How to start a clothing brand and webshop in the Netherlands

That's the order I'd follow if I wanted to start a fashion brand online today, because each step makes the next one easier. A lot of the decisions in a clothing brand happen long before anyone sees the store.

I'm Karina, founder of Design by Karina, a strategy-first boutique Shopify agency in Rotterdam for premium fashion and beauty brands. We design and build Shopify stores for brands across the Netherlands and Belgium, and we turn what makes your brand different into a reason to choose you. This guide is what I'd want you to know before you spend money on a store, with us or with anyone else.

1. Pick a niche you can stand behind

I know "clothing for everyone" sounds like more customers, but it's very hard to sell, because nobody feels like it was made for them. A niche only means you know three things: who's buying, when they'd wear it, and why they'd pick yours.

For example: an independent Dutch label for women who want quiet, well-cut everyday pieces in natural fabrics, sold in limited drops. Try to say yours in one sentence. It doesn't have to be clever, but it does have to answer the question every shopper has: why this one? A line I love is "Beautiful lingerie in 40 sizes, because four was never enough." You can hear right away who it's for and why it exists. (Both are made-up examples, not clients of ours.)

That sentence is worth your time, because so much hangs on it: which pieces you make, how your photos look, and what your product pages say.

2. Make a first collection you can do well

You don't need a full range to start. A few pieces done well are enough. That may sound like very little, but one tee in three colors and five sizes is already 15 variants to order, count and keep track of.

Starting with fewer pieces also means you can do each one properly. You get better photos, clearer size charts, and less stock left over if one style doesn't sell.

Set up your sizes and colors as Shopify variants from the start, because that's how Shopify keeps track of stock per size, and it's what makes the filters work on your collection pages. And think about fit early. In size charts that reduce returns I go through how a product page should handle it.

3. Sort out the business basics

This isn't the most exciting part, but it's much easier to do it before your store goes live than after. You need a registered business, a brand name that's free to use, a domain, and a way to take payments and ship orders.

In the Netherlands that usually means registering with the KVK, offering iDEAL next to card payments, and having a clear returns policy that follows the EU rules, which generally give consumers 14 days to change their mind after buying online. In Belgium you register with the KBO, and shoppers expect Bancontact.

Make delivery times, returns and contact details easy to find on every product page, because that's where people look for them before they order. Your policies are worth checking properly, and after that it's the store's job to make them easy to find. Your clothing labels also have to state the fiber content of each piece.

Good to know in the Netherlands

• KVK. Your webshop counts as a business when it meets KVK's criteria, like profit, how independent you are and how many customers you have. Then you register in the Handelsregister, and KVK passes your details to the Belastingdienst, so you don't sign up there separately.

• BTW. If the Belastingdienst sees you as a BTW entrepreneur, you get a BTW number, and it has to be on your webshop. Most products carry BTW, and you can include it in your prices.

• Brand name. Check the Benelux trademark register before you print any labels, and look at existing trade names too.

• On your site. Your KVK number, address, email and phone number have to be easy to find. Since June 2026 a webshop that sells to consumers also needs a withdrawal button.

• iDEAL. It's moving to Wero step by step, so you'll see both names for a while. Shopify, iDEAL and Wero explains what that means for your store.

4. Build the Shopify store around the drop

For a new customer, trust begins before they ever hold one of your pieces. It begins with the first few moments on your website. Nobody can feel the fabric or try anything on, so a clothing store lives or dies on its product pages. Each one needs good photos, the size chart right by the size selector, a few honest words about how the piece fits, the size the model is wearing, which sizes are in stock, and after that a simple checkout.

Your collection pages need filters for size and color, so people only see what they can buy. And your homepage should tell the story of your label and show the drop that's on right now, because that helps someone much more than a wall of banners.

When we build a clothing brand webshop, we start by listening to how you talk about your brand. We research who's buying and what they want to know, we decide what goes on which page, and then we design and build it on Shopify, so you can add your next drop yourself in the admin. You can see our packages.

5. Shoot for the product page, not for Instagram alone

A photo on Instagram has to make someone stop scrolling. A product photo has a different job, because it has to help someone decide. So every piece needs a photo on a model from the front and from the back, a close-up of the fabric or a detail, a clear photo of the piece on its own, and one photo of it being worn in real life. Put the model's height and the size they're wearing in the caption, because that answers a lot of the fit question before anyone opens the size chart.

Keep the product page in mind while you plan the shoot. On a phone the first photo sits right above the buy button, so it has to work at that size. Look at it on a real phone before you choose.

We don't do the photography ourselves, but we do give you photo guidelines, so your photographer knows what each page needs.

6. Plan the first drop as an event

A first drop works better when it feels like a real moment. So give it a date, and start collecting email addresses well before that, even if your list is short in the beginning. Tell the people on your list what's coming, how many pieces there are, and when it opens.

Then make sure everything is ready the morning it opens: the stock is live, the size charts are filled in, and it's clear until what time orders ship the same day.

After the drop, wait until people have worn the pieces before you ask for a review. A review that mentions someone's size and height is a real help to the next buyer.

7. Decide where you sell

Your own Shopify store is where your brand story, your emails and your customer data come together, and that's what you keep building on. Marketplaces like bol.com and Etsy can bring extra reach. Which one comes first depends on your product and where your brand is.

We build Shopify stores, so you know where we stand. If you'd like to weigh up both sides, I wrote a separate article about it: Selling online as an independent fashion brand.

A short path you can follow

• Your niche sentence: who's buying, when they'd wear it, why yours.

• A first collection of a few pieces done well, with variants planned.

• The business basics: KVK, domain, payments, returns.

• A Shopify store with size charts and filters.

• Product page photos with the model's size.

• One first drop with a date, sent to your email list.

• Reviews once the pieces have been worn, then the next drop.