There was a time when starting a watch brand was something that was only accessible to a chosen few. Now, virtually anybody with an idea can start selling watches. You don’t need to own your factory to start one. Some models won’t even require that you hold inventory. While starting a watch business is easy, making it in this field is a whole other story, so you have to be prepared and have a good strategy if you want a chance at succeeding. Let’s take a look at how you can build your watch brand in 2021.
The brand sector is so huge, and you need to know what your niche will be. Are you trying to have a consumer watch brand that will be in department stores all over the country or a brand like Vincero or MVMT? You should also look at things such as who your core segment will be. This will be important when building your brand identity.
You will need to look at things such as your budget, which will include staffing and your overhead, marketing, and designs. Another thing you will need to look at is your average price point and profit. Most new brands start selling watches around the $50 mark. This may not be the most profitable price point but it allows them to start building a name. You could also look into mixing high-end and low-endmodels for more diversity.
Look at Different Business Models
One of the first things you’ll have to consider is what business model you’re going to use. You can go all out and build your factory, but we’re guessing this is not what you’re trying to do here. The best way to get in if you have a limited budget is to find a manufacturer that will not only create the watches for you, but ship them directly to your customers. This gives you many benefits. One of them is that you never have to hold inventory. Some manufacturers will even create the watches on demand for you. One of the only issues with that is that you will not have the same level of physical access to the product.
In this case, it could be a good idea to look at 3D renderings. Companies like Apviz have a useful 3D watch configurator that you can use to simulate the look of your watches. It will allow your customers to look up various color variations for your watches without you having to hold them. Their 3Dwatch configurator will also allow you to quickly add new models to your collections, and it has various security aspects that allow people from your team to make configurations without your images being compromised.
However, another issue with this model is the lack of access. Some people have their watches made in China, but never get to see the factory. This means that you are relying on a team you know little about for quality control. This why you need to make sure that they have a good reputation and consider hiring an agent to look over the process for you.
Choosing the Right Manufacturer
The process of finding a manufacturer is probably the most important part of the process. This is who your whole brand will rest on, and this is not a decision that can be done on a whim. It might take months before you find someone who’s reliable.
You have to make sure that they have the skills, expertise, and enough staff on hand to fulfill requirements. You have to know how much they can produce per month, and ask for other brands they’ve worked with in the past. Know how good their record is with deliveries, and how returns will be handled. These are all things that will make a big difference when people buy from you.
Build a Team
No matter how big or small your watch brand is, starting alone is always a bad idea. You not only have things like administrative tasks that you have to worry about, but also sales, marketing, and managing your website. If you want your business to scale, you can’t handle all of these things yourself, and not having a team around you could stunt your growth. You don’t want to be overwhelmed if there’s a sudden surge of traffic on your website, or to get stuck because you were the victim of a cyberattack. So, make sure that you either hire a team or find third-party subcontractors that can help you at the beginning.
We would also suggest that you spend money on an e-commerce consultant that will allow you to prepare for some of the challenges that come with selling watches online. They could also give you a few tips on how you can market your brand better using different digital marketing techniques.
As well as this, they might help you with compliance as there are many rules that you have to abide by when selling products online, and you might not be aware of all of them. Lastly, they will help you prevent security issues and take the proper steps to make sure that your clients’ information is safe at all times.
You will also need to start looking at people for customer service. Here, your best bet would be to find a good call center that will handle things for you. You need to interview as many as you can and make sure that they’re used to your industry.
Build a Website
Now, you have to start working on building a nice website to showcase your watches. Here, you don’t necessarily have to start with something fancy. However, there are a few things that you have to think about before hosting your site on a service like Shopify. While these sites make it easy for you to build a website, they have some serious limitations. The biggest one is that sites cannot be migrated away fromShopify. So, your store is tied to Shopify’s fate forever. You also never know when they may decide to hike up their prices or it suddenly becomes unreliable.
On the other hand, this is the only option if you have little or no website building experience and don’t have the means to hire a professional. But we would instead suggest that you use a CMS like WordPress to get started. It’s one of the most popular platforms out there and will allow you to migrate your website whenever you want with no hassle. You can also scale up at any time and move to a proprietary platform later on.
Advertise Your Brand
Now, you have to start advertising your brand. There are many methods that you can use there. PPC marketing works particularly well for this sector. YouTube ads are also a great option and this is how many new watch brands made their name.
But, one of the best ways to get your brand known is to work with style influencers. You can either pay them to advertise your products or send them to them so they can give their honest review. If you stand behind your product, we would suggest you opt for the latter option as it will hold more weight with customers.
As you can see, starting a watch brand isn’t that complex. Starting is the easy part, however, so make sure that you do the work and put in the effort necessary to get your name out there and deliver quality.
