The fashion accessories business can be notoriously difficult, especially for businesses dealing in purse and handbags industries. But, with the right strategies, unique ideas and passion, a purse business or a custom bag business can be a good endeavor. Starting a handbag business starts with undertaking a new venture to decide strategies, budget, dos and don’ts and work it all out into a business plan. Your plan has to be legally compliant with licenses and patents in place. But good planning goes a long way especially when you are new to the industry. Therefore, you need to give a thought to each aspect and frame a full-proof custom bag business plan.
So, if you are looking to start a custom bag business or custom bag business, start preparing for execution, because we’ve got your plan covered. We have put together a detailed guide that will answer all your questions from “How to start a Handbag Business?” to “How to frame a perfect purse business plan?”.
Let’s start. Here’s a quick roadmap of the entire guide:
- What is the current market scenario of the Purse business?
- Why decide the target audience before you start a purse business plan draft?
- How to start a Purse business in 5 steps?
- How to start a purse business with an idea that sells?
- Starting a handbag Business: Online Visibility
- Create a custom bag business Financial Roadmap
- Choose the perfect printing methods for your handbag business.
- Plan your custom bag business Infrastructure and Supplies
- Delivery and Logistics Management
- Choose the right Design Tool for your custom bag business
Market Scenario
The Purse Business market is driven by the rising fashion Industry. Handbags play an important role in fashion statements. The increasing influence of social media on consumers is also responsible for the interest inclination of potential buyers towards this industry. Some globally recognized major players of this market – Christian Dior SE, Louis Vuitton SE, and Prada Holding BV, dominate the handbag market.
Here’s a brief about the current market scenario. These stats also play an important role in defining your strategies and plan. You can also get an idea about what the conventional market is, which could help you try breaking the conventions to offer something unique. Let’s have a look at some of the latest trends in the industry.
- During the forecast period: 2019-2024 the global handbags market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.5%.
- The major companies dominating the global handbags business market in 2020 are Coach, Kate Spade, LVMH, Michael Kors, Ted Baker, Baggit, Hidesign, Fossil, and Gucci.
- The Bags & Accessories segment revenue reached US$118,924m in 2020. User penetration is 15.7% in 2020 and is expected to hit 26.1% by 2025.
- According to a report by Grand View Research the global handbag Business size is expected to reach USD 67.9 billion by 2025. This will expand at a CAGR of 5.4% over the forecast period.
The above statistics clearly states the current market scenario of Custom bag and Purse business. Once you know who your competitors are and the market scenario the next step is to decide your target audience. Who are the people you’re appealing to? What age groups do they belong from? Are you planning for a native business or a global one? It is better to answer these questions before you move forward to actually draft a plan.
Define Target Audience for your Custom Bag Business
Your niche, budget, marketing strategies, everything depends on the target audience. You can define it simply by categorizing them based on various aspects such as age, generation, location and so on. If you want to involve everyone and make a brand that serves every category then so be it.
You can plan by categorizing your products into various unique niches as a part of your larger brand strategy. I would suggest going with the target all audience approach as it ensures that you have a product for everyone that visits your e-store.
How to Start a Purse Business in 5 steps?
So, you’re ready with your step Zero and you’ve thought it all through. You know your niche, audience, type of product and so on. Here’s a 5-step implementation plan, to start a custom bag business plan execution.
Create an Idea that sells
Ideating has never been easy. No matter what your audience is you need to think of an idea that would mark your identity and would differentiate you from the pool of competitors. You will need a unique selling point to lure them to your stores.
Currently customized products are most trending in the digital-environment. People prefer customizing their products as per their taste instead of buying the same products that every other person buys. This applies to the accessories and bag businesses also.
Customization can lead to higher profits because the customer gets exactly what they want and hence it brings customer satisfaction and loyalty. For custom bag business entrepreneurs, mass customization is proved to be fruitful since it results in higher profit. The customization tools that the industry offers are also adaptable and convenient to the custom bag business owners. Hence this can be a unique offering for your custom bag business. But, to implement this idea to your custom bag business, you will need necessary technologies and infrastructure.
You will need to work with experts who know everything about the product customization industry. We are one such company who can help you frame the perfect, cost-effective and lucrative business model with our latest web-to-print technology products. Contact us to put your plan to execution now.
Step 2: Starting a Handbag Business: Online Visibility
The next step in your custom bag business plan is to build your online presence and improve your visibility. Online presence is important especially in the early days of your companies. You will need a website or an ecommerce store to showcase your products. A social media account dedicated to your custom bag business can greatly boost your online presence.
You will also need an Ecommerce store to sell your products and showcase your offerings. You can easily build your online presence if you go through the following steps.
i) Build your Website
You will need to register a domain name and build a website. You can create your own website and customize it to mark a benchmark of your brand. You can either build an ecommerce website directly or can build a separate website and then integrate your ecommerce store to it.
ii) Select Appropriate E-commerce Platform
Selecting the right e-commerce platform is a crucial step. There’s a pool of options to choose from. Since you are looking for a specific use-case that is building it for your purse business website. You can categorize your selection on the basis of licensing, cost of development, customization, support services and so on.
Magento, Shopify and WooCommerce are three popular ecommerce platforms with active communities for developers for support. Magento is a popular choice for larger enterprises and for someone who needs flexible customization. Shopify and WooCommerce on the other hand are hassle-free to start with. Each platform has its own pros and cons. To know more about these platforms, you can visit this detailed guide.
iii) Build a Purse Business App
You can also create and launch your own app for your purse business. Having your own app can also work towards building brand recognition. There are multiple app-builder companies that offer a simple and hassle-free way and can get you up and running within hours.
iv) Build your Social Media Pages
Before starting a handbag business, build a social media page to publish your content and improve your reach. With most millennials and young generations active on social media these days and with your unique product offering, your purse business is surely going to get good business.
Our Web to Print store can help you in setting up your eCommerce store in minimum time, and less effort. Click the link below to know all about how you can get started with it!
Step 3: Financial Plan
Custom bag business entrepreneurs are always asking how much money they need to start a purse business. It is important to decide before you start a handbag business equipment plan. After following the above two steps, this shouldn’t be hard to answer. Although, the financial plan depends on how big you envision your line to be. Think about the type of material, type of approaches, printing methods, printing goals, designing goals and so on.
For example, if you’re offering bags, with different styles and colors then your supplies cost is more likely to go high. If you are selling cotton bags then you will not have to spend more on material supplies. The cost of printing will depend on the printing equipment you choose and that of the infrastructure will also depend on it.
You also need to consider additional expenses like cost of website development, editorial photography, facebook ads and so on. Last but not the list you will need a cost-effective product customization tool, to offer customization in your purse business line. Once you’ve decided the budget you can finally move to choosing the supplies and infrastructure for your purse business. Know the approximate cost of your handbag business plan.
Start your entrepreneurial journey with PrintXpand. Launch your online custom bag store with an added USP of product customization. See how our Web to Print Solutions with a ready-store and product customization tool can help you!
Step 4: Supplies and Infrastructure for your Handbag Business
1. Printing Methods
There are multiple types of printing methods. You need to choose your printing methods first so that you can make sure of your supplies and the infrastructure that you’ll need to build. Some of the popular ones are engraving, thermography, foil stamping, embossing, digital printing, etc.
While choosing the printing method, think about the factors like quality of the output, required resolution and so on. Also think about the compatibility of the printing method with your product design tool. Digital Printing is one of the most common methods used in custom bag businesses.
You can also opt for a Software to manage your print workflow. It is better to have a streamlined process that eases operation from the beginning itself. Check out PrintXpand’ Print Job Manager solution.
2. Plan your Supplies
You can manage your supplies for your custom bag business by contacting local vendors and wholesalers. This will depend on whether you’re buying wholesale purses and selling them by offering customization or you’re manufacturing your own purses and then offering customization on them. Whatever it may be, I would suggest not to go for low quality products solely because of the budget. It is about customer satisfaction in the end. To manage these supplies, you can opt for various Inventory management softwares too.
3. Infrastructure
Set up the infrastructure pertaining to the printing method you choose for your custom bag business. Setup a professional workspace with required instruments. The printing instruments that you buy will depend on the printing methods that you choose. You can hire professionals to help you with everything. You can sign a third-party contract and give the printing consignments to well-equipped print professionals.
Step 5: Delivery and Logistics Management
Last but not the least is logistics management. You will need an effective logistics infrastructure, to manage your supply chain as smoothly as possible. Again, you can do this on your own, by creating logistics workflows or you can outsource it to a third-party company. Decide on a commission to pay them either monthly or based on orders.
Over to you
We hope this handy guide helped you create a clear plan for you to start a purse business. However, the main decision to take is the choice of the Ecommerce platform and a custom design tool.
PrintXpand is a full proof solution to the dilemma in making the right choice for a custom design tool. We design web-to-print solutions for multiple platforms. We also provide multiple custom integrations like Print Inventory Management solution and Print Job Manager to ease your job.
We guarantee that our team of expert developers will guide you every step and be by your side to embark on this journey ahead. If you want to start a purse business and If you do seek any customizations for your handbag business idea – we would not be surprised.
To explore the features of PrintXpand Online Product Design Software and integrate it into your store, you can contact us at sales@PrintXpand.com and our sales team will revert to you within 24 hours.
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