How To Start A Successful Online T-SHIRT Business

Nowadays, T-shirts aren’t merely a staple casual wear but are clothing business articles that reflect our personalities, identities, and interests. An increasing number of people are looking for stylish T-shirts with unique designs. As a result, the online T-shirt business is becoming increasingly popular. This low-investment business option can be a great way to exercise your creativity and earn some bucks.

Starting an online business can appear daunting, especially if it’s your first time. Whether you want to start an online T-shirt business as a side gig or a full-time business, you need to know the basics. But do not worry! This article will explain in simple terms the steps that need to be followed to launch an online T-shirt store.

Step-By-Step Guide To Start An Online T-Shirt Business

For starting an online T-shirt business, you need to follow these nine easy steps given below:

Choose Your Niche

You need to choose your niche to stand out as a t-shirt brand. It allows you to cater to a specific audience, group, or interest. Devote some time towards researching and then choose your niche. It’s always better to tap into an unexplored place, as there will be little competition.

Listed below are a few ways you can find and evaluate your niche –

• Look up your prospective niche’s subreddits. It will help you to evaluate the level of engagement and subscriber count.

• To understand the size of your prospective niche on Facebook, you can try using Facebook’s Audience Insights tool.

Choose Your Business Name

Pick a unique, professional, memorable business name to make your T-shirt store stand out from competitors. The title should adequately hint at your business type, and don’t keep it vague. Your business name will also guide you while creating a logo, a website, business cards, and other branded assets.

Once the business name is chosen, check for a website domain that aligns perfectly with your business. You can also use this name to create various social media accounts.

Read Also – How to Create a Free Business Email

Register Your Business

Whether you intend your online shirt business to be full-time or a side hustle, you must register your business as an LLC or a sole proprietorship. If you register your online shirt business as an LLC, you will get more tax benefits.

Depending on your state, this registration process will cost anywhere from $50 to $100. You must also be familiar with your state’s legal requirements for running a business.

Select The Right Printing Method

The fourth step to starting your T-shirt business online is to choose the correct T-shirt printing method. There are several ways to print t-shirts, from in-house production via screen printing to direct-to-garment techniques to heat transfer.

If you’ve to work with materials yourself, you must purchase screen printing equipment for your office or home. The upfront cost of such a machine will be high, but it will yield higher profits, too, since you’ll need to pay only upkeep costs.

You can also find local businesses that provide screen printing services. Not to mention, this will cost you a decent amount of money. You can also avail of on-demand printing services. On-demand printing services are popular since they allow T-shirt businesses to skip screen printing and in-house production. However, these services are usually expensive.

Read Also – How To Sell Photos Online

Design The T-shirts

Your t-shirt designs are critical for the success of your T-shirt online selling business. To be ahead of the competition, come up with unique T-shirt designs. Be creative. Think out of the box and make your T-shirt online selling business quickly scale the heights of success.

It would be best if you also kept in mind your niche and the interests of your target audience. You can hire local designers if you lack confidence in your creative abilities. You can also visit freelance platforms like Fiverr and Upwork and liaise with freelance designers. You can brainstorm T-shirt design ideas by scrolling Pinterest or other online stores selling t-shirts.

To ensure the best quality print, your design files should have a transparent background and be large enough to cover the t-shirt’s print area. However, the exact specifications might differ depending on the printing technique and the type of printer used.

Gauze Interest In Your T-shirt Designs

Once you’ve assembled a few designs, you need to verify whether your designs are attracting genuine public interest. You can conduct an email survey or post your designs on various social media accounts.

You can also validate your T-shirt designs by seeking genuine, unbiased feedback with the help of crowdfunding sites or with Reddit – a popular online discussion platform.

Choose A Sales Channel For Your Business

It would be best if you chose a sales channel before you’re ready to sell. When it comes to selling T-shirts online, there are many options to choose from, and you can make your own online T-shirt store.

You can also sell via third-party sellers such as Etsy, Redbubble, and Zazzle. You can also sell on Amazon or any social media platform, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. You can either use one or more than one sales channel.

Set Up Your Online T-shirt Store

The last step to starting a T-shirt business online is to set up your online T-shirt store. In this age of digitization, you need to have a solid online presence. For this, you need to have a professional-looking website. To build a website for your online t-shirt business, you can use any of the best e-commerce platforms. Shopivana is one such handy eCommerce website builder platform.

Shopivana’s no-coding feature will help you to build a fantastic website in no time. You must choose a template from their endless list of pre-designed templates per your business requirements.

Moreover, Shopivana’s plans are incredibly affordable. The self-managed plan costs just $85/year. This plan includes all features that Shopivana offers at such a low rate. The other two plans, which Shopivana manages, cost $85/per year and $254.9/per year, respectively.

Shopivana allows you to handle inquiries, orders, payments, and everything from their admin panel. It also has an integrated payment gateway and shipping options.

Market Your T-shirt Business

Marketing a fledgling business might be difficult. But don’t worry, there are several low-cost options to do it. You can upload high-quality pictures of your t-shirts on various social media platforms for sale. You can also approach micro-influencers who usually charge lower rates to market your products. If you have adequate funds, you can also throw a launch party and offer attractive discounts.

Conclusion

Launching an online T-shirt business is one of the most creative, exciting, and accessible ways to start your journey as an entrepreneur. Now that you’ve gone through this article, you’ve surely got an idea of where to start. Now, all that needs to be done is confidently take your first step.