How to Build a Website for a Clothing Line
A well-designed website can tell you a lot about a fashion brand. Websites give clothing brands the chance to showcase who they are through strong copy and stunning visuals. They help brands reach new customers, streamlining their marketing efforts across search, social, and email. And perhaps most importantly, websites help fashion brands sell their clothing by showcasing what’s available, communicating with fulfillment centers (if necessary), and handling payments directly on-site.
These tools are useful for clothing brands of all sizes. It doesn’t matter whether your client is an independent designer, a brick-and-mortar boutique, an online vintage store, or a large-scale clothing company—a well-designed website can help them attract customers, share their story, and drive sales. And by leveraging the right web design tools, you can deliver a powerful digital experience for your clients and their customers.
Choose the right Squarespace plan
Start by asking your client about their goals for their website. Then, help them choose the right Squarespace plan for their business. Personal and Business plans are great for many clients. But if your client wants to set up an online store with time-saving integrations and expansive capabilities, they’ll be best served by one of Squarespace’s Commerce plans.
Basic Commerce
The Basic Commerce plan is great for smaller retailers—and you can do a lot with it. Set up an online store using a commerce-friendly template, then import product information from another platform or file. Drive sales with user-friendly features, like customer accounts, limited availability labels, and product reviews. And help your client dig through analytics, set up regional shipping policies, and save on Squarespace Commerce transaction fees.
Advanced Commerce
The Advanced Commerce plan offers even more shipping and marketing options, so it’s great for larger stores. Use the plan to set up limited-use discounts or offers that automatically apply to qualifying orders, create subscription products, and follow up with customers who didn’t finish checking out. And save your client time by automatically calculating shipping costs on all domestic orders (US only).
With both plans, you’ll get all the premium features you’d get with a Business plan, meaning you can add custom code, create promotional pop-ups, establish integrated email marketing, and more.
Design a clear and memorable website
A great fashion website does two things at once: it gives customers all the information they need, and it creates a lasting impression of the brand with strong copy, beautiful imagery, and thoughtful design choices.
Start by making your client’s website as user-friendly as possible. Ensure customers know where to click to buy clothing or learn more about the brand. Then, build an FAQ page that features key information, like return policies, size charts, and shipping turnaround times.
Go beyond the template and create a website that communicates who your client is. Craft copy that tells the story of your client and their fashion brand. Feature imagery that showcases the clothing customers can buy, and use colors, fonts, and design details that reinforce the brand’s identity. A well-designed website does the same thing as a great brick-and-mortar store: it gives customers a feel for the brand the moment they venture inside.
As always, you’ll want to ensure your website looks great on different devices. And if you follow Squarespace’s responsive design best practices, the platform will do most of the resizing and rearranging for you.
Set up an online store
Help your client drive clothing sales by setting up an online store.
You can start by customizing one of Squarespace’s commerce-focused templates or build your own from scratch. Then, start listing clothing. Enrich each product page by adding eye-catching imagery, engaging videos, and well-written product descriptions. You can make the store more user-friendly by grouping products into categories and listing related items on each product page.
On the back-end, your client can use Squarespace to keep track of inventory. Set them up with low-stock notifications, so they know when inventory is running low. And help them manage their calendar with scheduled sales and releases. Work with them to set up shipping and pick-up options, and enable payment integrations, so customers can pay online before picking up their orders.
If your client doesn’t have a warehouse or shipping team, you can connect them to one of Squarespace’s fulfillment partners. These third-party services include standard fulfillment centers, drop shipping platforms, and print-on-demand services (which are great if your client wants to create custom merchandise).
Finally, save your client time by setting up automatic tax rates. Squarespace’s TaxJar extension automatically calculates sales tax on domestic orders, so your client doesn’t have to deal with manual tax calculations (unless they ship internationally).
Optimize the site for search
Set your client up to attract new customers by optimizing their site for search. Since Squarespace has built-in SEO integrations, the platform handles many of the standard best practices for you. It ensures your site is mobile-optimized, automatically creates and updates your site map, and structures page data so it’s easy for search engines to read. You can further expand your client’s reach with added optimizations:
Leverage Squarespace’s native tools by filling out built-in SEO fields.
Ensure each page has an SEO title and an SEO description.
Add alt text to every image. Include search keywords in URLs.
Redirect broken links.
Hide duplicate or unused pages.
Incorporate keywords across the website, and add internal links where you can.
Set up integrated email campaigns
Email marketing is a great way for your client to reach new and existing customers—people who are already interested in the brand. By setting up Squarespace Email Campaigns, you can help your client send and manage emails more efficiently.
Help your client build a mailing list, and encourage sign-ups by adding a newsletter block to their website. You can also set up sender details, so recipients know exactly where the email is coming from. Once these bases are covered, your client can build on-brand emails, schedule automated campaigns, and track the success of different efforts with built-in analytics tools.
And if your client currently uses a different email marketing service, they can import their contacts into Squarespace to keep all their data in one place.
Learn more about starting an email campaign for your client.
Enable social media sharing
Help your client expand their audience by connecting their social media accounts to their website. Add social icons that help customers find and follow your client on different platforms, and add blocks that pull content directly from your client’s social media profiles.
Add extra value by building your client a Bio Site. Bio Sites are one-page websites that keep your client’s most important links in one place. Plus, Bio Sites are mobile-first, so they’re great for social media sharing and housing multiple links in their bio.
First, choose a template that captures your client’s brand. Then, customize it with stunning imagery and snappy copy. Link to your client’s social media profiles, online store, and newsletter sign-up page. You can also leverage the page to advertise sales, promotions, and new releases.
This Bio Site will serve as a hub for your client’s marketing efforts, so they can link to it on their social media profiles (and anywhere else a “link in bio” is appropriate). They can also make use of Squarespace’s built-in analytics to track—and optimize—the Bio Site’s reach over time.
Learn more about expanding a brand through link in bio.
Fashion is a competitive industry, but you can help your clients tell their story and develop an online presence by creating a beautiful, user-friendly website on Squarespace.
Want more?
Check out Squarespace Circle, Squarespace’s program for professional web designers, developers, digital entrepreneurs, and creatives. Along with exclusive content, discounts, and other perks, Circle brings professionals together from all across the globe to exchange advice while connecting with new clients and collaborators.
