If you have a desire to make money from home, you have a variety of opportunities available to you. One particularly effective way to do this is to sell t-shirts online. The market for niche t-shirts is large and growing, especially as more people become aware of how cool retro designs can be. If you are looking for ways to make extra cash, you can sell t-shirts online for a profit. In this article, we’ll discuss the basics of selling t-shirts online.
The Basics
Make Money Online by Selling T-Shirts – The Basics
To successfully sell t-shirts online, you will need to have your own shopify store. Having your own shopify store will give you the flexibility to add designs, add products, and most importantly, make changes instantly – no matter what the size of the order is.
If you are completely new to online commerce, setting up a shopify store is straightforward and requires little to no upfront investment – other than your time. It is a well-established fact that the Shopify community is extremely active and supportive, and with the help of this active community, you will have your own store up and running in no time at all – even if you have never done so yourself. The best part? You can use Shopify’s hosted checkout solution, which takes the stress out of shopping and payments (and let’s be honest, who isn’t stressed about those?) – perfect for someone looking to make extra cash flow without much effort.
Designs
Depending on how fast you can produce a good design, you can profit considerably from selling t-shirts online. If you are looking for some inspiration, you can browse through the designs of others who have taken the time to create something unique and worthwhile. Finding a good design is easy, and as long as you follow the generic steps involved in designing a t-shirt, you will be able to come up with something unique and effective. Using a free online tool like Design Sponge is a great way to get inspired, and once you are, it’s just a matter of taking your time and creating something that will make the customers smile too.
Collections
If you have a large collection of t-shirts that you have either created yourself or bought from other designers, you can put together a collection that will be worth selling. It is better to sell a collection rather than individual shirts, as customers often have multiple shirts they want to purchase – thus, increasing your sales. When selling a collection, choose a design that will represent the whole collection and make each shirt easy to pinpoint in the event of a miss-match. If you are wondering what kind of collections are most profitable, retro designs are always a good bet. The fact that people love retro designs and can find multiple items in their collection makes it easy for you to off-price them if the market for a specific design is low – or even non-existent. An example of this would be the collection of t-shirts designed by the late, great Stan Lee of Marvel fame. If you ever wanted to try your hand at designing, creating a collection and then marketing it to existing and potential customers is the perfect way to start. What’s more is you can always sell themed collections in the future if you decide this is a path you want to follow.
Shirts
Selling shirts online is relatively simple, and you can do this using any well-designed t-shirt as a base. Before you begin, you will need to establish the price for the shirt and make sure you are at least an average seller on eBay to ensure you get paid what you’re worth. As a general rule of thumb, make sure the design you choose is representative of what you will offer. A t-shirt that features an image of a cat will not do well in the marketplace, no matter how clever the design is – the simple fact that it is a cat image will deter buyers for the simple reason that there are already too many shirts like that out there. If you want to create a market for your shirt designs, invest in some great quality swimmers, hoodies, and tank tops so that when customers purchase them, they know exactly what they are getting and won’t be dissapointed. When it comes to making money online, simplicity is key.
Selling T-Shirts Online
If you have a specific t-shirt design that you feel is just right for the marketplace, go ahead and create a shopify store to put it up for sale. When you have your own shopify store, you have access to a variety of features that can make the process of selling easier – and more profitable. Using tools like Shopify’s built-in analytics and conversion optimization tools is the key to ensuring you make the most of your store when marketing to potential customers. For instance, if you notice your product photography is taking up a lot of server bandwidth, you can use tools like CloudFlare’s free caching service to cache your product photos to give them a quick download whenever a customer visits your site. Similarly, you can use tools like Optimizely to test different copy and design elements to see which one performs best.
Sell Global
If you are looking to get started with Shopify and want to test the waters of selling internationally, you can use Shopify’s built-in localization tools to set your prices and tax rates according to your target audience. By setting the prices and tax rates according to your target audience, you will ensure you are only charging people what you think they are worth and not more simply because you are in another country. Using tools like Shopify’s built-in analytics ensures you can track your sales and determine which markets are profitable and which aren’t – so you can focus your efforts and resources where they are most needed. This is something you cannot do if you manually input your sales to compare the overall performance of your business – regardless of whether you are physically in another country or another dimension.
Sale Or Give Away?
Once you have your own shopify store up and running, you will have the option of either keeping the t-shirts you make for sale or giving them away for free as part of a promotional campaign. In order to maximize your profits and minimize your losses, it’s essential to understand the difference between these two options and what each one entails. The first decision you need to make is whether you want to sell individual t-shirts or create a collection and then sell those as a group – i.e. do you want to sell each shirt individually or put them together in a pack and then list them as a single product for sale? The former is much simpler, as you will only be charged once for the whole lot, and you will not have the burden of trying to match each shirt to a customer individually. The latter is more involved, as you will be charged per shirt and have to track each one individually – yet, the overall profit can be substantial.
Either way, Shopify has you covered. In terms of keeping your money, you can use their built-in payment processor to accept payments from customers – or you can even set up a separate business bank account to ensure you keep all your hard-earned cash. In terms of free t-shirts, you can put them on your blog or social media accounts to gain some free marketing – or you can use tools like Sumo to gain even more traction and make your free t-shirts go farther. Free t-shirts are always a good idea, as long as you have an interested audience – especially if you can get them to click on a link, like this one, that will take them to your shopify store so they can make purchase.
The Bottom Line
Selling t-shirts online can be a profitable venture, as long as you create designs customers want and are able to find multiple items in their collections. If you are looking for ways to make a quick buck, you can start by creating a small collection of designs and then try to sell them individually or in small packs to existing and potential customers. You can use tools like Shopify to get your small business up and running in no time at all – and with very little investment of money and time. There are plenty of opportunities to make a buck online, and with minimal effort, you can build a profitable business that can allow you to work remotely and provide you with the flexibility to take care of your family as you see fit. Whether you are looking for a way to supplement your income or want to turn your hobby into a full-time endeavor, you can use tools like Shopify to make it happen.