The garment decorating industry is a complex one (as you’re all probably more than aware of!) there are many challenges ahead for garment decorators alike, however big or small your business is. The industry has seasonal peaks and troughs which most garment decorators simply accept - calling it the nature of the industry.

BUT the quiet period isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are ways to make the most of the downturn and prepare your garment business for what your customers and the industry throw at you next. The key to doing this successfully involves developing skills and smart practices that will allow your business to remain profitable during off-seasons and periodic slowdowns.

Here are some of our key hints & tips to help you and your business during these times:

Gain an understanding of the cycles in the garment decorating industry: The industry has a natural yearly cycle which is pretty universal meaning seasonality is inevitable. The challenge for decorators alike is to understand each season, what it means for you, your business, your online performance and how to best utilise each season to maximise profit.

Work on your planning/management skills: A key tool in making the most of the downturn is foresight. As an owner of a garment decorating business, the focus is on profit not planning. However, much research shows planning is key in making this profit. Plan rigorously, leaving no stone unturned – consider all situations and scenarios for your embroidery or printing business and how to best prepare for these. Manage your resources and people as effectively as possible to fit into this plan and your overall strategy.

Generate new ideas and fill the service gap: The printing & embroidery industry is a highly adaptable sector; you can transform simple garments into anything you like; with flexible e-commerce systems (such as our eTrader websites) offering opportunities to branch into other areas/markets. You don’t have to build up expensive new businesses branching off your core business. Simply, test your products in new markets, tailor your new printed/embroidered products for certain industries and play about with ideas (In a cost effective manner of course).

Stay in touch with your customers: Become pragmatic, find your customers. Don’t wait for them to come back to you. A proactive approach to business in the quiet periods is much more likely to yield results than that of sitting around accepting the situation. The key is constant communication with your customers, simply send out soft email campaigns, engaging in social media campaigns or simply just make a courtesy call. Your prerogative will always be sales, but just simply let them know you and your business are still there to meet their needs.

In conclusion, these simple hints & tips show your printing and embroidery business does not have to come to an abrupt halt. There are many areas within your garment decoration business that can be used to increase sales and defeat the downturn.

The logic is simple: Build up your solid foundations for your core garment decorating business - but when the going gets tough, be smart,innovative and pragmatic in your approach to managing your business effectively.

Don’t just settle for following the normal industry cycles, set your own!          

It’s that time of year where garment decorators alike start to pull their hair out, the volume of sales has decreased - the school uniforms have been fulfilled, sports teams simply don’t order once their seasons underway and businesses are simply being constrained by tight budgets. The key for garment decorators is to somehow not just survive but thrive.

The answers simple! – Develop your online presence; reaching new levels with your business. Here are a few simple pieces of advice to help you improve your business online and enhance your customer’s online experience & increase sales:

Homepage

1. Arouse interest and create demand: Exciting and emotional images and texts with call to action can whet your customer’s appetite.

2. Sales appeal: Position your top selling products in highly visible areas along with featured products. Make products highly desirable and eye catching using the tools at your disposal.

3. Consistency: Be clear and consistent throughout your homepage, using clear concise eye- catching content sticking to your brand guidelines and aimed at your target audience and key customers.

Product Pages

1. Present your product appealingly: Make it eye catching, something to remember! Display big images and offer the possibility to zoom in.

2. Information about product features: Clearly show the most important product details. Many don’t do this on sites but by showing the customer your attention to detail, you’ll reap the rewards.

Purchasing

1. Stick to the basic ordering/invoicing: Remove all website elements which are not necessary to display to keep the focus on the actual products.

2. Create safety and trust: Keep on displaying important trust elements such as customer reviews.

3. Communicate effectively: Offer the customer the latest updates regarding their order as soon as possible (Generating that previously mentioned trust).

4. Quick and customer-friendly process: Stick to the user friendly experience, offer customers what they want, customers often require a speedy easy to order process (like the eTrader way). Stick to this and you can’t go wrong!

 Final thought, it’s important to see things from the customers’ perspective. From main page to check out, always be self-critical and ask yourself what you can do to improve your customer’s experience. 

Problems with current websites

If you buy the wrong website you will struggle to be found in Google for very important search terms, having trouble updating products and some people that buy the wrong websites shoot blind, unable to see the website analytical data needed to make informed, well-judged decisions.

Can you list your products properly?

A number of websites used by clothing companies don’t allow them to upload their catalogue effectively. If someone is searching for a certain T shirt or particular item of corporate workwear , then a site that doesn’t show them these products straight away is highly unlikely to convert that visitor into an enquiry

Internet users are used to getting what they want immediately and making rapid decisions. If a site is little more than a corporate brochure then those users will click the ‘back’ button and seek out an alternate supplier.

Your site should have one page for each product and give all the necessary information on prices, sizes, colours and customisation options. Don’t give users the excuse to click over to one of your competitors just because they show more information than you do..

Are you able to sell your products online?

Another consideration is your ability to sell products online. The world of customisable clothing is notoriously difficult from an ecommerce point of view, because the number of personalisation options make creating a great selling platform very difficult for web developers.

Technology has leapt forwards recently and there are now web companies out there who can offer you a full ecommerce platform. These platforms will allow users to view, customise and pay for their clothing online, quickly and easily.

Think about how much simpler your life would be if you could sell clothing at any time of the day or night, without ever having to speak to anyone. It is important to tread carefully here. A number of companies I spoke to at the event had spent 1000’s of pounds on websites that lacked important functionality, such as the ability to upload artwork or buy multiple sizes of the same item, which isn’t helpful at all. Make sure your web developer has experience with customised ecommerce sites before forging ahead.

Can you add your own, unique content?

When it comes to content, there are two main areas that you should be concerned with, product descriptions and blog/ news articles. 

Why is the content so important? It allows your website to stand out from the crowd , to both users and the search engines. Google hates duplicate content and if your site has the exact same product descriptions as everyone else you wont be looked upon favourably which is bad news for your rankings.

Conversely, Google loves fresh, unique content, which is easily provided by a regular blog or news section.

Taking the time to create your own product descriptions and to write advice articles or news pieces for your blog each week will do wonders for your website’s search engine ranking. At the same time it will show the personality of your brand to users, making them far more likely to remember you and recommend you to their contacts.

Does your website integrate with Google?

If your ecommerce site has the ability to integrate with Google Products Seach, your items will be displayed in the “shopping results” section of Google.

This section is displayed on page one of Google and shows an image of the product. This can bring in a lot of traffic and can often be automated, costing you very little in time and money.

Another Google tool well worth having is Google Analytics. This free software provides you with data about what’s happening on your website

This vital information includes the keywords that people used to find you, the other sites sending you traffic, how long visitors spend on your site and which pages they look at. This sort of information is exactly what you need when figuring out what works and where to take things in the future.

Have you bought the wrong website?

Etrader websites are the only solutions in the market that understand what you need as a garment decorator. We understand because we have decades of experience in the print and embroidery market.

Is your current website out of date?

Our solutions are the ultimate modern tool for presenting your business online; both from an aesthetic and a functional point of view. Our elite team of industry topping web developers will improve the design and marketability of your current site. As well as giving you the tools you need to generate more enquiries and orders

Are you sick of wasting time and money trying to update your site?

With ease of use being at the fore front of our thinking, we have developed our solutions with ‘2 sides’, from both the customer and owners perspectives. The customer can checkout in seconds, with our easy to use customisation process and secure online payment service, whilst the owner can change the content of their site in real time. From text and images to brands and entire clothing lines. It can all be changed in seconds!

Is your current website underperforming and you don’t know why?

At e-trader we have great expertise in internet marketing and search engine optimisation. The architecture of your new website will be constructed in a search engine friendly way. Accompany this with our easy to use SEO section on the’ owners side’ of the platform with the weekly marketing hints and tips from the e-trader team and you will be climbing up the Google ranks in no time.

Does your current site have a low conversion rate?

Our websites give you the potential will to generate more traffic towards the site and rank well both locally and nationally for related keyword searches. But the platform gives the customer the ability, to pick a garment, customise it and checkout in seconds. This gives you site a better chance of converting more site traffic into sales.

Are you fed up with managing all the data from your site?

We do all that for you! We can plug your new site into any of your wholesaler’s catalogues that you buy from.  We will also update them for you; too save you the hassle of doing it manually. This gives you the potential to have unlimited brands on your website.

Has your business taken over your life?

If you want to go on holiday we will take the orders while you’re away and fulfil them, leaving your some care free time away from the world of business. You will also find yourself with a more efficient production process as there is minimal communication between buyer and seller other than a simple order form. So you don’t have to wait around and you can improve your order turnaround time.

Are you confusing your online customers with costs?

In our market research we found that many print and embroiders confuse customers with costs. Our platform allows to you to build the costs on the ‘owners side’. Here you can set delivery charges, digitizing fees and other costs such as V.A.T with ease and simplicity. This way the customer is not left bewildered and wondering what stitch counts and set up costs mean. The costs are spread over the order with the same design, as a customer you can see the cost coming down as you buy more.

Are you losing customers to the rapid change in technology?

Our solution allows your website to be accessible on all devices. With tablets currently outselling laptops for the first time ever and technology becoming more mobile we decided to build a solution for the future. Many of the alternatives to our solution use flash; therefore they are not accessible on Apple products- such as the iPhone, iPad , iPod and iMac’s.

 Do you want to make it easier for repeat customers to place orders?