How to Sell Maternity Wear Online

Need a good enough reason to launch an e-commerce store? Mamma Mia! We can give you more than one! 

When it comes to the e-commerce market and online store builders, only one word comes to mind, i.e. growth. The online market is growing by leaps and bounds. In the past decade, the growth of e-commerce has skyrocketed. Statista reports that clothing and apparel is one of the most in-trend e-commerce businesses these days with the market size expected to cross US$922 billion by the end of 2023. 

So? Wake up, entrepreneur! We are in the 21st century where fashion isn’t defined by short skirts or high heels alone.  Also, the fashion destination is not restricted to your favourite city mall. Thanks to all the celebrities and models who have walked the ramp with a baby bump and flaunted their fancy maternity wear. Knowingly or unknowingly, they have passed the trend to the masses and hence nowadays most pregnant women want to clad something new, attractive and fashionable rather than the ordinary.  

Also, the majority of urban women do not want to undergo the hassle of going to a store, trying out different dresses and waiting in the queue to make their purchase. They want an easy and convenient option at their door-steps. Know what we mean when we say fashion has got a new destination? Yes, the new-age women prefer to go to online stores to buy maternity wear and spend hours at different web stores before they start assembling the wardrobes. 

When there is so much unexplored opportunity in this segment, why not make a go for it, before somebody else does? If you haven’t yet thought about an e-commerce store selling apparel for expecting moms, now is the time! 

It’s one of the most lucrative e-tail segments and is quickly picking up speed on the online highway. Hence, in this blog, we have highlighted what it takes to build an e-commerce store for selling maternity wear. 

1. Define your store type

Does this sound familiar? You went to a web store with a certain impression in your mind and while going through the racks you realised that this was not what you were looking for? Were you disappointed and felt as if your time got wasted? 

Well, this shouldn’t happen to your customers. Hence, from the very start, you might want to establish the type of maternity web store you desire. For this, you need to create your niche from day one.  

For instance, you might want a web store that sells high-end designer maternity wear. Or you might want to stick to a very selected audience and give an impression of being an upscale boutique. Contrarily, you might want to go for an online store selling reasonable everyday wear for pregnant women. 

Defining your store-type is important to keep your customers well informed about what you are selling. It is also necessary to design your storefront. When you are clear about what you are going to sell right from the beginning, you know what kind of store you are going to design. 

In your mind’s eye, you already know the design, theme and layout. What next? You just have to find some online store builders, pick the best one and choose from the hundreds of readily-available themes. With your basic web store made in a flash, you can simply add products and start selling!

2. Create strategies to boost sales

E-commerce business comes with several perks. But it’s not like a bed of roses, after all! So dear entrepreneur, do expect a set of challenges that’s unique to your niche. 

Let’s see what we have got here. Pregnant women can be referred to as temporary customers. Your primary target market is the 3.5 million women who get pregnant each year and might need maternity wear. Great numbers, but still it’s important to keep in mind that one customer might visit your store twice or thrice only during their entire journey to motherhood. 

So what do you need to do?

You need to come up with a solid marketing strategy that aims to give your customers an unforgettable experience and boosts your average order value to promote sales. Below are some ways through which you can do this. 

Create wishlists and product enquiries:

A lot of women in their early trimesters check out different web stores that sell maternity wear. But they are only browsing and checking out apparel for late trimesters. Why not let your customers create a wishlist to which they can conveniently come back at later stages? Depending upon their preferences and browsing history, you can send them notifications with a link to their wishlisted products. Sometimes customers also do product enquiries about items that they like, have a doubt about or need a size, colour, etc. You can also use this opportunity to close the sale. 

Upsell and cross-sell products:

Online store builders help you increase your ticket size by letting you upsell and cross-sell products. What are these exactly and how can it increase your revenue?

Say a soon-to-be-mommy comes to your store looking for a dress. Once she decides the item, your store can recommend a better dress of a higher value to change her mind. This is called upselling where you are selling a product of higher value instead of the item in question. 

Or maybe you can offer her a matching bag or other accessories to go with maternity wear. That’s cross-selling. 

Think! As a customer, how many times have you fallen into this trap? If you can, your customers surely can. 

Blogging:

Blogging is one of the most commonly used methods of indirect sales to boost your online revenue. If you can craft engrossing content that’s customer-centric, mommies would want to read. 

A lot of expecting mothers have doubts about pregnancy dos and don’ts, travel during pregnancy, putting a pregnancy wardrobe together, etc. If your store offers several other things than just apparel, you might want to create different blog sections and categorise them for easy browsing. 

Wondering how this can be possible? What are online store builders meant for? Use their amazing blogging engines and flow the ink! 

Customer reviews and feedback:

Since, maternity dresses are expensive and more like a one-time investment, customers might want to read reviews and feedback before they shop from you. You can easily publish these and assure them that your products and services are worth every penny. 

3. Work on your Product pages

Your web store needs customer-winning product pages to convert shoppers into customers. All the pages of your online store are collectively responsible to showcase you as a brand. However, it is on the product pages where your customers make the pivotal decision of shopping for maternity wear or quitting.

Your product pages should not only be appealing but also informative and purposeful. It's important to go with good quality pictures of the products you are selling. You might also want to allow customers to zoom in and check out the style and design in detail. It is also a good idea to add a detailed product description for each dress and not generalise it. 

What more? You can even go for short videos that can first show the maternity wear, followed by a testimonial. A kickass way to win your customers! 

4. Beautify your product packaging

Everything about being a mother is cozy and beautiful. As a brand, you need to make them feel just the same. While what you offer should be as per their needs, you should work on product packaging too. The packaging should be so that it is appealing  yet serves the purpose of delivering the products safely. 

However, you also need proper product packaging to;

• Build a relationship with your customers
• Create a good impression and brand identity
• Promote brand value
• Reduce your company cost

You might want to work out with your e-commerce carrier to ship maternity wear. Customising packages as per the size of the product and choosing an eco-friendly material will also make a lot of difference to reduce its overall cost. Besides, it will cast an impression of you being a thoughtful brand. 

Also while you choose a shipping partner for packaging, make sure that your business has sound logistics. Recently, online store builders integrate with shipping aggregator platforms to enable e-commerce owners with a streamlined logistics. 

The whole point of shopping maternity wear online is about comfort. If your shipping strategy is not in place, customers will not receive products on time, they might receive wrong products or damaged items. Hence work on your fulfillment strategy and partner with multiple carriers to avoid any mishaps. 

5. Get on the app

Nowadays, businesses are taking the mobile-first approach and going for the apps. It’s more meaningful to do business this way since the majority of online shoppers are also smartphone addicts. 

Apps make a good way to lure customers into buying maternity wear since they help to boost instinct buying. Tech-savvy buyers keep checking their phones often enough. When your app sends them notifications about deals, new arrivals, etc. they quickly fill the carts. 

Also, apps help to increase your brand recall value and provide customers a great shopping experience. 

Why StoreHippo?

‘Online maternity wear’ is one of those uncommon niches that have great business potential. While there are several web stores for fashion apparel and also offering exclusive plus size garments, there are very few selling maternity dresses. Therefore, if you invest a little time in designing your store and strategies, you can quickly write your success story. 

Wondering how to go about it? Check out StoreHippo, an online store builderthat comes with these wow features to help you set up your store in no time. We offer you several tools to realise all the above-mentioned ways to boost your sales. Besides this, your store will be a PWA and you can use our discount engine to further promote your store and make it a big hit. 

Our shipping aggregator platform, ShipKaro, is an end-to-end solution for all your logistics needs. It helps you connect with multiple carriers offering bargain rates to back up your fulfilment strategy. With StoreHippo’s out-of-the-box solutions you can craft your dream store and give the expecting mommies, Mom-ents of their own! 

Enjoyed reading this article? Well, go ahead and share it with your pals. Even better, let’s have a tête-à-tête as to how you can come up with an online store of your own. Drop us a line below to explore our feature-rich platform with a 14-day free trial!