How To Sell Graphic Tees?
Recently I saw a lot of babes wanting to know how to start their own custom clothing and accessories store. Are you in the same boat?
Do you want to sell graphic tees but now sure where to begin?
Do you want to sell branded mugs and have them shipped directly to your customers without you having to do anything?
Before we jump into how to get started, let's talk about WHY it's a good idea.
If you someone who's running a service based business, having tangible products branded just for you, help you spread the word about your business and give your customers or clients something to remember you with.
Example - My biz partner and bizbestie Bri run her girlgang website iamatrendsetter.com where she not only provides services for babes, but she also has tangible products that share her passion for helping girl bosses and other business babes.
Here’s another example - Jodie is a Life, Biz & Health Coach at coachmissjodie.com mentoring women to live their best life and become the best version of themselves. While she has her coaching programs, she’s also added a Swag Store where she sells branded Tanktops, Mugs & Headbands. Check out her store here.
Adding custom products helps you to share what you are passionate about and adds an extra stream of passive income which can be automated with just a few clicks so you can focus more on your business and less on other things like order processing or shipping (more about that below). After all who doesn't love some extra money coming in?!
Now that you know why it's a good idea to have tangible products on your website designed to suit your brand, let's talk about HOW to do it!
Having come across so many babes wanting to get started and put their ideas into reality, I thought of creating a mini-guide that would help you kick start and understand the process a little better.
How To Sell Graphic Tees?
How do you start your own custom clothing/merch line without pre-ordering goods BUT instead having them sent to your customers directly everytime they order?
The concept is called Print On Demand Dropshipping.
Dropshipping is a retail method where you piggyback over your supplier's inventory, sell them on your website and every time you make a sell, have them ship the order directly to your customers without you having to do anything. Interesting isn't it?
If you know me or have heard/read my blogs you know I'm a hugee fan of this concept because it's not only helped me start my own business but also start my own clothing line MysticalBerries.
Printful is a print on demand supplier that allows you to create your own custom design store selling anything from clothing to merch and accessories.
Why Printful?
Ease of usage. Printful allows you to upload your designs, sync them with your website and every time you make a sale, the order gets automatically processed. All you have to do is focus on marketing and creating brand awareness.
Not only this, you can also order samples at a discounted rate so you can check the quality of the product before you start your own store.
Let’s talk Cost!
Now that you know HOW to start your own Graphic Tee Store.. let’s talk COST!!
One of the major concerns I’ve come across from people is wondering how much it’ll cost to get started. Let’s break it down…
To start your own T-shirt Boutique you’ll need to following -
Domain Name
Your website url for the store. You can grab one from godaddy.com for approx $20 for 1 year or namecheap for $8.88 for 1st year.
E-Commerce Platform
Though this is based entirely on what platform you opt for, if you going for marketplace like Etsy, it cost is 0.20c per listing (at the time of writing this blog) for 40 days.
Uploading & selling 10 T-shirts on Etsy per month will cost you - $2
Selling on Website - I prefer to use Shopify as it automatically picks up the product from Printful & also has an automatic fulfillment option thereby creating a automatic running boutique so you can focus on other aspects like designing & marketing.
Shopify cost - $29 for a basic store.
Product Photography or Mock Ups
You can take product pictures using Smartphones however, for that you’ll have to order each & every design in store. If you planning to skip that step, you can still have beautiful product photographs on your website by investing in Mock Ups.
You can either purchase a mock up bundle like this one from Creative Market for a one time cost of $32 or sign up for PlaceIt at $14.95/month & get access to unlimited mock up designs.
Ordering Samples
Printful provides you with an option to order sample designs in order to check out the product quality & print at 20% off (currently not doing because of COVID).
Basic Order Sample Cost - $50
Other variable costs -
Other variable costs for a graphic tee store includes -
Website Designing
Purchasing graphics or hiring someone to design them for you
Marketing & Promotion Cost
Considering the above cost breakdown, selling with Shopify would cost you less than $100 not including the variable cost.
So… Are you ready to start your own Custom Clothing Online Boutique store?
Grab the step by step guide by entering your details below to get started today...
What's your favorite graphic tee store? Share them in the comments below!
PS - If you want a more hands on help with your Graphic Tee store, check out the
Launch Your Swag Store Masterclass
where I walk you through the exact STEPS on getting started & launching your boutique. You’ll have your store up & running in a weekend!