If you specialize in making dog clothes, you have the perfect Internet product. While there may not be hundreds of people in your immediate physical area that dress their dogs in couture apparel, outfit them in matching sweaters or gear them up depending on the weather, there are literally thousands of these people online searching for the latest look for their pooch. In order to sell dog clothes online, you simply need to know how to reach these people.

Things You Will Need

  • Digital camera

  • Web designer or design experience (optional)

Decide exactly who your customers will be. You may want to target males, females, children or adults. You may specialize in girl dog clothes or teacup-size dresses for chihuahuas. Do not rule out any potential customers, but be as specific as possible when you are thinking about your target market. It will help you advertise your dog clothes effectively.

Determine whether or not you will keep the clothes in stock. Some people simple promote items that they then drop ship to the buyers. This means that when you get an order for a pair of doggie rain boots, you forward that order to the manufacturer who pays you, ships the item and generally collects payment from the buyer. This is a very easy way to work online. However, you can often make more money if you buy the clothes, then sell, package and ship them yourself. However, if you miscalculate you could end up with overstock problems.

Bizfluent

Take pictures of your stock. You need to have lots of pictures of your items for sale. The easiest way to do this is to take pictures of the clothes on and off a model using a digital camera. The better quality your pictures are and the more detail you show, the better your products will do online because Internet buyers like to get a really good idea of what they are buying before they commit.

Get started on eBay or other auction sites. Many websites--eBay being the most popular--will let you post items for sale on the site and let people bid on them. Everyone benefits, as the buyers can find lots of unique items, you can sell your things without having to maintain your own website and the website either profits from listing fees, advertising or both (see Resources below).

Consider building your own website. There are some major advantages and disadvantages to this. This type of website can require serious maintenance, but you also can get a lot more exposure if you use it correctly. If you do not already have a great deal of Web marketing experience, then consult a Web designer and an Internet marketer before you take this step.

Advertise your product. You can do this by posting links to your items for sale on dog forums, paying for on and offline advertising or coupons in circulars and by writing articles about your clothing items and posting them in free directories for people to read in hopes that they will be interested and visit your Internet sales locations.

Tip

Make sure that all of your policies on returns are very clear. It is very easy to build a good reputation online, but one angry customer can ruin that reputation with a few well-placed reviews. Do not leave any room for doubt as to what your response will be for any customer request.

Warning

Remember that no business is a 100 percent guaranteed success. Before you invest a great deal of money in your dog clothing boutique, work with financial, legal and business advisers to make sure that you are making the best move possible for you and your financial interests.