10 Holiday DOs and DON’Ts for the online t shirt and apparel business.

E-commerce is becoming a huge part of the apparel business. If you are participating in providing your customers with an online purchase solution, you are heading in the right direction. Any apparel business can benefit from an ecommerce solution for purchasing t shirts, embroidery, dtg prints or bling apparel. Giving your customers a way to easily purchase on impulse, or without a phone call, can help you drive sales up, especially when there is a lot of competition out there. Cyber deals have grown every year as of recently. There are some good and bad practices to help your business get a piece of that pie. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does need to be done right!

Holiday T Shirt Business Do’s

1. Make your store easy to use: If you have a bunch of links that don’t work or your customers land on pages without information, you have to get these fixed. It is better to only have a few links on your site, than many that lead to dead pages. Imagine if you walked into a room at a department store and it was barren. How would you feel about that store? Clean up your site.
2. Accept credit cards and Paypal: Providing your customers with a secure and easy way to checkout is mandatory for ecommerce. If you don’t want to set up an account with a merchant service company, you can usually go simple with a more modern checkout transaction. Paypal offers a simple solution to accept credit cards and so does Visa Checkout. Contact them if you don’t accept credit cards online already.
3. Try new things and test results: Don’t just come up with one t shirt idea. Try 2, 3 or 4… see which one sells the most and then drop the other ones. Even if you take the same shirt and adjust the font or colors. Optimized content will perform better than having so many designs your customers are overwhelmed.
4. Ask for emails: If your customers are visiting your website, then ask for their email address. When they sign up, reward them with a nice coupon. Don’t blast your customers every day with the same emails. Send relevant content and respect their privacy. Email marketing in the rhinestone t shirt business and direct to garment printing can really help you grow; especially during the holiday seasons.
5. Deliver on-time: If you say the order will be ready by Friday, you should plan on it being done by Thursday. If you think Friday is a crunch, don’t make that promise. We all want to make sure we keep our customers happy and delivering later than you told them is a big mistake. They will remember you were late. In addition to this, you may put yourself in a position where you are overnighting supplies to your business because you have to finish an order tomorrow. This only makes UPS happy; not you.

Holiday Apparel Business Don’ts

1. Don’t be confusing in your policies: Keep things simple. If you require art in a specific format or need them to provide size/color specs, make sure you are clear in your communication. Having a place on your website or a standardized email is a great way to communicate clearly and prevent upset customers.
2. Don’t abuse your customers’ security: As mentioned above it is imperative that you have a secure way for your customers to check-out online. If you collect their personal info online, it is important your site has SSL Certificates and operates in a secure environment.
3. Don’t provide bad customer service: We know you are busy, but that is not an excuse for answering the phone in a curt tone or rush customers out the door. If you are too busy to answer the phone, then have a pleasant voicemail message. Ask customers to email you and respond as soon as possible. Just be nice, remember they are going to give you their hard-earned money soon.
4. Don’t forget to interact socially: You might not make a million dollars from social media, but it does play an important role in your success nowadays. If you have a Facebook page, be sure to log on enough to track positive reviews and complains. If someone writes something on your page or sends a Tweet mentioning you, be sure to reply and interact.
5. Don’t make excuses: If you want to grow your business online, you cannot make excuses. It might mean you need to hire a web developer, it might mean working with template based system like Shopify or Squarespace, it might mean you learn how to make websites yourself. Web based business doesn’t have to be a hassle, but if you aren’t used to it, there is a learning curve.

About Colman and Company: Colman and Company is an apparel decorating supplier for rhinestone transfers, direct to garment inks and embroidery supplies. They help large businesses gain access to an array of wholesale apparel supplies while still helping the start-up grow its business with affordable consumables. Colman and Company is also famous for its Brush n Bake system and Patch Kit which help people reach their dream of starting their own apparel business.