While considering opening your own small online boutique may be an easy decision, there are other parts of a business to consider before jumping in feet first—like how much you could be making. While online sales continue to grow, how much profit could you make monthly?
A small online boutique can make about $6,000 of net revenue per month according to Forbes. This number is the final takeaway profit for an online boutique—minus all other expenses including inventory, staffing, marketing, and insurance.
While this may not feel like a lot at first, there are many factors that play into starting your own small boutique. Read on to find out some more statistics on the online commerce industry, some terminology you should know before you step foot into the eCommerce world, and what your budget may look like. You can also learn how to determine your very own profit margin and net revenue.
Crunching the Numbers
According to Statista, over 263 million American shoppers are continuing to shop online. If that number is hard to consider, that’s 80 percent of the American population. While millennials—those born from 1988 to 1997—are the largest group of online shoppers in the United States, that number just continues to grow, as almost 57 percent of shoppers say they prefer to shop online. They also estimate that by 2024, the online retail sector will generate over $154 billion in revenue.

According to ZipRecruiter, the average online boutique owner takes home about $3,700 per month. While it varies, annual salaries can be as high as $122,000—but most land within the range of $29,000 and $44,500 annually.
How does this compare to a brick-and-mortar boutique? By the same numbers, it’s fairly similar—ZipRecruiter states that a boutique owner not selling through an online shop is making an average of about $4,000 per month.
Another number to know is 45 percent—this is the average gross profit margin for an online shop. What does this mean? It means your profits should be about double what you’re spending.
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Terminology to Know
As you start your online boutique, there’s some information that you should know first. Legal jargon abounds in the business world, so making sure you have a handle on what you’re reading will help you understand as you move forward.
Average ticket price is when you take all the receipts in a time period (like a day or a month) and divide it by the number of transactions. This will allow you to understand how much someone is spending in your boutique on average.
Your balance sheet allows you to record all your assets, liabilities, and equity over time. This is usually a month-by-month record.
Fixed costs are your expenses that are the same from month to month—in a small online boutique, it would be your website and point of sale system. Variable costs, on the other hand, are the expenses that vary, like your labor or your inventory costs.
Your gross profit margin is the profit of all your items you sell compared to your overall sales—gross profit divided by net sales. Expenses such as labor, inventory, taxes, etc. are all considered in this number, as to make a profit margin, you also have to take out the costs of the items you’ve already paid for. This number must be above zero for your business to make a profit, and functions as a percentage—most boutiques fall between 40 and 50 percent.
Gross revenue is the cost of goods sold, not subtracting the cost of your expenses.
Net revenue is the cost of goods minus the gross revenue. If your $50 item of clothing took $20 to make, it made you a profit of $30.
How Much Can You Make As A Design Major?
How much does it take to start that online boutique?
If you’re looking to start your online boutique, you need to make an initial investment. How much will that cost you? Upfront, you’re looking at about $10,000—which is much less than if you were starting a business in a physical storefront.

- Inventory. Your boutique needs some sort of inventory. This is your priority, as you can cut back on some of the other expenses—you can’t sell inventory you don’t have. Whether you make your items in house or buy them from a manufacturer, this cost will be around $4,000.
- Point of sale system. Even though you’re planning on selling online, you need a way to do so. This can be as simple as an app or a program that you invest in that will do all the work for you, which costs about $500 up front.
- Website. Your website is how your customers will purchase your clothing, so it has to be well organized, well presented, and easy to work with. You should also have as many photos of your clothing as possible—they can’t try it on, so you need to provide enough information for them to make an informed purchase. If you design your own website, you can spend about $250.
- Marketing. Without a physical storefront, you need to get the word out about your business. You can do that on social media pages for free—if you can get a big enough following. This cost is variable, so it really is how much you put into it.
- Insurance and business permits. Make sure you’re above board with legal issues—you will still need liability insurance and home insurance if you’re selling your clothing online. Consult with a lawyer for assistance on the matter. This will cost about $1,500.
- Photography and modeling. Because you’re selling your items online, you need to make sure you have enough photos to show off your clothing. They don’t need to be runway ready photos, but you want them professional enough that people are attracted to the items you’re selling. For a good photographer and modeling session, you will pay about $1,500.
- Staffing costs. While you can keep costs low by only employing yourself, you still need to take a piece of the budget. This is variable depending on what you want to make.
- Delivery costs. Because you’re selling online, that means you have to send the product to the customer. This cost depends on how you sell your items—if you’re offering free shipping, the cost of the shipping should be included in the item. If you’re not, make sure that’s clear to the customers as they check out.
You’re in luck—an online boutique may only cost about $10,000, but if you were starting a physical store front, you could be looking at an additional $20,000.
How Do Fashion Designers Make Clothes?
How do you determine how much profit your boutique has made?
While this number is hard to determine without the data from your boutique, the general outline to determining your profit is as follows:

- Understand and record your entire budget. You can’t determine your profits without a detailed description of how much you’re spending on your business. Make sure you write down all the costs incurred over a month-by-month time period so you have your best idea of how much you’ve spent.
- Determine how much you’ve made in your chosen time period. Considering most budgets are recorded month-by-month, take all your receipts from your chosen month and add them together to get your gross revenue.
- Subtract your expenses from your gross revenue to get your gross profit margin. This number should be a positive number—if it isn’t, you’re spending more than you’re making.
What are people looking for while shopping online?
There are ways to attract more people to your shop by catering to the things they want most. According to GlobalWebIndex, the following are the reasons people shop online:
- Free delivery and next day delivery
- Coupons or discounts
- Reviews made by other customers
- Ability to easily return items
- Easy checkout process
- Loyalty and rewards programs
- Social media comments or hype
- Environmentally friendly items
- Spreading out payments without incurring interest
While $6,000 per month may not seem like a lot at first, that means there is always room to grow. Because you don’t have to worry about a brick-and-mortar store, you can continue to make improvements on your website based on customer feedback or increase your marketing. The more marketing, the more people who know about your products—and the more products you can sell.
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RELATED QUESTIONS
How much does the average Shopify store make per month?
According to Folio3, the average monthly Shopify income is about $4,000. On average, customers are spending about $72 per visit to the Shopify site. Many Shopify sites can make around $50,000 per year.
How does social media affect online shopping?
Social media is one of the best ways to encourage online shopping. According to data from several online sources, 35 percent of adults purchased through social media, while 70 percent of shoppers are influenced by friends and their social media posts. Facebook continues to be the leading social media platform for online purchases.
To learn more about how to start your own fashion clothing line check out my startup documents here
Please note: This blog post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult a legal expert to address your specific needs.

Meet Shawn Chun: Entrepreneur and Fashion Business Fan.
I’m a happy individual who happens to be an entrepreneur. I have owned several types of businesses in my life from a coffee shop to an import and export business to an online review business plus a few more and now I create online resources for those interested in starting new ventures. It’s demanding work but I love it. I do it for those passionate about their business and their goals. That’s why when I meet a designer or boutique owner at a craft fair, farmers market, retail location or anywhere else I see myself. I know how hard the struggle is to retain clients, find good employees and keep the business growing all while trying to stay competitive.
That’s why I created Fashion Business Boss: I want to help fashion business owners like you build a thriving business that brings you endless joy and supports your ideal lifestyle.