T-shirts are not just an element of everyday clothing, they are the clothes that show our personal qualities, interests and individuality.
Selling T-shirts online has become popular, especially among entrepreneurs and artists looking for a relatively inexpensive way to start their own business . In addition, analysts report that the global market turnover in this area will exceed $10 billion by 2025.
Obviously, this growth in popularity of T-shirt sales brings with it fierce competition in the market. But by creating a brand for a specific target audience and developing T-shirt designs that will be in demand among buyers, you can succeed.
In this article, you will learn how to start an online t-shirt business that will generate extra income in the long run.
How to Start an Online T-Shirt Business Step by Step
1. Choose a niche
The right niche will help your online t-shirt business stand out and reach the right target audience faster without breaking the bank.
One of the most important components of a successful t-shirt business model is the ability to stand out, and one of the best ways to do this is to target a specific audience or interest group (niche).
Typically, niches like "t-shirts for people who like funny slogans" will be too broad for such a business to be noticeable in the market. You need to choose a more narrow focus. An example of a more specific niche would be t-shirts with funny slogans for doctors and nurses, or for dog owners, as shown below.
Photo by ThinkPup
There are many ways to find and analyze a niche. Here are the ones we recommend using first:
- Visit Reddit pages in your intended niche and assess the number of subscribers and level of interest.
- Use Facebook's Audience Insights tool to estimate the size of your niche on the social network.
- Browse Wikipedia's list of popular hobbies.
- Consider your own preferences and the communities that interest you - sometimes it pays to trust your intuition.
Once you have narrowed down your niche, create a business plan for your business that outlines your goals and includes the various channels and methods for selling custom t-shirts. Then think about how you can put that plan into practice.
2. Find a supplier of quality T-shirts
The next important step is to find suppliers. Not all t-shirts are created equal, and not all designs are created equal. Quality is paramount to your brand and its success, so it is important to research suppliers deeply and choose your t-shirts wisely.
When you start an online t-shirt business, it can be tempting to sacrifice quality for higher profits. But consider how quality will impact a customer's decision to talk about your brand and buy from you again.
Choosing a quality t-shirt involves several factors, including fit, size, material, softness, and weight. For example, a great place to start when choosing a t-shirt is by checking out T-Shirt Magazine. There you will see current and popular printed t-shirts.
Once you have decided on specific models, we strongly recommend ordering samples. This way, you can see the product visually and make an informed final decision about its quality.
3. Create your own t-shirt design
The next thing you need to do is come up with a design. Here are the easiest ways to help you create t-shirt designs.
Finding the best selling designs and niches
If you are stuck in searching for a niche and ideas for t-shirt designs, then the first thing to do is to look at what is selling well at the moment.
Below is a list of pages from some of the leading graphic marketplaces. You can use their "best sellers" and "most popular" sections to find designs that sell well. This will help you better understand the market and decide on a niche and design for your t-shirts.
- Zazzle
- Redbubble
- SnorgTees
- Selling T-shirts on Kickstarter
You can also use Google Trends to see what topics people are currently interested in. You might get some creative ideas for your online t-shirt business.
Looking for an experienced designer
Once you have an idea for a t-shirt design, you will need to design it. If you have Adobe Photoshop or a similar image editing program, you can easily create some great designs yourself. However, if you are not very skilled in this area, you will need to enlist the help of a professional.
There are many tools and marketplaces you can use to find the right graphic designer.
Participation in design communities
Dribbble is a community for designers. Find the style you want, write to the designers you like and offer them a collaboration.
Behance is a great platform that you might find useful. There you will see portfolios of different designers from all over the world who specialize in illustrations, niches, styles and more. If you like a designer, you can simply contact them and get a consultation on custom t-shirt designs.
Online freelance exchanges
There are other options you can try. These are popular freelance networks such as Freelancer and Upwork. You can quickly find qualified designers, check out their past work successes and portfolios. If you like someone, you can contact them directly on the platform and hire them right away.
Purchasing ready-made t-shirt designs
If for some reason you are having trouble finding a designer to start your online t-shirt business, you can always buy ready-made designs. Keep in mind that if you decide to go this route, there is a good chance that other people are already selling the same design. This will make it difficult for your t-shirt business to stand out from the competition.
Here are the most popular sites for selling ready-made t-shirt designs:
- Designious: Sells vector packs and PNG t-shirt designs, as well as clip art to create your own products.
- Tshirt Factory: Offers a variety of vector images (from old school and punk rave to street style) for t-shirt printing businesses.
- Creative Market: Not exclusively a t-shirt site, but home to over 3 million unique fonts, graphics, themes, photos, and templates designed by independent creators from around the world.
- Graphic River: Here you can buy and sell (or trade) Photoshop files, vectors and icon sets for your t-shirt designs.
4. Modeling original T-shirts
Once you have selected a few design options, the next step is to create mockups. Mockups are necessary so that your customers can see what the final design will look like when printed on a t-shirt.
There are several ways to get an example of the final t-shirt design, including ordering samples or shooting the product yourself, or, given the abundance of t-shirt mockups and templates online, creating a 100% digital mockup, as shown below.
The most common are t-shirt templates created in Adobe Photoshop. Most Photoshop layouts allow you to change the color of the shirt and apply your own design, which will be displayed taking into account the folds, creases, and contours of the shirt.
Here are some resources to help you create t-shirt designs:
If Adobe Photoshop isn't for you, you can use web-based mockup programs with similar functionality. This will free you from having to download and learn Photoshop.
Another great option for such tasks is to ask someone on Fiverr for help. There you can easily find the t-shirt designs you need.
5. Checking the effectiveness of a business plan for selling T-shirts
Before investing big money in a new business idea, you need to make sure that your product is in demand in the market and the design is relevant to buyers. There are many ways you can check this and start selling t-shirts online.
The most common methods for testing your design ideas are:
- Personal social media. Post some of your design ideas on your Facebook profile, niche Facebook groups, Twitter, and other social media that your friends and potential customers frequent. Don't focus all your attention on reviews from friends and family, as they will be trying to support you and may not be entirely objective.
- Reddit: This is one of the best places to get honest feedback on your designs (by the way, posting on Reddit can even lead to instant sales). With countless subreddits, it’s easy to find a target niche of potential customers and directly ask them for their opinion on your design before it launches.
- Crowdfunding. Crowdfunding sites have made it much easier to test, validate, and attract investors for your new business idea. Launching a crowdfunding campaign can be time-consuming and requires a lot of preparation. However, the benefits can be huge, including fully funding your project before it even starts. If you have an original t-shirt business idea (say, matching t-shirts for dogs and their owners), crowdfunding may be the perfect option.
- Print on demand. Integrate a print on demand service to check how popular your prints are. With e-commerce platforms like Shopify, you can create a fully functional online store and integrate a print on demand app into it.
6. Create your own online store
Now that you have your t-shirt designs, mocked up mockups, and tested your business idea, it's time to open your store.
There are several print-on-demand t-shirt services that you can integrate with your Shopify store so you can start accepting orders in no time. These services will process orders, print, and ship the t-shirts to your customers on behalf of your store.
With such services, there is no need to purchase or store any inventory, which makes the work much easier. The most important thing is that you can use your design on other products, such as cups or bags.
A variety of t-shirts are available from the following print on demand companies:
For more information on print on demand, check out this article: Print on Demand: A Low-Risk Way to Sell T-Shirts, Books, and More on Demand.
5 Important Points for a Successful Online T-Shirt Business
Of course, the numerous tools and technologies that exist, as well as the established printing and delivery of T-shirts, make starting a business relatively easy. But the challenge lies in creating a brand that will help you stand out from the competition.
The combination of high competition and low profit margins makes running a t-shirt business much more challenging than it might seem at first glance.
If you want to design and sell t-shirts online, you need to choose the right tactics from the start.
There are several critical points involved in starting a successful online t-shirt business. Each of these should be carefully considered before moving forward:
- T-shirt Printing Techniques: There are many different ways to print designs on t-shirts. Choosing the right one will help you save money and make a smart decision.
- Design: Most people who buy colorful t-shirts are looking for designs, graphics, and slogans that express their opinions and personality.
- Quality: To build a long-term business, the quality of the t-shirts and the quality of the printing must be top notch.
- Brand: A reliable and interesting brand is vital in this area.
- Inventory: You have two options: manage your own warehouse to take advantage of volume discounts, or use print-on-demand services to save time and effort.
Let's take a closer look at each factor.
1. T-shirt printing technique
There are three main printing methods. Each technique has its pros and cons, and the decision about which one to use will depend in part on how much time you want to spend creating the product and which printing partner you choose.
Below, we've outlined all three options for printing on t-shirts so you can better understand the process. Whether you buy your own printer or use a local supplier, it's worth knowing how each printing method works.
Screen printing
Photo courtesy of Printful
Screen printing is an old technique that has stood the test of time for online and in-store t-shirt business owners.
As one of the most popular methods of printing on t-shirts, screen printing allows you to get durable and long-lasting designs. If you want to expand your product line, it also allows you to print on items such as canvas, mugs, hats, and more.
The labor-intensive process of this printing technique means that it is more cost-effective for larger volumes. Screen printing is also not optimal for complex designs or designs that use more than five colors, as each additional color increases the cost and production time.
Pros:
- Cost effective for large print runs.
- Discounts for large volumes.
Cons:
- Additional costs if the design contains many different colors.
- Only simple images and patterns can be printed.
Thermal printing
Photo courtesy of Transfer Express
Thermal transfer printing has been around for a long time and comes in several varieties. You may have come across thermal transfer paper at your local office supply store.
While this method makes it easy to print out a design from your home computer and transfer it with an iron, it is not suitable for running a small business.
A more advanced type of thermal printing is called "plastisol printing" and is printed by professional printing houses on special high-quality thermal paper.
The advantage of heat transfer printing is that you can pre-order a stack of prints from a local print shop and transfer them to t-shirts as orders come in using a commercial heat press.
The thermal transfer system allows for the relatively easy and quick application of full-color images onto T-shirts.
Pros:
- You can apply the design to t-shirts as new orders come in.
- Convenient for small batches.
- There are no restrictions on the range of colors that can be used in printing.
Cons:
- Lower quality and less durable than other types of printing.
- Large initial cost for a thermal transfer machine (ranging from several hundred dollars to several thousand).
- Applying the design yourself means additional time costs.
Direct to Garnet Technology (DTG)
Photo courtesy of Anajet
The direct printing process works in the same way as a home inkjet printer. It is a common type of T-shirt printing equipment because it prints ink directly onto the T-shirt and can produce multi-colored images with high accuracy.
Direct printing provides print quality on par with screen printing and better than heat transfer. It works like an inkjet printer, unlike screen printing, which eliminates additional costs. This means that direct printing is easy and cost-effective for small orders.
The main disadvantage of direct printing is that there is no volume discount for large orders, as each t-shirt takes the same amount of time to print.
Pros:
- Unlimited color choices.
- High precision of details in printed design.
- Great for small orders or test runs.
- There are no costs for equipment installation.
Cons:
- Not economically viable for large production volumes.
- There are generally no volume discounts.
2. Design
The last thing a customer wants to see in your catalog is a copy of a T-shirt design they saw at another store. Your design doesn't have to be complicated - many of the best-selling T-shirts have very simple prints. But the design should be relevant to your audience and stand out from the competition.
To ensure quality printing for your online t-shirt business, your design files should have a minimum resolution of 300 pixels per inch (dpi or ppi), a transparent background, and fit within the printable area of the t-shirt. Keep in mind that the exact specifications will vary depending on the printer and printing technology used.
3. Quality
The next most important factor in an online t-shirt business that is set up for long-term success is quality. You may disappoint someone once, but there will be no second chance because the customer will not come back. A design that fades and cracks, or a t-shirt that quickly rips, will not attract raving fans who will buy from you again.
Higher quality t-shirts may cost more, but you can set your prices higher. The quality of your t-shirt will depend on the material of the t-shirt, the printing technique used, and the proper preparation of the design application.
Photo courtesy of Nuvango
4. Brand
Having a strong brand is essential when starting an online t-shirt business. Your brand is the promise that ties together all your decisions, including niche, design, and quality. Creating a unique and compelling brand is essential in a highly competitive industry.
With more choices available to shoppers, it is critical for eCommerce businesses to have a differentiating feature to grab their attention.
If you've chosen a niche for your t-shirt business that represents a certain lifestyle, then you can use this in your marketing and website to appeal to your target audience, like in the anime/streetwear example from Imouri.
5. Commodity stocks
Most people who start an online t-shirt business either buy and hold inventory, taking advantage of wholesale prices and local printers, or use print-on-demand services to avoid having to worry about shipping or managing a warehouse. But you can do both at the same time.
Having your own inventory for your business allows you to sell it personally and potentially increase your profit margin, while with print on demand you have much less risk. Weigh the pros and cons before choosing the right option. If you can’t decide now, then try print on demand first – it is one of the best business ideas with low cash costs.
Dropshipping is a business model that is very easy for new small business owners to get started with. With a service like Printful, you can easily test out your t-shirt designs.
Of course, if you have the means to do so, you can also invest in your own printer and have a production facility at your fingertips.
Example of a successful online business selling t-shirts
Many entrepreneurs have found success in the t-shirt business. For example, Ryan McCarthy, founder of Imouri (formerly known as Sugoi Shirts ), has been using Shopify to run his anime t-shirt printing business since 2016.
Ryan decided to start his own t-shirt printing business after he couldn't find anime-inspired clothing that matched his personal style. He started small and thought it would be a small clothing business. Unexpectedly for Ryan, his business turned into a six-figure business selling Japanese pop culture and anime-inspired streetwear.
Want to know the secret to successfully launching your own clothing line? He carefully selected the best clothing designs early on, used Reddit and paid ads to test the product. You can learn his best tips for a t-shirt business on the Shopify Masters podcast.
Start your own t-shirt business now!
With the rise of online retail, it has become much easier to express your creative side. Whatever niche you choose, however ambitious you decide to be with quality and design, a T-shirt shop is a great online business start-up for aspiring entrepreneurs.
The good news is that creating and launching a new t-shirt brand on Shopify can be inexpensive and quick. If you already have designs you want to sell, you can set up a store in no time.
With a large selection of apps in the Shopify App Store, you can connect your store to a t-shirt printing service in minutes to get a functional store ready to print and ship orders.
Frequently Asked Questions About Online T-Shirt Business
How profitable is it to run a t-shirt business?
How much start-up capital do you need to start a t-shirt business?
How to Start a T-Shirt Business?
- Research the market and visit different communities of interest.
- Come up with a name for your company.
- Create a company logo and set up an online store.
- Create your own t-shirt design.
- Create personal accounts on popular social networks.
- Run paid advertising for your website.
- Run your own promotions with famous bloggers.