Online store for clothing brands: sizes, colors, size guides, exchanges and shipping

An online store for a clothing brand has to make up for the one thing shoppers can't do online: try the piece on. That's why the store's look isn't what sells the most. Four things done well are: stock by size and color, photos of every color, a size guide with real garment measurements, and a clear, easy exchange policy.

If your brand sells through Instagram and DMs today, you already know the questions: “do you have it in a medium?”, “what does the green look like in person?”, “can I exchange it if it doesn't fit?”. A good store answers them before anyone has to ask.

Sizes and colors: every combination is its own product

In a clothing store, a T-shirt isn't one product. It's a small black tee, a medium black tee, a small white tee. Each size-and-color combination has its own stock, and the store has to show it that way. If a shopper picks a color and only finds out at the end that their size is gone, they leave annoyed.

What should happen is simple: pick a color and you see the sizes available in that color, with sold-out ones crossed out or offering a “notify me when it's back”. Pick a color and the photos change. And when a size sells out in your shop, it sells out online too, without anyone having to remember to update it. If you sell in a physical store and online, I went into it in online and in-store inventory in sync.

A size guide that heads off exchanges

Every exchange is a shipment out, a shipment back and more of your time. The size guide is your best tool for cutting them down:

• Garment measurements, not just body measurements. Chest width, length, sleeve length, rise. Shoppers can measure something they own that fits well and compare.
• One guide per type of garment or per style, if your patterns vary. An oversized hoodie and a fitted tee don't measure the same.
• How it fits, in plain words: “runs large, size down if you're unsure” is worth more than a dozen charts.
• What size the model is wearing and their height, if they're fine with sharing it.
• The guide right next to the size selector, not buried on a separate page nobody finds.

What shoppers wonder and what the store should show

Exchanges: making them easy makes people buy with confidence

It sounds backwards, but a clear, simple exchange policy sells more, because it takes away the fear of ordering the wrong size. On every product, show how many days customers have to exchange, under what conditions (tags on, unworn) and how it works, by mail or in store.

Even better if exchanges can be requested on the site: the customer enters their order number, picks what they're exchanging and for which size, and you get a tidy request instead of a long back-and-forth over messages. It can be done, and it also shows you which items get exchanged most, a hint for adjusting the size guide or the fit.

Return rules, warranties and consumer rights vary by country and state, so check with a local professional.

Shipping, pickup and seasonal drops

Clear shipping from the start. Shoppers want to know how long it takes and what it costs before they type in their details. If shipping is free above a certain order amount, show it in the cart along with how much more they need to add.

In-store or showroom pickup, if you have one. Plenty of local shoppers prefer it, and it's a chance for them to try on something else.

Launches and pre-orders. Clothing brands live by seasons and collections. The store can run a countdown to a drop, a pre-order with a delivery date, or a waitlist for people who want to hear first. That turns Instagram buzz into same-day sales. I wrote about how social media and your site work together in social media and your website.

Abandoned carts. It happens a lot with clothing: someone builds a cart, second-guesses the size and leaves. A timely reminder brings some of those sales back, as I covered in recover abandoned carts.

Platform or custom store

If you're just starting, a platform like Shopify gets you selling fast, and that's fine. Custom makes sense once the brand is already selling and needs something of its own: inventory shared with your shop, selling to retailers (covered in wholesale online store), exchanges handled on the site, or a way of showing garments a template won't allow. For each item's page, there are ideas in product pages that sell.

I work remotely from Buenos Aires, Argentina (UTC−3), with video calls and progress you can open from a link, and I quote each project separately. See what I do on my services page.

Frequently asked questions