How to Start a Custom Bag and Purse Business

Step 1: Define Target Audience for your Custom Bag Business

The first step in the guide to how to start a bag business plan is finding your niche. 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.

Step 2: Create an Idea that Sells

Ideating has never been easy. Regardless of your TG, you need to think of an idea that would mark your identity and 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.

Implement Personalization Options With Designer Tool

You can provide your buyers with a customized experience by integrating a product designer tool on your website.

This tool will empower your customers to design their bags by selecting colors, materials, and patterns, and even adding unique graphics or text.

With a user-friendly interface, this tool will turn the design process into an engaging and interactive experience.

Features of the Product Designer Tool:

• Drag-and-Drop Interface: This intuitive feature allows users to easily move design elements, enabling a seamless and engaging design process.
• Real-time Preview: Providing an instant visualization of design changes helps users make informed decisions and creates a more interactive experience.
• Multiple Design Elements: Offering a wide range of design options ensures that users can create unique and personalized bags that match their preferences.
• Text and Graphics: Allowing users to add personalized text, images, and graphics, adds a layer of individuality to their designs.
• Color Customization: Enabling users to choose from various colors for different bag components enhances the personalization aspect.
• In-built Collection of 1000+ Clipart: A diverse clipart library offers a plethora of creative options for users to incorporate into their designs.
• Mobile-Friendly: With the increasing use of mobile devices, ensuring the tool’s accessibility on both desktop and mobile devices is crucial for user engagement.

This is just the tip of the iceberg!

Explore More of These Exciting Features and Customize Them as well.

You will need to work with experts who know everything about the product customization industry. Find a tech partner that can help you build the perfect, cost-effective, and latest web-to-print technology products.

Step 3: 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 company. You will need a website or an e-Commerce 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 to sell custom printed handbags online. 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 build a separate website and then integrate your ecommerce store into 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 usecase 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

Create your own app to sell custom printed handbags online. Having an app can be a great way to boost brand recognition and keep your customers engaged. With an app, you can offer a personalized shopping experience, exclusive deals, and easy access to your latest collections to your customers right at their fingertips.

The good part is that you don’t need to be a tech expert to get started. There are plenty of app builder companies and platforms out there that make it easy to create and launch your own app quickly and without hassle. Some even allow you to have your app up and running within just a few hours. By adding an app to your business, you’ll stand out from the competition and offer an additional layer of convenience to your customers.

iv) Build your Social Media Pages

Before you even launch your handbag business, it’s crucial to start building your presence on social media. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok are vital for connecting with your audience, especially since younger generations, like millennials and Gen Z, are heavily active on these channels. Don’t just use these platforms to show off your products. Instead use them to share your brand’s story. Talk about the craftsmanship, materials, design process, and how your handbags can fit into your customers’ everyday lives.

Stay consistent with posting and make sure your content is high quality. Share behind-the-scenes peeks into your creative process, host giveaways, run polls, and engage directly with your audience. Hashtags are an easy way to boost your visibility and make your posts discoverable by more people. You might also want to team up with influencers or fashion bloggers who align with your brand, as this can help introduce your products to new potential customers.

Building a strong social media foundation will not only help raise awareness of your brand, but it will also build a loyal following that’s ready to support your business when you officially launch.

Here’s a real-world example of how a business set up its personalized bag store and drove right off the bat towards success:

The challenge: The custom bag business aiming to offer eco-friendly, personalized bags faced challenges with providing an easy-to-use design tool and efficiently managing their printing process. They wanted to allow customers to personalize their bags by adding text and graphics, but the complexity of setting up such a system was overwhelming. Additionally, they needed a reliable way to manage their inventory and ensure smooth order fulfillment.

The solution: The business turned to PrintXpand for assistance. We provided them a tailored web-to-print solution that integrated seamlessly into their personalized bag store, allowing customers to design their own bags with a simple, interactive product designer tool. Furthermore, this tool offered features such as real-time previews, allowing customers to visualize their custom designs before placing orders, which boosted customer confidence and satisfaction.

Moreover, we implemented an inventory management system, helping the business efficiently track raw materials and finished products. They also adopted PX’s Print Job Manager, which streamlined the production workflow, ensuring smooth transitions from customer orders to print fulfillment, ultimately reducing operational delays.

Results: With PrintXpand’s advanced solutions in place, the business was able to offer a smooth, engaging customization experience. Customers appreciated the ease of personalizing their bags, and the business quickly gained momentum.

Simplify Your eCommerce Setup with Our Web to Print Store!

Step 4: 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 the cost of website development, editorial photography, Facebook ads, and so on. Last but not least, you will need a cost-effective product customization tool to offer customization in your purse business line. Once you’ve decided on 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 Brush Your Ideas. Launch your online custom bag store with an added USP of product customization. See how our Web-to-Print Solution with a ready-store and product customization tool can help you!

Step 5: 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 factors like the 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’s 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, it’s recommended that you do not go for low-quality products just 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. Equip 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 6: Delivery and Logistics Management

Last but not 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.