20 Tested Ways to Market Your eCommerce Clothing Brand

While apparel eCommerce is flourishing in terms of choice, concerns around inflation mean shoppers are being more discerning about purchases—in fact, 75% of shoppers see the need to trade down on purchases while seeking better deals and 86% of this lot happen to be Gen Zs and millennials. 

Which brings us to the vital importance of knowing how to promote your online clothing business so that you can draw in first-time visitors and stay compelling to repeat buyers too. 

Here are 20 clothing store marketing ideas to help you dig your heels into improving your profit margins and staying relevant in the middle of a lot of noise. 

How to Promote Your Online Clothing Business

1. Get really creative with your videos

We don’t disagree that how-to-style videos or unboxing experience videos make for great experience, but in 2025, given the raging competition within the online clothing store niche, video marketing has to move up a notch. 

To improve online clothing store conversions with video marketing, you must:

👉 Shoot more “single garment” stories—try this out with your bestsellers first, where you track the making of a garment across its most important stages - and repurpose across product pages as well as socials

👉 Create “styling challenge” videos and set countdown timers—a minute long videos of this nature can actually be a hit both among viral content consumers as well as serious shoppers who want a good peek first

👉 Make a composite film out of all unboxing videos—this can be a great piece of marketing asset if you’re relaunching your brand or even celebrating a milestone year - use it around your website, socials and even ads!

Online clothing brand Modcloth uses video marketing to show their inclusive nature, which is also about showcasing models outside the typical notions of “beauty” —the following is an example of an older designer offering a “wear and pair” test while making it highly relatable for audiences across age groups:

Further Reading: eCommerce Video Marketing Ideas That Actually Improve Sales

2. Bring out micro-narratives in your UGC

To promote your online clothing business in 2025, you’ll have to make UGC more a means to an end than an end in itself—this will totally depend on how relatable the narrative is. 

Micro-narratives or super personal takes on a product / experience with a product, bridge that gap.

To make sure the UGC you gather tell a great story:

👉 Ask loyal customers to create “journeys” with a product of their choice—this is anti-thesis to the theme of “new” across the clothing niche, highlighting how well a product has served someone

👉 Ask shoppers to shoot across their favorite use cases—for example, if a female shopper likes to wear a pair of leggings for running errands and going on hikes, this can both be recorded

And if you’re still debating using UGC: adopt the online clothing business promotion strategy that Rothy’s takes: shooting content like UGC and infusing humor, surprise and other prominent human emotions:

Convertcart Pro Tip 🚀

When you’re declaring a UGC contest to build your clothing brand, turn your messaging more human to receive more engagement—if you’ve been saying “Leave a Review”, it’s time to say, “Care to tell us how you wore it and loved it!”

Further Reading: 27 Brilliant User-Generated Content Examples (eCommerce)

3. Create more shoppable content on Instagram Stories

More than 130 million shoppers click on shoppable tags within Instagram Stories to explore and buy. 

So, when it comes to growing your eCommerce clothing business, you can’t skip this promotion channel.

Here are some shoppable story ideas you can consider for your online clothing store sales:

👉 Create anticipation with “guess the color / variant” teasers—do this in a series of three where the first story runs in black & white, the second shows the product in color and the final story tags the product with a link leading to the product page

👉 Explore “look transitions” through a set of stories—one product across many looks (spread across several stories) - ensure each look’s story is followed by a story with a link that shows the products within your Instagram shop

👉 Show mystery unboxings & tag the products—you can send these to the highest spenders on your store and even run a “mystery week” campaign with one unboxing revealed along with products in it per day to avoid choice paralysis

Online clothing boutique Princess Polly creates intrigue and engagement featuring stories with related products but making only some of them shoppable, like this one:

4. Celebrate brand milestones

Whether you do a storytelling collab with a major influencer or announce the biggest discount ever, a brand milestone (like your clothing store’s 5th birthday) is a major opportunity. 

Online clothing brand Patagonia, for example, released a comprehensive impact report for their 40th anniversary and ensured it reached stakeholders & audiences across channels—alongside, the brand also maintains a steady flow of “impact content” around the year that allows shoppers to lean into their sustainable approach time and again:

A few other creative milestone ideas you can explore to attract shoppers to your clothing brand:

👉 Leverage an “X orders shipped” milestone—this can be a great opportunity especially for a newer clothing business - and this hook will also come to good use as relevant omnichannel social proof 

👉 Drive an “X shoppers styled for their big day” milestone—combine this with your UGC strategy and you can attract many more eyeballs than you’d originally planned

Further Reading: Marketing Lessons from 10 Great DTC Brands

5. Start attracting ad traffic on Reddit

Many online clothing store owners see Reddit as a chaotic, reader-driven platform with very little possibility of generating additional revenue. 

The truth couldn’t be farther from this—because the numbers say a different story: while FB ads receive a 0.07% engagement, Reddit ads get 2.2% and while the former get a CTR of about 0.9%, the latter enjoys double that. 

Reason enough for you to promote your online clothing boutique on Reddit—here are some interesting ideas:

👉 Find subreddits that actually allow advertising—since Reddit is a challenging platform to advertise your online clothing brand, you’ll have to watch out for subreddits that prohibit ads AND those that allow

From our research, we found those that allow include r/streetwearstartup, r/streetwearstartup2 and r/CothingStartups

👉 Promote bundles more than standalones—high intent shoppers on Reddit are often willing to spend as long as they’re completely clear about the value (beyond the pricing)

👉 Target specific communities with associated social proof—for example, if you’re targeting r/rawdenim, it’ll help if your ad headline reads like “Loved by 100+ r/rawdenim members”

And don’t forget to run a search on what other online clothing business owners are recommending as advice:

Convertcart Pro Tip 🚀

Create distinct subreddit personas by hanging out there, observing people’s challenges, approaches to advice and problem-solving - this will help you craft your ad messaging better!

Further Reading: Convert More Paid Traffic—9 Strategies That Always Work (eCommerce)

6. Woo first-time visitors with a powerful brand story

It’s simple: in a sea of fancy online clothing stores, you need to make sure you stand out for the conversions to happen. 

And since customer acquisition is anyway so tough, you need to leverage your brand story to do at least a part of the weightlifting. 

Here’s how some of the stores we’ve worked with are doing better than before in this department:

👉 Sprinkle “Read our commitment” microcopy hooks across—this can be unconsciously reassuring for first-time visitors even as they navigate the store to explore and consider

👉 Highlight “Story” or “Brand” in the main navigation—this can work rather well if you have sustainable processes in place or have already earned third party certifications for your brand - but even if you haven’t, these links can lead them to your about us page

👉 Use the hero space to make a point—whether you bring in a primary CTA dedicated to your brand story or not will entirely depend on your business goals at the moment - for example, if you’ve just won a B Corp certification, it’ll make sense to devote an entire CTA to your brand page

But we like what clothing brand Outdoor Research does, quietly letting their “most sustainable jacket” narrative reflect on the larger brand narrative - but introducing a secondary “Learn More” CTA for it:

Further Reading: 18 Brilliant Ways To Convert First-Time Visitors Into Buyers (eCommerce)

7. Strengthen how you do local search optimization

It’s no mystery that 46% of all Google searches reflect a local intent. 

So, if you’ve been wondering how to grow your online clothing brand but haven’t tapped into local search optimization, the time is now:

👉 Add service area codes even if you don’t have physical stores—why? Because Google’s great at checking local relevance and then prioritizing showing results accordingly - add target cities, post codes, boroughs, whatever is authentic 

👉 Go for more frequent backlinking exchanges—check with location-specific bloggers, influencers who write and directories for mentions of your business - if you want it to be super targeted, you can even pick very specific product pages or category pages to promote

👉 Create location-based landing pages—get those location-based keywords in your meta tag, H1, title and URL and ensure the landing page content features location-specific info on events, pop-ups, style trends and even customer testimonials (along with product hooks)

8. Bring in the right email marketing flows - to improve customer lifetime value

Have you considered this: people don’t need all that many clothes, but they’re willing to buy from the same brands, time and again.

This kind of lifetime value isn’t easy to build, especially if you’re a small to mid-sized clothing business—but wait, this what we’ve solved through email marketing with Engage:

👉 Improve what you focus on in cart abandonment sequences—for example, the first email isn't just about a reminder of the items left in the cart but also an opportunity to win them back with high quality visuals, and in the second, while a discount is crucial, whether you include social proof or not, is even more so

👉 Extend your post-purchase workflow butcreate more value—consider going beyond the “successful delivery” email to include post-delivery check-ins, a gentle cross-sell (within a week of the delivery allowing enough time for the experience) and introducing a new category (a month after the original purchase)

👉 Leverage behavioral triggers beyond cart abandonment—think multiple browses but not adding to cart, conveying a price drop on products that have been viewed more than thrice etc. 

Online clothing boutique sets up back-in-stock email updates for those who’ve shown browse-based interest or added to cart but items ran out:

Convertcart Pro Tip 🚀

Rely more on moodboards to create successful email flows to market your online clothing brand—the “why” of it when conveyed in an inspiring way, also inspires shoppers to make purchases in turn!

Further Reading: Unconventional Email Marketing Ideas for eCommerce

9. Diversify your pool of influencers & micro-influencers

Whether you’re into international eCommerce or not, your online clothing business can profit from a wider pool of influencers. 

Here’s how to go about it without veering too much away from your existing influencer strategy:

👉 Focus on cross-generational collaborations—for example, while Gen Z influencers are ideal to tap into trend-based marketing, boomers and Gen X will help you establish a deeper connection with their existing followers 

👉 Tap into hyper-local influencers & micro-influencers—look a suburban areas and newer cities to pitch your products through these people, tapping into different aesthetics and diverse lifestyle choices

👉 Look at multiple lifestyle & interest niches to diversify into—although you’re selling clothes, it needn’t be only fashion - look into niches like minimalism (if you run a recycling campaign) and wellness (if your products use specific fabrics / stitching for breathability etc.)

10. Promote products on “clearance” year round

If you run a clothing store online, one key customer psychology you’ll need to remember is deal-finding. 

Shoppers, even those with higher spending power, often prioritize brands that give them a good deal, and an even better one for being a loyalist. 

In case of the clothing boutique businesses we’ve helped grow, “clearance” sales around the year have helped - here are a few key strategies to follow to stay profitable as well:

👉 Create themed clearance sections—and instead of naming these under regular category names, see if you can bring in problem-solving language like “Beat the heat @20% off” and for microcopy include some main categories like dresses, tees and tops

👉 Show a permanent “Last Chance” section—and make sure when shoppers get into it, you have appropriate urgency labels like “Last 3 left” and “Only 1 size left!”

Online clothing brand Nordstrom Rack is well-known for the way they create new markdowns every 1 to 2 weeks and also announce exceptionally high discounts on select products, through the year:

Convertcart Pro Tip 🚀

Offer tiered clearance perks based on spending—for example, if you’re offering a 15% off to the general crowd, highlight an “additional 5% for members” to drive more buying from loyalists.

Further Reading: eCommerce Tiered Discount: 10 Awesome Examples You'd Want To Copy

11. Segment audiences precisely for pixel-based retargeting

When your idea is to grow sales for your online clothing boutique, it helps to get really specific about who you target and retarget through your ads. 

Pixel-based retargeting ensures you factor in only those who’ve previously shown real interest in your clothing products—here are a few approaches we’ve found to be helpful:

👉 Segment abandoned cart retargeting based on spend value—this can help you offer different incentives to different shoppers - naturally, it makes sense to offer a higher incentive to those who’re sitting on a higher cart value

👉 Segment retargeting audiences based on what they browse—this is helpful because you can club similar audiences based on products they’re most likely to buy based on what they’ve shown interest in before

👉Segment retargeting based on depth of engagement—for example, segment those with shallow engagement together and show them more brand awareness content (with a compelling “Learn More” CTA) and show highly precise product recommendations using nudge marketing to those who’ve deeply engaged

Further Reading: eCommerce Customer Segmentation: 10 critical mistakes businesses make

12. Launch Performance Max campaigns (smart shopping is passé)

To promote your online clothing business effectively, you’ll have to focus on Performance Max campaigns more seriously.

This is because PM campaigns can automatically detect the best audiences across channels, be it Youtube or Google Search. 

👉 Optimize your product feed to aid PM ad creatives—this includes your product descriptions, product titles and image galleries, so that PM automatically gets the best info to show off to shoppers, no matter what channel they’re hanging out on

👉 Import data on important conversions & micro-conversions—whether it’s products trending across your site or shopper-specific behavior like wishlist additions, critical data lets PM adjust campaigns in real-time to adjust placement & bids

👉 Feature a mix of compelling visuals—product photos are great but please don’t skip on UGC photos as well where products are in-use and other relatable lifestyle shots

Here’s an example of a clothing store Performance Max campaign scheduling for a seasonal collection:

Convertcart Pro Tip 🚀

Put your bestsellers into a separate asset group—this is one of the overlooked clothing brand marketing ideas but you have to remember Google prioritizes what already performs well!

13. Promote shoppable listings with interesting Youtube content

Given that more than 90% of shoppers discover new products to buy on Youtube, as a growing online clothing brand, this channel is a hotbed of opportunities for you. 

👉 Reduce viewing drop-offs—that’s what happens when you feature well-shot videos that last no more than 30 seconds and show snippets of multiple products in a row from the same collection OR feature a poll to create anticipation for an upcoming product launch or existing giveaway

👉 Offer BTS content & link buying to a “cause”—showing your process or tie-up with an organization and then promoting the cause with the shoppable list of products from where contributions will be made, 

👉 Create content that combines variety and versatility—from professionally shot videos on popular categories to videos featuring team expertise, there’s so much you can do creatively on your Youtube channel to promote your clothing store

Online clothing business brand Everlane ensures they create a mix of Youtube content that makes it super compelling for shoppers to access the buying lists that feature with the videos:

14. Focus on creating more milestone rewards in the loyalty program

So many online clothing boutiques that have come to us for a free audit, seem to face a similar problem: slow conversions even amongst loyalty program members. 

After observing this pattern for a while, we saw one common issue: most of them featured rewards for a host of non-transactional activities, but fewer of them reserved a special place for milestones. 

Here’s how you can do it differently:

👉 Honor first purchases—and it’s not always necessary that you feature a discount alone (as this can also turn out to be potentially expensive for smaller brands)—take a leaf out of Lululemon’s book: they offer a free hemming service after the first purchase

👉 Honor annual spending with thresholds—while you may create predictability with discounts or points around these thresholds, keep space for surprise peaks too, especially if the threshold converges with the peak season 

👉 Honor every $X spent with a reward—while long term rewards are great, shoppers tend to feel more gratified when their attempts to stay loyal are rewarded more immediately 

Established clothing brand American Eagle gives back a certain % as rewards to members on every purchase:

Further Reading: 14 eCommerce Loyalty Programs Backed By Science (Examples)

15. Gamify your referral program for more engagement

Most clothes shoppers by now know the usual trope of “refer a friend and earn $5”. 

And it’s no wonder that referral programs see low adoption rates—let alone drive conversions, which is supposed to be one of its main goals. 

So, to promote your online clothing brand, you’ll have to gamify certain key components of your referral program:

👉 Create tiered rewards—a whole system around what referring 1 friend, 3 friends, 5 friends etc. mean can immediately bring your brand more attention through the referral program

👉 Create urgency + action through a compelling leaderboard—something like “Be amongst the top 5 referrers to win $100 off your next purchase” along with a countdown timer can work rather well 

👉 Tie X number of referrals to the loyalty program—messaging like “Refer 5 friends and enter the Inner Circle” can work, especially if the “Inner Circle” otherwise is a tier that one has to reach through spending

Online clothing business Girlfriend Collective often drives more interest in their referral program by featuring rewards that go beyond “earn $X”:

Convertcart Pro Tip 🚀

Bring a tinge of “exclusivity” to the referral “club”—make it sound like an invite, something like “You’ve got great taste! Why not invite another friend to the fold?” works well. 

16. Drive deeper personalization with content marketing

When you’re in the process of growing online clothing store sales, your content marketing has to measure up to nudge shoppers through the conversion funnel. 

In 2025, one of the primary ways this becomes easier is to build a bridge between content and personalization. 

Here are a few tactics that have been working well for clothing store CRO clients:

👉 Feature a guide at the end of a funnel quiz—for example, based on the theme of the recommendations the quiz fetches, you can give it a “lookbook” hook or create a “care guide”

👉 Flank educational content with social proof—this is specifically a great idea for clothing stores that run on customization - talk about how many customers have already availed the service and also feature clear sections of individual reviews with image, name and what their experience has been like

👉 Cap off every major piece of content with a hint at personalization—whether you’re showing exit intent pop-ups on your clothing store website or recommending a “lookbook” over email, let your copy relay that the content isn’t generic

Online clothing brand Stitch Fix, which relies heavily on customization, rounds off every important piece of content with the “personalization” hook so that shoppers don’t miss it at all:

17. Target only niche creators with your affiliate marketing program

The hype around big content creators around there makes many online clothing stores think they’re the way to go. 

But in our experience of working with small to mid sized brands in this niche, we’ve noticed how putting all the eggs (promotional success) in one basket (a single affiliate) can be detrimental. 

Instead when clothing boutique promotions leverage smaller, niche creators, the results are much better:

👉 Go for a tiered commission structure—start with a base commission but increase the % for every extra X sales, and then after Y milestones, introduce a set of bonus rewards - this keeps your pool of affiliate marketers engaged

👉 Create creator-specific landing pages—this will help you leverage associated posts on social media as well as max out on ad clicks by featuring the right landing page based on interest / geographic location etc.

👉 Track creator-content combinations—while you audit it all, keep a sharper focus on the more successful ones in terms of reach and engagement - this will tell you what to replicate in the future

18. Optimize your product pages for Google ads

Paid traffic from Google Ads represent the kind of people you want to actually sell to—because they’re the ones who want to buy!

But the catch is: they are likely not to know your brand or what it exactly offers. 

So, to promote your online clothing store through this medium, you’ll have to remember to make the most of where shoppers generally land up: the product pages. 

Here are the most key aspects you’ll have to nail:

👉 Feature a “Special Offer for Google Shoppers” hook—and cite this right at the top of the page with a 10% to 15% discount while timeboxing it with a countdown timer 

👉 Show a dropdown of pre-answered sizing questions—dynamically fetch answers from across reviews written by customers who have a similar profile to the one that’s visiting through an ad

👉 Make above the fold spectacular—while pricing and product description need the max attention, also pay special focus to loyalty points or any other urgency oriented information to drive faster conversions

Check out the kind of information clothing brand W Concept highlights when a shopper lands up from a Google Ad on to one of their product pages:

‍

Convertcart Pro Tip 🚀

Double check on how the mobile experience is—since Google factors in page speed as an ad performance criterion and many shoppers view these ads on mobile, this one’s a non-negotiable

Further Reading: 17 Elements all High-Performing Product Pages have in common (Updated for 2025)

19. Simplify product discovery on your online clothing store

Back in the day, when it came to online clothing businesses, product discovery was limited to getting categories and subcategories in the main navigation right. 

It’s so much more right now, and here are a few aspects to get right to grow your online clothing business:

👉 Get creative with your filtering system—pricing, colors and offers are already known by shoppers - but to make their engagement with your site more fulfilling in real-time bring in occasions as filters or even moods for that matter

👉 Recommend through “View More In Your Size”—shoppers know the usual “People like you also loved” but when you introduce nudges that are more personalized like “View More in Your Size”, shoppers actually pay attention

👉 Create outfit builder nudges across the site—make it super easy by showing an image of an entire ensemble and recommending products alongside it to get the “perfect look” and also to “mix and match” - this improves the way you can pull in a wider audience

Further Reading: 33 Scientific Ways To Improve eCommerce Product Discovery

20. Differentiate your store’s positioning from competitors 

Even after a lot of competitor analysis, few clothing stores are able to set themselves apart. 

When it comes to promoting your clothing business online, this is bad news. 

But apart from a great brand story, what else can you do to ensure your clothing store gets sales?

👉 Become more inclusive about sizes—this is a big one if you want to be known not just for great photoshoots but also for customer experience, which can be a conversion-friendly tactic even in the long run

👉 Drive your values into your loyalty & referral programs—for example, if you often work around causes, “Refer a friend and we’ll plant a tree” can be something only you’re doing in the immediate sub-category

👉 Create product extensions competitors aren’t offering—this will help you improve AOV without as much needing to get more traffic or new customers to buy from you

Clothing brand Tomboy, for example, is known for creating “limited editions” that help them stand apart from the competition:

Convertcart Pro Tip 🚀

Go against the industry mold of lack of transparency—and introduce a thorough breakdown of pricing, including specifics around how much goes towards materials, labor, markup etc. 

eCommerce clothing brands also ask:

How do I attract more new customers to my clothing business?

Given that the eCommerce clothing niche is super busy, you’ll have to be both relatable and ingenious around drawing new customers—here’s some advice we’ve helped Convertcart clients with:

✔ Fetch more nuanced answers to the funnel quiz—shoppers have become numb to regular recommendations, but if you can feature a thematic recommendation “journey” for, let’s say, a whole year, many more new customers would sit up and take notice

✔ Popularize your hashtags with micro-influencer wear tests—approach people with smaller following as long as they deeply engage with your brand or better, have bought from you before - have them shoot these “tests” in relatable life scenarios 

✔ Sell on unusual platforms—for example, you can think of setting up a pop-up shop on a houseplant-focused Discord server with a following of 10, 000 - and release limited edition botanical prints in tees and tops for 10 days!

✔ Combine giveaways with design “challenges”—this can be a great way to create hype, collect UGC and also invite new designs that you can potentially use in a collection (and create further hype with that!)

✔ Feature a footprint comparison calculator—this will firm your position as an awareness-building clothing brand while helping new shoppers make more discerning purchase choices

Which eCommerce clothing brands have a solid marketing strategy?

In the eCommerce clothing niche, three brands we absolutely love for their promotional strategies are:

👉 Marine Layer: This sustainable clothing brand creates a warm and relatable communication aesthetic across socials including imagery that brings a smile to the face, and is also well-known for their participation across community pop-ups and events, helping them tap into newer audiences

👉 Outdoor Voices: Focusing on the common person’s outdoor experience, this brand has evolved one of the most successful clothing brand marketing strategies - this includes their Doing Things catchline that’s caught on the imagination of one community after another, and OV Extra, a memorable way of tagging their deep clearance section

👉 Kotn: Fighting the usual trends of fast fashion, Kotn creates capsule collections, which they promote through the “Stories” section on their website - apart from this their micro-influencer strategy involves working with professionals who engage closely with their own following, creating interactions & conversions that are also long-lasting for the brand

To make it a conversion party for your online clothing brand...

Get to UX first.

Because 98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.

Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.

And this is the problem Convertcart solves.

We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.

How we can help you:

Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.