private craftsmen, wholesale companies in the regional market or make purchases in other countries: China, Turkey, Poland, Ukraine, Russia. Creating close relationships with several suppliers will save you from force majeure, while the terms of return of marriage and other risks are also worth discussing with each.

Where to look:

• search engines. There are dozens of websites for searches with the words "wholesale underwear". Do not rush to grab the first one. Create a table for yourself, enter information on everyone there, ask for wholesale prices and terms of cooperation. Look at all pages up to 10 or 20. Often the best prices are from those suppliers who are not engaged in website promotion, because everything is fine with them;
• conferences and exhibitions. Find on the Internet the dates when they will be, which city will collect all representatives of the sphere. At such events you can find suppliers, investors, partners;
• go to a competitor's supplier. Order his goods, see documents and guarantees, ask for quality certificates. In these forms, you can sometimes find the name, contacts of the manufacturer or wholesale company;
• find regional lingerie manufacturers in Google or Yandex search;
• look at newspapers and glossy magazines. There are often advertisements for wholesalers;
• in the online database of wholesale representatives in search engines;
• examine the labels on the product in the store. The contacts you need are there;
• in markets and bazaars;
• on ad sites like OLH, Avito.

To learnhow to find suppliers for your online store , we have already written detailed instructions: with particular reference to the directories, the working methods both in the offline and online. For 4 CIS countries: Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Be sure to read!

Advertising and promotion

Let's take a look at the methods of promotion for paid and shareware.

Paid:

1. Contextual advertising Google Adwords and Yandex Direct. This is the N1 method, because right after the advertising is set up by specialists, you will get the first clients. Payment will be made for the transition from the search engine for different keywords to your site. For example, "buy a swimsuit for the summer" or "black underwear sets big sizes."
2. SEO. This is a long job. You need a budget to pay for the services of a specialist and the texts that copywriters will write. At the same time, the initial costs will begin to pay off in a few months, when they begin to find you in the search on the first page for various words and queries absolutely free of charge, without investment in advertising.
3. Targeted social media ads and retargeting. Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki, Facebook, Instagram. If you create a business page on these resources, you will be able to set up advertising and launch it to the target audience that you want: gender, age, interests, positions, region and dozens of other parameters.

Shareware:

1. Bloggers on Instagram and Youtube. If you find channels with a female target audience, then you can agree with the owner of the profile or channel to give him a gift , and he is for this review and advertising. Not all bloggers work according to this scheme and many require payment, include a negotiator and negotiate on favorable terms for yourself.
2. Bulletin boards. Each resource has its own rules, while it is often possible to post ads for free. And in order to promote them to the top, then you already have to pay for advertising.

Since this niche is highly competitive, it is important to get to the market as soon as possible. If you develop everything from scratch, make an individual design, finish all the desired chips, you will lose precious time that you do not have.

In order to start quickly, you can use ready-made solutions: take a store template plus the right engine - CMS (content management system) to immediately manage a large number of products. Change information and prices, import and export data - you can do everything in a couple of clicks.

On our website, we offer to test the work of the online store for free. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the free CMS for an online store‌‌ from OkayCMS. You can also order a ready-made online store.

Try it!