T-shirts are forever; they reflect your personality and speak about your style. They feel smoother, lighter, comfortable, and meant for many people. T-shirts are our personal storyboard or our exclusive canvas through which we can express our thoughts and ideas to the world. Apart from being comfortable, they are a glamorous and great wear for different occasions.
Considering all these facts, starting an online t-shirt business can be a great idea, particularly for those who have a creative mindset and a gist to become self-reliant.
Undoubtedly, there is a neck-to-neck competition, and you need to think out of the box to make your startup a success.
You have to begin with thorough market research and align your offering to a specific category of customers such as teenagers, youngsters, or oldies. Let’s take a dive through all the steps of starting an online tees business to build an extra income stream.
6 Tips on How to Start Online T-Shirt Business from Home
1. Choose a Niche
Having a niche will help you understand your audience and serve them better. Your choice of fabric, designs, patterns, and other preferences must be aligned to that particular set of customers. Market research will help you know what your competitors are doing, and you will serve your customers with exclusive offerings.
You can browse through well-established online stores and brainstorm creative ideas to bring something exclusive to the table. Alternatively, if you think that you need to explore an untapped area, bring your concept to life by collaborating with a merch maker for high-quality designs. For more details, check out how to make merch with Printify and see what difference you can make to the highly competitive industry.
2. Design Your Custom T-Shirts
To make your business stand out, you will need to come up with great t-shirt designs. Study your audience to know what they prefer the most and then start with finalizing a few designs. Get them printed and see how they are performing in the market. Take note of designs that are able to attract the most customers.
You need to consider the design and print quality to ensure that you are getting premium services. Next, you need to analyze the printing pricing packages, compare them, and pick the most affordable one. Nevertheless, make sure you are not compromising the design and print quality at any cost.
3. Source Your Product
Now it’s time to decide where you are going to source your t-shirts. Having a one-to-one conversation with design companies and asking all relevant questions will help you figure out the best provider. Make sure to pick premium stuff for your t-shirts, considering your budget. If you select a cheap material, it will rip off or shrink after a few washes, leaving a negative impact on customers.
Any sort of undesirable reviews will influence your business reputation, and you will find it difficult to regain fame. So it’s good to stock with high-quality products, built to last for longer. This way, you can gain an excellent market reputation and a chance to attract more customers.
4. Print Your T-shirts
By this moment, everything is in its shape, and the t-shirts are all set to get through the final stage - printing. Again, as mentioned in the beginning, you need to partner with a good, well-established merch maker to get high-quality prints. Selecting a premium print service provider will save your designs from fading or cracking over time after a few washes.
Before you enter the final contract with your custom merchandise partner, make sure that it is capable of delivering huge quantities when demand surges in the future. Also, ensure that you collaborate with the right provider who can deliver on time to enable you to meet your customer’s demands and expectations.
5. Set a Suitable Price
Last, yet a very important aspect of your online t-shirts business is the pricing. The price mechanism is something that greatly impacts your sales by attracting more customers. You need to consider your design, manufacture, and printing costs altogether for finally setting up a price that can earn you a decent ROI.
For example, you purchase 20 units for $200 and have spent $400 for printing them in a single design. Considering this, you paid $10 on manufacturing per unit and $20 on printing one t-shirt; so, your per t-shirt cost amounts to $30 per unit. Now you can decide if you would like to sell at $50 per unit or more.
6. Choose a Business Model
If you want to reach a global audience, then the dropshipping business model is the best model to get started. It’s a simple and cheap way to sell internationally. Now when you are ready with your plan and business strategy, the next and final step is to build your online presence.
Having a website to showcase and sell your t-shirts is all you need to launch your product. Keep your website responsive so that it is accessible over different screen sizes, including laptops, desktops, smartphones, or tablets.
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