The apparel industry has always had a certain gravitas. Considering how it has transformed the image of clothes from basic necessity to comfort and luxury, the gravitas is justified. This is one of the main reasons why you need to start a clothing business on TikTok.
Celebrities and influencers may have had the power to spread a revolutionary trend when access to trends was limited, but innovative clothing businesses have slowly begun steering it. Marketing your business and visibility in a dynamic and competitive market now almost mandatorily requires you to take to the internet, more specifically, the social media giants.
TikTok is one such platform. With over 1 billion active users, TikTok is growing to be known as one of the most influential viral video-based platforms. Adding its robust and comprehensive business suite tools, it has become a vital platform for clothing businesses looking to get ahead.
This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to start a clothing business on TikTok and key tips that can have a huge impact on your sales and brand’s virality.
A Three-Part Guide to Setting Up Shop on TikTok
With all that TikTok Business offers, expanding into this platform would be an obvious choice. Here is a step-by-step guide to starting your clothing business on TikTok, covering how to set up your TikTok Business account and your ads manager and how to link your TikTok Business Centre with your TikTok content account.
Part I: Setting up TikTok for Business
Click on the TikTok for Business link, and let’s go through how to create your business account and what essential details you must provide to get started.
Step 1: Sign Up.
Once you’ve opened the TikTok for Business, click the get started button!
Step 2: Enter Your Details.
The next page will prompt you to enter your business name, industry, country, currency, time zone you want to follow, and mobile phone number for communication.
As for the industry, considering that this is to start a clothing business on TikTok, click the drop-down menu and select eCommerce. Then, the “Clothing and Shoes” option. These two categories are clubbed as one because they are the most predominant apparel category.
The rest is fairly simple. After filling out all the other details, read the Terms and Conditions, check the box once you agree, and click “Continue.”
With these two simple steps, you’ve created your business account. TikTok will now review your account information and approve your business center. Once approved, you will receive a notification.
Remember, the business center will be your stronghold as you start a clothing business on TikTok. You will be able to execute numerous functions, some of which are:
- Add members to your business and assign various levels of access.
- Create your ads and approve those created by your business members.
- Establish, replenish, and allocate credit to manage finances.
- Review performance analytics for strategy development.
After this, TikTok will take you to its ad manager setup page. This happens immediately after creating a business account because promotion is one of the two vital elements of being a business on TikTok.
Of course, you can skip this step for later, but it is recommended for a smoother business setup.
Part II: Setting up TikTok Ads Manager
Once you’ve arrived at the TikTok Ads Manager page, here are the steps you must follow:
Step 1: Agree to the Anti-Discrimination Ad Policy.
The first pop-up that appears on your screen is the terms of an anti-discrimination ad policy. This promotes a more inclusive and equal environment on TikTok.
Check the relevant boxes and click “Accept.”
Step 2: Select A State or Province
When submitting billing information, you must select your state or province. Click the drop-down menu, select the state or province, and click “Go to Ads Manager.”
This will take you to your ads manager page, where you can create ads, set up payment info, and review your ad analytics. You have now successfully created your business account and set up your ads manager.
The Ad Manager will try to guide you in creating new ads; if you do not need to, you may exit this part of the guide.
To complete your account and start a clothing business for TikTok, you need to link your content account with your Business Center.
Part III: Link Content with Business
Here are steps to link content with business accounts:
Step 1: Go to the User Settings.
Once you’ve exited the “Create an Ad” step, you will be taken to the dashboard of TikTok Ads Managers. At the top right corner, you’ll see your user profile icon.
Click on it and select “User Settings.” This will take you to your business account user settings.
Step 2: Link TikTok Account.
With the user settings in front of you, navigate to personal info and click the Link TikTok Account. The platform will prompt you to enter your account password.
Managing your business account and creating content and ads directly onto your main feed can now be done seamlessly. This means you are prepared to start publishing content, creating ads, managing finances, and much more.
Now that you have set up the platform to start a clothing business on TikTok let’s equip you with a few tips and practices that will transform sales and brand value.
Five Tips and Practices That Help Your Brand and Sales Go Viral
Just setting up a shop is not the secret to success in any industry, least of all one as visually dependent and riveting as clothing. Here are five tips and practices to incorporate into your brand and marketing strategy to rake in the moolah:
Tip 1: Follow the Latest TikTok Trends and Ride the Creative Tide.
TikTok is a platform known for its viral content and robust algorithm. Users can attract a massive audience for their content despite having a lower follower count, and that’s why it is crucial to get creative.
That said, marketing is one of many functions a business handles, apart from manufacturing, logistics, or forecasting. A full focus on original and creative content may lead to burnout or poor resource management.
A pivotal practice to avoid this is to keep an eye on current trends that have major traction on TikTok and also mix in some standard ideas that accentuate your product’s value.
The right balance of original and popular is an approach that will fetch results. As for some effective ideas that work well as you start a clothing business on TikTok, here are a few:
- The Montage: Show your outfit transformation in a fun montage, flipping to each new item until your full look is complete.
- The 360 Spin: Give your viewers the complete picture with a video showing how a few combinations of your designs look, front to back – all 360 degrees.
Tip 2: Build Brand Value Through Transparency.
Keeping your followers posted on your achievements, latest products, and even your business culture can be a great way to build brand value as you start a clothing business on TikTok.
Transparent communication lets your followers know your principles and authenticity, encouraging them to interact with you and your stylish products. Need a few ideas? Here you go:
- Explain How You Make Your Products.
Take viewers on a visual journey through the process of crafting your clothing, filming the process from design to construction. This way, they know that your clothes come from great hands.
- Showcase Your Packaging.
How you pack your products tells a lot about how much you care about them. Show off your beautiful packaging while packing an order for a customer, and let them know how much fun you have doing it for them.
- Flaunt Your Office Culture.
Appreciating your team, workspace, and achievements is a great way to communicate that you are a people’s brand. That’s what a clothing brand should be, considering the industry provides comfort and luxury. Give your viewers a virtual office tour and post videos about your accomplishments and the amazing people who make the brand.
Tip 3: Raking in Sales and Engagement With Enticing Challenges and Campaigns
There’s nothing more alluring than discounts and nothing more exciting than a reward. An effective way to boost sales and engagement, especially around festive times, is by holding promotional offers mixed in with some giveaways and competitions. Here are a few ideas that have phenomenal effect:
- Challenges and Contests with Rewards
Launch a clothing challenge. Encourage users to style your pieces and tag you for a chance to win. This will spark user engagement, give you a surge in brand promotion through user-generated content (UGC), and ultimately boost leads and sales as viewers have a first-hand review of fashionable clothes from people they know. Furthermore, adding a unique hashtag to these challenges can increase audience reach even further.
- Product Launch Giveaways
Mix in a product launch teaser with a random giveaway announcement on special conditions, like having your followers comment or tag someone who’d love your products.
Tip 4: Showcase Knowledge and Expertise Through Educational Content
Don’t be all about sales; an effective way to gain your potential customer’s trust is by showing your experience. The best way to do that is through educational content. Here are a few examples of how you could showcase that:
- Videos with Quick Tips and Fixes: Create content that answers common problems, like what to do with
- Share Answers To Common Issues: Deliver content that answers common issues like finding the right combination of clothes and easy guides on what colors go well or what styles match, like Ethnic and Western blends. This builds brand reputation, showing that you know fashion and that it isn’t just about your clothes, as you start a clothing business on TikTok.
Tip 5: Adapt Your Sales and Brand Strategy Through Performance Analytics
This tip is more of a reminder to utilize TikTok Business Center’s tools. These tools can help you study your target audience demographics, average engagement rates, follower bases, and account interactions to correlate them with your sales and growth.
The best part of this performance data is that you can adapt your marketing and advertising strategies to generate better results.
TikTok as the Ultimate Runway
As a visual platform with a huge audience, business owners looking to start a clothing business on TikTok are headed in the right direction and straight for massive sales and growth.
We’ve covered in detail in this guide exactly how to set up your business account ads manager and also offered you key tips on boosting your sales in no time, even if you’re just starting out. That said, consistently delivering content is a crucial aspect that may lapse with all the functions involved in the apparel segment.
With Predis.AI‘s seamless AI-powered content creation, robust content delivery calendar, and options to schedule and publish directly on your TikTok feed, our experts will ensure you don’t need to worry about any lapse as you start a clothing business on TikTok.
So don’t hesitate to contact us now and take advantage of this enormous growth potential!
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