eCommercize Strategies for Your Online Success

Selling clothing online can be very lucrative or very frustrating depending upon how you go about it. Vintage or used clothing is easily available in your closet, at thrift stores, yard sales and large liquidators. You can specialize in one type of clothing or carry an assortment of different types of garments.

photo credit: wharman

Listing pants, sweaters and dresses takes a bit more time than listing other types of new and used items since you need to take the time to measure, measure, measure. Many manufacturers have a different idea of what a size medium should be so you must give accurate measurements to avoid unhappy buyers.

What should you measure? Everything.

Pants, slacks or shorts

• Waist Band – measure around the inside of the waist band from where the button is stitched on to the middle or end of the button hole

• Inseam – measure from the crotch to the floor

• Hip – measure at the widest part of the top of the pants

• Rise – measure from the waist band to the floor on the outer seam then deduct the inseam measurement

Long sleeved shirts and jackets

• Collar – measure in the inside of the collar from where the button is stitched on to the middle or the end of the button hole

• Sleeves – measure from the shoulder seam on top to the wrist

• Wrist – measure on the inside from where the button is stitched on to the middle or end of the button hole

• Length – measure from the center back where the shoulder seam is, just below the collar, to the bottom of the garment

• Chest – measure the garment open across back, side seam to side seam and double for the chest measurement

Skirts and dresses

• Waist band – measure around the inside of the waist band.  If the garment has an elastic waist band measure both unstretched and stretched.
• Length – measure from the waist band to the bottom of the garment
• Bust – measure across the garment just under the arm pits or sleeve seams and double the measurement

When writing your listing don’t forget to list the brand or designer if known, the material the garment is made from and any special washing or dry cleaning instructions.  Also take several clear photos of your item, pressed or wrinkle free, preferably on a mannequin.  Having accurate sizes listed and good photos will help your buyers make an informed decision whether or not a garment will fit them.

Related posts:

1. Use Mannequins Not Models to Display Your Clothing
2. Selling Free Items
3. Don’t Ruin Your Reputation by Selling Stinky Stuff

Tags: listing pants, listing sweaters, measuring clothing, measuring dress shirts, measuring sweaters, selling clothing, selling on ebay, selling online, selling vintage clothes

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Capturing Sales, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.