Finding clothes that fit you perfectly no doubt is difficult but equally exhausting is the job of locating a good tailor and going for multiple fitting sessions. Online custom clothing platforms like Indochino, Black Lapel, Modern Tailor, etc. address this primitive concern in a very efficient manner. These custom tailoring websites enable users to select fabric, design it as per their style, and get the stitched piece of clothing delivered to their doorstep.
The growing demand of custom clothing and success of Modern Tailor, Indochino, and other marketplaces has motivated entrepreneurs to start their own venture based on a similar business model. Looking at the same trend, market researchers at FATbit Technologies have listed the best features which should be part of your custom clothing clone website.
But before studying the features, let’s first thoroughly understand the business model of this booming industry.
Primarily the business model of such platforms revolves around selling custom made clothes including shirts, trousers, business suits, jackets, blazers, and accessories. The major highlights of the process are:
Once the order is received and the payment has been made, team behind the venture gives measurement and styling details to expert tailors who start customizing the shirt/dress according to the inputs provided by the user. Order is shipped to the user upon completion.
So, this is how things work on websites like Modern Tailor & Black Lapel. Now, let’s see how they make money during the process.
As the business concept of custom clothing websites deals with sales of finished products, the website owners earn direct revenue from customers depending on the number of orders received.
In addition to that, banner ads is also a viable revenue generation channel for these platforms.
That should be enough for the business end, time to learn about the most critical websites features to include in a custom clothing platform.
Check In-Depth Review of a Custom-Tailoring Focused Website Builder
Your custom clothing website should have a neat interface. Users should be able to browse the website & explore all of its basic features without creating an account. For instance, users should be able to choose a fabric and design their clothing without signing up. However, sign-up should be required at the time of updating your measurements and finalizing the order. By allowing nonobligatory access, you will give users a chance to understand your website fairly, as only then will you have a better chance to grab them.
Let’s check out major sections & features of the website one by one.
Given that users on your website will typically be style obsessed people, you need to design a homepage that leaves a lasting impression. The first fold area should feature an eye-catching image on which an equally catchy website message should be displayed. The website message should also give users a clear idea on what the website is about.
The top navigation bar of your custom clothing website should feature tabs for all the essential pages such as How It Works section, Sign-up/login options, as well as for separate channels for customizing and designing different types of clothes. You can design the top navigation bar of your custom clothing website with following tabs:
The below-the-fold area should be used to feature a section that quickly explains how things work on the website. Below that, you can feature a grid of images of the past work done on the website. Additionally, featuring testimonials of past clients on the homepage will also be a good implementation to engage visiting users more.
The footer section of your custom clothing website should be vast and serve as a sitemap with all important links mentioned smartly. Following quick links should be listed in the footer area:
Preparing the homepage fo your custom clothing platform this way is essential from UX perspective, since how a user feels about using you website once he is there has a direct impact on its conversion.
UX Design of your website can make or break your business
Now, let’s get down exploring the website’s main feature, i.e. customizing clothes.
To make sure that user can proceed with ease, you can divide the customization process into following steps:
Choosing a fabric should be the first step to customize the shirt. Make sure your website lists the fabrics in a nice visual arrangement. Main features within this section include:
After choosing a fabric for a shirt, users should be provided an option to customize the style of the shirt. The styling options that you should offer include:
Price of each option should be mentioned upfront and the total price of the shirt shirt should keeping getting updated as users choose and custom style.
Other unique features in this section include:
The next step to shirt customization process would be providing the measurements. This is a crucial step since the shirt will be tailored according to the shared dimensions. Options provided under this section should include.
FATbit analysts recommend all these 3 methods to be integrated in your custom shirt design clone website.
The 4th step will be the Checkout and should list all the details of the product. On this page users should be able to:
Under shirt customization section, the next should be order conformation. Details to include on this page are:
The 6th and last step would ask the user their payment details. To enhance the user experience, offer multiple options to make a payment. After making the payment the order would be placed from the user side. Then onwards, your hired tailors will work on the customers’ custom shirt design and your delivery partner will deliver it on customers’ doorstep.
So, here we have covered the functionality of the basic feature of a custom clothing platform. Now, let’s discuss some value added features that will make your website more useful to users.
Measurement guides are an essential feature for any custom design clothing website and they should definitely be a part of your website. Make sure to include following measurement guides:
Pro Tip: Make sure the measurement guides are concise and are displayed in chart view as pop-up image on selection
A website which gives users the option to style their own clothes should definitely have some style trends listed on its portal. Therefore, you need to create an itemized style guide that aims at depicting trends through high definition pictures. Adding this feature to your custom clothing website will make you a favorite among users.
Make growing preference of video content work for you by creating short videos about your product and uploading them on Youtube or Vimeo. Check out how Modern Tailor has made a special Video Guide section on their website.
Pro tip: Check your custom tailoring clone script for video support
The shirt showcase is another excellent feature that will give your custom tailoring clone website an edge over others. Its main highlights are as follow:
In order to increase the traffic and sales, your custom clothing website should have an affiliate program in place. This will a mindful investment that will help you broaden your platform’s reach rather quickly.
A new customer would have a lot of questions about ordering a custom shirt from the internet. Therefore, the FAQ section must be there to provide all the necessary information to your users.Make sure that the FAQ section is well categorized under different topics so that users can find the answers easily. Additionally, users should also be allowed to ask a new question in case they couldn’t find the answer in the existing database of Q&As.
You also need to integrate a shipment tracking feature to your website. This feature will help users track their courier, consequently, will build trust in them towards your website. Setting up such feature on your custom clothing clone script might need some extra work but it will be worth the effort as online shoppers like to know when they can expect the delivery.
A special support forum must be set up on your custom clothing platform where users can post complaints, ask queries, give appreciation, interact with other customers and so on. This will not only make customers stay longer on your website but will also help you in understanding customers’ need better and modify your offering accordingly.
Social media can play an important role in the growth of online businesses. Therefore, at each stage an option to share things with their friends on social media. For instance, all accessories should be featured with option such share the product with friends on Facebook, Pin it, etc. Same options should be provided with fabric/texture and the custom design that a customer has built.
Get a readymade feature-rich custom clothing clone script
Looking at the ease of setting up and operating an online custom t-shirt website, a lot of entrepreneurs have become part of this billion dollar industry. And they are bringing captivating features in online custom clothing marketplace. Let’s take some inspirations from the top players on how the basic site features can be implemented.
Vitruvien shows a 3D view of customization process in a live environment – as users make changes, they reflect on the shirt in real-time. This feature will give users a live view of how different design elements will look on a shirt, consequently, will give them the freedom to try on as many changes as they want.
Suitly.com has integrated a pop-up to list various styling options. Users can choose the style they want and move to the next styling option through the pop-up itself. No live view of the shirt is visible in this feature.If you are on a budget and do not wish to integrate a live view of the shirt while it is being customized, then, this feature may work best for you.
An Indian custom clothing company, Bombay Shirts has integrated another unique feature which we didn’t find in any other custom clothing design website. As a user goes to a particular section to choose fabric for his clothing, he is asked to sign-up or continue as a guest. This feature has helped the company grab more registrations. A similar feature can be easily implemented custom clothing clone website as well.
Another website based on the same business model – TailorStore.com has a really good interface. The customization options have been given as a horizontal bar and any style changes made reflect in the shirt in real-time. An option to zoom in or zoom out has also been given so that users may have a clear view of the fabric and style options.
Apart from the ones listed above, a few more websites based on the same business model as ModernTailor.com include IndoChino, 99tshirts, Blank Label, JhilBurn, Black Lapel, and My Tailor. We suggest that you study these websites yourself, as it will definitely help you in increasing the value of your online custom clothing platform.
Apparel is one such industry which has seen steep investments from entrepreneurs in the recent past. The need for custom designed clothes is increasing day by day as everyone wants to look their best.If you are thinking to enter this growing industry with your own custom clothing website, then, this is the right time to do so. But make sure that you buy a clone script which has good features and hire professionals who can customize it as per your needs.
Instead of indulging yourself in a search process and negotiating those high prices, you might want a clone script which has a collection of the best features from various websites mentioned above. How about a script that comes with social media integration and has an easy to manage CMS? A script which keeps SEO as a top priority while creating new pages and managing products.
Knowing the future potential in this industry, FATbit team has developed a custom clothing clone script, called Stitch, that incorporates all the rich features & qualities discussed above. And the best part is, with Stitch, you will be able to set up custom clothing website in no time, at a very low cost, and without any set-up hassles. Check out Stitch – all its rich features and packages here: Stitch – Custom Clothing Platform
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Comments (3)
Nitasha Gupta
FATbit Chef Post author
Vivek Ghai
Great Article !
Thanks Nitasha !!
Glad you liked it
Keep coming back for more such posts related to Ecommerce business.
Cheers !
FATbit Team
Thanks for sharing. Customization is booming all across the world. Keeping this in mind many online tailors have integrated custom product design software into their business module, allowing their customer to design, try and buy their favorite apparels online