How to Design a Fashion Ecommerce Website

Selling clothing all starts with your digital presence. Through appealing visuals, well-crafted images, and engaging content, you can draw in a broader audience, gain customers, and build a noteworthy online clothing store.

Start by deciding what you want to sell and gathering product photos, then set up a website and plans for shipping, payments, and promoting your designs.

1. Decide what you want to sell

Choosing what you want to sell is where your business plan meets your creative ideas. While you have your vision, it’s important to have an idea of who you’re selling to and practical details like trends, seasonality, sourcing, and profit margins.

• Decide how you’ll source clothing. Will you sell your own clothes, resell from another brand or producer, or dropship clothes designed by you or a distributor?

• Understand your audience and demand. Gain insight into the preferences, needs, and purchasing behaviors of your target audience. Identify sought-after clothing styles within the demographic you’re trying to reach.

• Adapt to trends and seasons. Keep a close eye on fashion trends and consider making adjustments based on what clothing types are in season or popular. 

• Consider profit margins and pricing. Think about your pricing strategy and the profit margins you want to aim for. Take into account the expenses associated with sourcing, production, marketing, and overhead when setting your prices.

Print on demand fashion 

If you’re just starting your online clothing business, you could consider selling print on demand clothes. Print on demand clothes are dropshipped, meaning you offer products that are stocked, printed, and delivered to the customer by a third-party fulfillment company. You create the design, but you don’t need to produce, store, or ship items yourself.

Squarespace’s Custom Merch integration makes it easy to create a print on demand clothing line and sync items to your online store. This is a fantastic alternative if you want to start with a smaller budget and storing your stock is an issue.

Alternatively, if you want to dropship clothes that are also designed by a third party, you’ll need to find a source for those items. Some Squarespace Extensions connect you to catalogs of items for dropshipping, including clothes.

Learn more about how print on demand works

2. Gather product images

Fashion is a highly visual industry, so a successful fashion website should have a visually appealing design and high-quality images.

Expertly crafted product photos are pivotal to your online store. Shoppers will want to see visuals that authentically mirror the items they’ll get in their orders. Photos also help people understand how clothing fits on the body and how to style it. Plus, well-crafted product imagery makes you look more professional and trustworthy.

You can hire a photographer or a third-party service to shoot great photos. Alternatively, with a smartphone camera, good lighting, and some practice, you can create quality product photos yourself.

Learn how to shoot your own product photography

3. Choose a website template

A good website template and ecommerce platform can set you up for early success. This can be a helpful step in deciding how you’d like to display your items. Squarespace websites provide numerous, customizable choices to effectively showcase your individual style, brand, and creative vision to your audience.

For a clean and minimalist template, you could check out the Anise template. Or perhaps you’d like the Reseda template, which provides a more artistic look. Alternatively, you might like something more impactful and colorful. The Galena template would be a great starting point.

There is also the option to custom-build your template from the ground up using Squarespace Blueprint AI. No matter how you start, each template is fully customizable, so you can adapt your web design to your aesthetic and needs.

4. Adding pages

When adding the pages you’d like to have on your site, think about what you want to share with potential customers. In addition to a store page and homepage, the pages that you’ll often find on fashion websites include:

• Blog: These are ideal for promoting your brand. A blog can be a powerful tool for expressing your views on the fashion industry or sharing inspiring fashion and business updates. It’ll also help you rank for relevant keywords to help new customers discover you in search engine results.

• Shipping & returns: Customers appreciate clear details on shipping policies and related costs. This is a great way to provide peace of mind and steps to return clothing if required.

• Stockists page: Depending on what you’re selling, you might be connected to other stores where customers can find your product in person or online. Use a list and maps to help them find your partners.

• About page: This page can provide insight into who you are as an individual or company. Use the space to share what you stand for, your mission, and your background. You can also include contact information on this page.

• FAQs: After you launch your business, you may find common customer questions that crop up. Include them in a frequently asked questions page to help site visitors find information quickly and save yourself time on customer service.

These page types cover the basics, but you can always add additional page types depending on your customers’ specific needs.

Learn how to optimize your store navigation

5. Choose a domain name

A domain name is the custom URL people use to navigate to your website, like “squarespace.com.” Registering a custom domain URL is a key step to setting up a brand and adding legitimacy to your business. 

For a domain, simpler is better. Most businesses go with a version of their brand name. Some domain registries, like Squarespace, also give you a business email address so you have a professional inbox and contact to use too.

Learn more about getting a domain

6. Customize your website design to your brand 

The style and execution of your website’s aesthetic should echo your brand’s values and energy. Is it professional, playful, serious? Building a brand starts with defining these details, which will assist in the choices you make when designing your website.

Color palette and typography

Choose a color palette that mirrors the personality of your brand. Think of how certain colors and shades make you feel and whether those reflect your brand’s energy. Use these colors consistently across your website, like headings, buttons, and backgrounds.

Select fonts that resonate with your brand's tone. A bolded font will have a stronger presence, for example. Use these fonts for headings, body text, and other typographic elements. Consistency in typography will help your design look cohesive.

Logo and branding elements

A logo is another major part of your brand's identity. Create a logo for your brand and use it across your website. A logo can be as simple as your initials or a stylized version of your business name. 

Place your logo on your homepage or your website header to start building brand recognition. If there are other branding elements, such as icons, patterns, or symbols, that are associated with your brand, you can use them to add a unique touch to your design.

Visual imagery and graphics

Use high-quality images that reflect your brand's aesthetic. Whether it's minimalistic, vintage, or bold, the imagery should convey your brand's essence. Apply consistent filters or editing styles to your images to maintain a cohesive look.

Layout and design elements

Design a layout that aligns with your brand's personality. For example, a modern brand might opt for a clean and sleek layout. A playful brand might use more creative and unconventional designs. 

That sleek-style brand might lay out text and images in a standard grid or column, where each piece is straight and neatly aligned. Meanwhile, the more playful brand might place some images at an angle, add animations to its design, or add colorful shapes.

Voice and messaging

Craft your website's content in a tone that matches your brand's voice. If your brand is casual and friendly, your writing style should reflect that. If it's more formal and professional, your content should mirror that tone. 

If you need help drafting content for your website, use Squarespace AI to generate some copy for you to start with. You can use the Brand Identity tool to teach the AI your brand voice, so your AI results are more unique to you every time. When in doubt, describe your brand as a person to get the tone right.

7. Connect a payment processor

For customers to pay for your products, you need to connect a payment tool to your ecommerce site. On Squarespace, you have the option to Squarespace Payments, Stripe, PayPal, or all of the above.

The choice for your small business depends on several considerations, such as your geographical location and the range of payment methods you wish to provide. 

You can also use Square as a payment processor for in-person sales through the Squarespace app. Or you can activate Afterpay, Clearpay, or Klarna, which allow customers to place an order now and pay over time.

8. Add your products

For a fashion website, you’re probably selling physical products. When creating your individual products, you’ll typically add the product's name, price, and availability status, upload product images, and create a description for each product. You can also set variants for a product, like different sizes or colors.

Keep product descriptions brief. Make sure to highlight any must-know information, like measurements and sizing, while calling out details that set your clothes apart. You can use Squarespace AI to help with drafting product descriptions too.

With Squarespace, you can also sell subscription-based products and gift cards. Subscriptions might make sense if you sell items that are meant to be replaced, or if your fashion brand does regular drops and product releases. 

Subscribers are typically more engaged with your brand because they have a vested interest in getting value from their subscriptions. It’s also an effective way to predict incoming revenue when you know you have a certain number of consistent subscribers month on month.

Gift cards encourage repeat business as recipients visit your store or website to redeem them. This can help build customer loyalty and keep your brand top-of-mind. Offering gift cards can attract new customers who may not have had exposure to your business. When existing customers purchase gift cards for friends or family, they effectively introduce your brand to potential new customers.

Learn how to use AI to start your product descriptions

9. Set your prices

Setting the right prices for your products requires thoughtful consideration. Think about how much you need to charge to make a profit while staying competitive with your peers. Factor in:

• Materials costs: Consider the expenses related to producing or acquiring each product. Don’t forget to factor in your labor costs, shipping rates, packing materials, and other ongoing costs.

• Competitors: Conduct a study of your competitors to understand the price range in the market for products similar to yours. 

• Your audience: Use your competitor and customer research to understand your target customer’s expectations for your pricing. You can test pricing over time to get a better sense of what they’re willing or able to pay.

Read our full guide to pricing your products

10. Set shipping rates and locations

You can create set shipping rates that automatically apply during the checkout process. The shipping rates will apply to shipping zones, which can include specific countries, states, or provinces. There are a few common ways to set your shipping rates.

• Free shipping: Providing shipping at no cost to the customer. You can do this by taking the shipping cost on yourself, building it into your prices, or offering free shipping over a certain order amount.

• Flat rate: A uniform charge for each order, accompanied by an optional per-item fee. The per-item fee will place an additional fee for each item that is added to the checkout. If what you sell generally costs the same to ship across the board based on packaging or weight, this could be an option.

• Rates by weight: Fees are determined by the overall weight of the order. This could make sense if there’s a lot of variation in the weight—and therefore shipping cost—of your orders.

• Carrier calculated: Shipping charges are based on standard rates provided by the shipping carrier.

You can also create fulfillment profiles where you can set specific shipping rules for particular products. For example, you can offer local pickup in addition to shipping for certain items.

Customers will be happiest with free shipping since they won’t see a high increase in their purchase amount at checkout. But shoppers also understand the reality of being a small business. Test out different ways of covering shipping costs or poll your customers to find the right balance for your business.

Get more tips for calculating your shipping rates

11. Third-party selling integrations

Offering your products on platforms other than your Squarespace site is a great way to expand awareness for your store. Plus, it creates more opportunities for customers to engage with your products in the places they’re already browsing.

Leverage Squarespace’s integration with Google Merchant Center to showcase your products within product listings across various Google platforms, including YouTube, Google Shopping, and image searches on Google. With Squarespace, you can sync your products to Google automatically.

Squarespace stores also integrate with Facebook and Instagram. That means you can sync your products to your social media accounts and sell and promote them via posts, stories, and shops on your profile or page.

12. Promote your website

It makes sense to want to share your brand in many places for better engagement, but you don't have to be everywhere simultaneously. Focus your marketing strategy on the platforms that matter to promote your brand.

When choosing platforms, start with where customers and followers are already discovering you. If you feel comfortable juggling more, think about what makes the most sense for your target audience and brand.

With this in mind, explore a few ways to attract people to your site, such as: 

• Email marketing: Add an option to sign up for emails to your website and store checkout process. Email gives you a way to interact with your most engaged audience, share new releases, and incentivize sales with discounts.

• Social media: A visual social platform makes sense for fashion, but your location and the demographic you target could impact which platform you choose. On top of posting about your products, you could also create a content series that charts your story or the development of your fashion concepts.

• SEO: Optimizing your fashion site’s SEO helps potential customers discover your store. Start with the basics, like including terms related to your products in page titles and page content. For example, “100% cotton t-shirt” in a product description can help searchers find your shirts. Starting a fashion-related blog can also help your SEO.

Selling clothes online vs. in person

You don’t have to choose between selling online and offline—many clothing businesses have in-person and online stores. But one may be better for you to focus on than the other. 

When you sell online, you benefit from:

• Easier launching: Starting an online store can take a few days or weeks, depending on how you’re stocking the shop. A brick-and-mortar location can take months to open.

• Lower ongoing costs: Without a physical storefront, you don’t have ongoing costs like rent, employees, and other regular bills.

• Wider potential reach: An online store allows you to expand sales beyond your region. With social media and translation tools, you can potentially reach international customers.

• More ways to sell: Selling clothes online also gives you more ways to reach customers. With social selling and third-party platforms, you can sell on your website, social media, and marketplaces.

• Convenience: Shoppers get the benefit of browsing anywhere at any time, and you have more flexibility. For example, you can go the print on demand route with an online store.

But when you sell online, you may need to work harder or provide more details to attract customers and convince them to buy. Retail stores benefit from foot traffic and the ability to try on and touch items before buying.

However, you can also start an online store for your clothes and sell in person at local markets and pop-ups. A good POS system will help you keep track of your stock during in-person sales. Or start small and add a local pickup or delivery option to your store, which allows you to meet customers in person.

Ready to launch your fashion website?

This post was updated on May 17, 2024.