Backbone PLM’s Guide to Launch and Grow Your Fashion Startup
Fashion startups disrupt the industry and inspire change through their products and initiatives. Every iconic fashion brand starts from somewhere, and its origin story often uplifts an entire generation of visual storytellers. The creativity and innovation characterized by the clothing lines that dominate household department stores may have begun as a tiny pop-up shop in a college dorm room or an aspiring fashion designer’s garage. Starting a fashion startup is no easy feat, but thanks to the prevalence of e-commerce and cloud-based SaaS solutions like Backbone PLM, it is possible to turn an agile fashion startup into a beloved, nationally-known clothing brand.
On this page you will learn:
- How to Secure Funding for Your Fashion Startup
- How to Leverage Fashion PLM Software to Grow Your Fashion Startup
- How to Acquire Customers and Market Your Fashion Startup
- How to Manage the True Cost of Running a Fashion Startup
- NFTs for Fashion Startups: The Future of Fashion is Here
Learn how Backbone PLM can help your fashion startup build products smarter, faster, and at scale while saving design time, production costs, and maximizing profitability.
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How to Secure Funding for Your Fashion Startup
If you’re an up-and-coming clothing brand, follow these tips to secure funding for your fashion startup.Successful fashion startups strive to break the mold, expressing their individuality and creative freedom through every piece of fabric, stitch, or seam. Fashion is a form of art that blends cultural elements and brings people together like no other medium.
For any emerging fashion brand, the financing stage is required to get your business up and running. Whether your eye for design is inspired by luxury items or casual weekend wardrobes, fashion startups must tailor their products around a concept investors trust and believe in.
In this blog, we will break down the pros and cons of running a fashion startup, along with eight ways to acquire funding, including:
- Your personal connections
- Crowdfunding networks
- Hosting a presale
- Angel investors
- Venture capitalists
- Business and universities
- Fashion events and gatherings
- Social media platforms
How to Leverage Fashion PLM Software to Grow Your Fashion Startup
Fashion startups should leverage fashion PLM software to grow their brand, enhance product development, and optimize vendor relations.Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions were once seen as a high-profile item reserved for the industry giants. However, smaller brands and fashion startups grew tired of the chaotic system of spreadsheets and sought a different approach to streamline design and development processes.
Manual development tools hinder productivity and collaboration, but Backbone’s fashion PLM software has leveled the playing field to benefit fashion and apparel brands of all sizes. Technology is necessary to survive, and creativity is key to profitability, so Backbone PLM designed the ideal platform to benefit consumer goods brands and the DTC community.
In this blog, we feature a unique case study with one of our customers, Nifty Genius. We discuss how the brand felt unproductive and bogged down by spreadsheets, and how Backbone PLM provided a solution to get its product development back on track. Continue reading to learn more about our case study, as well as:
- E-Commerce vs Brick and Mortar
- Why fashion startups should embrace PLM
- How to transition your brand to fashion PLM
- The connection between fashion PLM and ROI
- Why Backbone PLM is recommended for fashion startups
Fashion Startups: Acquiring Customers and Marketing Your Brand
If you’re running a new fashion startup, acquiring customers and marketing your brand is key to increasing revenue.How do you acquire customers? How do you market your fashion brand? While fashion startups seek alternatives to traditional retail storefronts, marketing your brand can be challenging in a crowded digital landscape. E-commerce captivates digitally-conscious shoppers and makes clothing items available to a vast audience, but increases competition for fashion startups.
Early-phase fashion startups depend on customer satisfaction and customer acquisition costs to expand operations and remain relevant in a competitive marketplace. Customer acquisition is the process of exposing new people to your brand and turning them into paying customers. Customer acquisition channels are various platforms used to draw new leads, encourage continual web traffic, and achieve a successful customer acquisition ratio.
For fashion startups, it’s not always about reaffirming brand awareness but rather converting curiosity into recurring sales and brand loyalty. In this blog, we will help you define your target market and set sustainable acquisition goals. Depending on your current audience, resources, or budget, your fashion brand can implement various paid and free tactics, such as:
- Brand website
- Social media platforms
- Influencer marketing
- Search engine marketing and optimization (SEO)
- Email marketing
- Word-of-mouth marketing
To learn more about customer acquisition and our list of frequently asked questions, click the link below to access the complete blog.
The True Cost of Running a Fashion Startup
Several costs influence your ability to run a successful fashion startup, including selecting a manufacturer, acquiring customers, and sourcing products.Running a fashion startup takes a lot of time and effort. Before the fun can begin, emerging brands must have a market-ready product and a business model they believe will be sustainable long-term. Then it’s time to refer to our previous fashion startup blogs to leverage the proper software, secure funding, and acquire customers through various marketing channels.
But what does it cost to start a fashion startup? That is a question that all fashion entrepreneurs must face. Starting a fashion brand depends on the size of your business, the manufacturer’s location, your target audience, and other base costs needed to launch new products. Before you pay attention to startup costs, establish your fashion startup goals, including brand initiatives, designs, technical skills, and marketing strategies.
In this blog, we will discuss the six main costs to consider when launching a fashion brand, including:
- Sampling and development
- Sales
- Product sourcing
- Production
- Marketing
- Overhead
To learn more about how you can get your fashion startup off the ground with Backbone PLM, click the link below to explore the entire blog and our list of frequently asked questions.
NFTs for Fashion Startups: The Future of Fashion is Here
Should fashion startups invest in NFTs? Read our latest blog to learn about crypto technology and how your brand can navigate a tech-savvy industry.
With so many direct-to-consumer (DTC) fashion brands on the market today, competition is fierce in the current digital landscape. However, this technological wave is revolutionizing how companies attract customers in the fashion industry. Fashion and technology have always been interconnected, and it presents another opportunity for fashion startups to expand their reach.
We are talking about the exciting realm of using NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, to combine blockchain technology with creative intellectual property. NFTs extend into art, music, sports, gaming, and even wine production, and now your fashion startup can jump on board, too. NFTs have struck a chord with audiences, and the market for blockchain technology is exploding in the fashion industry.
As a cloud-based PLM software, Backbone understands consumer fashion isn’t reserved for the Stone Age — the future of fashion is digital! To better understand how your fashion startup can attract and connect with consumers from across the globe, read our latest blog to learn about crypto technology and how your brand can navigate a tech-savvy industry. In this article, we will highlight:
- What are NFTs?
- NFTs and the fashion industry
- The impact of NFTs and the fashion industry
- How will NFTs affect consumers?