Start Your Own Baby & Toddler Clothing Resale Business
by Alice Seeba

You may have started by clearing out your children's closets and selling what you found on eBay. But have you ever considered doing this as a full-time business? Why not open your own Virtual Baby & Toddler Clothing Resale Business? People love high quality, fashionable clothing, but don't want to pay a lot of money for it. Babies and toddlers grow like weeds, this we all know, and it can be expensive keeping up with all this rapid growth. You can start a business that helps parents keep up without having to spend a lot of money.

Says Donna Bliss of http://www.mymiraclebaby.com, "There is a tremendous market for children's clothing--particularly babies' because they are outgrown so quickly. The brand names are so pricey and offering them for resale gives parents a chance to dress their angels to the nines without going broke. My customers are so grateful and we can barely keep our 'shelves' stocked.  We coined the phrase 'pre-loved' because the clothing we offer is more than just used or resale--its the best of the best and there's plenty of wear left."

What is a Clothing Resale Business?
Clothing resale is what you make it. You can sell gently used clothing online or you can open up your own home based store ~ or both. What about baby necessities like strollers, bassinets and cribs? Why not include some unique handmade products to your offerings?

You can take items on consignment from local families, businesses, seamstresses and knitters; you can make bulk purchases from your local thrift store or you can buy up the whole lot at a local garage sale.

Your virtual business can include selling on your website, selling at online auction houses and partnering with other websites to sell your merchandise. Says Sandy of her online resale clothing business at http://twiceisnicekids.com, "This is a work at home option that only requires a few hours a day -- updating items that are sold and adding new inventory. You can put as little or as much time into it as you want."

Clothing Resale Supplies
If you are operating your resale business online, your supply list will be relatively simple:

• Clothing & Items for Sale: Well, of course you'll need to get clothing and baby & toddler-related merchandise to sell. Whether you purchase or take clothing on consignment, be sure to only take quality merchandise that is not well worn. If you are operating your business online and people are making purchases based on photos, you don't want them to have any surprises.
• Packaging & Boxes to Ship Items: You need to ship those orders. Make sure you have enough packing supplies around for fast shipping times.
• Digital Camera: If you want people to buy your items online, you have to show them good quality photos. Clothes are photographed best on models (and they're so cute, too) or on a mannequin.

Clothing Resale Skills & Attributes

• A Love of All Things Baby-Related: The key to starting any home-based business is doing something that you love and something that truly interests you. If you don't love babies and baby-related things, try a different kind of business.
• Marketing Skills: You need marketing skills to run a business. Many of these are skills you can acquire along the way, but be sure to do your preliminary research. 
  Check out the following Recommended Online Marketing Resources:
  • An Internet Based Mom's Guide Marketing Your Website:
    http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/ebooks/index.html ~ This guide includes time management, goal setting, creating a user-friendly website that people will visit over and over again, search engine optimization, networking, newsletters, press releases and more.
  • Make Your Net Auction Sell:
    http://mynas.sitesell.com/websuccess2054.html ~ If you're going to sell your items at online auctions, you don't want to miss this. It includes standing out by selling unique items, choosing the best sites for your goods, promoting your business, how to network with other auction pros, selling goods in volume, selling high priced items without having to buy them.
• Basic HTML Skills: To sell at auctions or to build your website, you'll want to create attractive and inviting advertisements and web pages. There are numerous free tutorials available online to learn HTML. Here are just a couple:
  • http://www.html-html.com
  • http://www.w3schools.com
  • http://www.pagetutor.com
  • http://www.ilearnhtml.com
• Organizational Skills: You need to keep good records of your sales and not just for tax purposes. You need to be able to keep track of which buyers have paid, which have received their items, etc. Setting up a spreadsheet or database with all the pertinent information should help keep this under control.
• Customer Service Skills: You are selling to people who have never met you. You need to ensure that you customer service is impeccable to ensure good feedback on any online auction houses you use and to have repeat customers.

Clothing Resale Prices
Your prices will vary depending on the quality, brand name and what you paid for the items. Calculate all your expenses and determine what you can sell for in order to maintain a profit. You may want to give volume discounts.

Online Marketing Ideas

• You Need a Web Page: This wouldn't be an InternetBasedMoms.com article if we didn't tell you to get a web page. Sell your items on your website and link to any online auctions you may be running. You can have someone design your site or you can design your site yourself.
• Sell Your Products at Online Auctions: Take advantage of the huge buying traffic at http://www.ebay.com and take advantage of no fees at many of the free family-related auction houses like:
  • http://thefamilycloset.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.pl
  • http://www.familyauction.com
  • http://www.mothersnature.com/cgi-bin/Auction
    Be sure to create attractive auctions with quality pictures and accurate product descriptions.
• Start a Baby & Toddler Parents Group or Message Board: Parents love to talk. They love to share cute stories, they often need advice and if they are stay at home parents, they often need to connect with other adults. Offer them a place to get together. If you start a mailing group (you can try http://groups.yahoo.com), subtly include your company information at the bottom of all the messages. If you choose a message board, personalize your message board with your company information.
• Have a Baby & Toddler Photo or Story Contest: Get people involved with your website. Have a photo contest with a regular prize give away. It can be a gift certificate to your online store which will give someone an incentive to make additional purchases.
• Start a Baby & Toddler Parenting Newsletter: Start building your mailing list right away. Email marketing is a powerful tool. Don't waste it. Have people subscribe to your parenting tips newsletter off your website and offer an incentive ~ a monthly prize or gift, for example.
• Partner with Other Baby & Toddler Related Web Pages: You can participate in simple link exchange to boost your link popularity. You can also choose to work more closely with a few sites that compliment your offerings. Give each other a page on your websites or sell one another's products.
• Promote Your Online Business Offline with Filler Exchanges: Exchange fillers with other people in business. It's a way to reach a wider audience and save money on doing separate mail out. Find out more about Filler Exchanges at http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/articles2/filler_exchange.html

For a More Comprehensive Look at the Clothing Resale Business from Home ~ If you'd like to run a little store right in your home instead of just a virtual store, you don't want to miss out on MyMommyBiz's Start Your Own Infant Clothing & Gift Resale Business from Home at http://www.mymommybiz.com/ebooks/infantibm.html

This ebook takes you through all the aspects of starting an offline business from the legal considerations of operating a store from home, setting up and decorating your store, where to find items to sell, selling on consignment, advertising and more.

And most of all...good luck and happy selling!

Alice Seba is the editor of http://www.internetbasedmoms.com ~ a FREE online business resource center for work at home moms. Visit her copywriting website at http://www.wahmcopywriter.com for free content, writing tips and services.

EDITORS NOTE: We do not recommend ever buying used items from another person at a resale or garage sale or on our website, with the intention to resell them again at a profit, without first informing the original seller that you plan to do so. This is viewed as unethical in our online community. If you plan to pursue this as a business, please be upfront with anyone that you purchase items from, so they have a choice in the matter. Thank you!