Becoming popular in 1950, but until now, T-shirts are still a favorite outfit of many people. Besides, the emergence of personalization trends makes custom t-shirts more and more popular. It's not hard to see that whether current or future, the custom T-shirt printing market is still a lucrative industry.
According to the report conducted by Grand view research, the market size of global custom t-shirt printing reached USD 3.64 billion in 2020. It is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.7% from 2021 to 2028. That as many as 2 billion t-shirts are sold worldwide every year. In fact, 62% of Americans have more than 10 t-shirts.
Start selling custom t-shirts, what's better than that you can make money at home. But many people fluctuate when deciding to start selling or not because they don’t know how to do it. Therefore, we want to introduce the simplest way to start an online t-shirt business at home. And at the end of this article, in-depth knowledge will be given through a list of free ebooks for T-shirt business owners.
Perhaps when starting a t-shirt business from home, people will be wondering how much it will cost and whether they have enough money to pay for it. An article about The Startup Costs For Printing Business will give you the answer.
And now let's explore what you need to do to start a t-shirt business at home.
Find your t-shirt target market
Gone are the days when businesses focused on products, today the entire activities of businesses revolve around customers, from what to produce, where to distribute, what advertising messages …
One failure when not focusing on the customer can be mentioned by RJ Reynolds, who introduced beneficial smokeless cigarettes but forgot that their customers used the tobacco because of the smoke.
Focus on your customers and sell what they need. But before that, you have to know who your customers are and what they need. How To Find A Good Niche In Printing Business contains specific instructions so you can find the best market for you.
Setup your online store
Once you determine who will buy your t-shirt, you can find the channels to sell your t-shirt such as using your website, and your shop on the marketplace as Shopify, and Teespring,... Or you can use the Omni-channels approach to optimize the customer experience in multi-channels and manage customer relationships better.
Whether you using the Omni-channel approach or not, you should build a website first.
Build your online T-shirt store
It's so much better when you have your own website to sell, this allows you to build a better brand and your customers will not be lost to another store like on marketplaces. To own a website you can build it yourself (in case you have coding knowledge), otherwise hire a business, that will help you build the best sales website.
Whether you do it yourself or hire it, keep in mind that a website with a product designer tool like a T-shirt website solution can be very helpful when it allows your customers to customize their products. It's not a normal web to print software, you can take advantage to offer a personalized experience for your customers. Your customers can create their designs by uploading images, adding text, clipart, or adjusting templates.
To get the most authentic feel, you can try our T shirt solution DEMO version. It is full of features so you can get a complete experience of our solution.
Create your shop on Shopify, Teespring, and Esty,...
If you don’t have the resources to own a website, you can create an online shop on marketplaces such as Shopify, Teespring,... The process takes a minute. But it has one thing that is not convenient, Shopify and Teespring aren’t included product designer tools to permit your customer to customize their product. Unfortunately, I have to tell you that product personalization is really important.
Refer to the basic guide to creating a shop on Shopify and Teespring.
How to Create Your Own Shopify Store in Less than 15 Minutes (Sep 2022)
Quick start guide to Teespring
Find the T-shirt providers
Do you know Toyota - The second biggest car brand in the global? Product quality is one of the factors to contribute the success of Toyota today.
Now, do you know what you need to do to ensure the quality of your products? Let's start with the input materials.
Find materials providers
If you want to make your own t-shirts at home, it seems that you will have to invest a lot in materials such as ink, t-shirts, and printing equipment.
Choosing a supplier can take time to learn and evaluate the quality of raw materials as well as the reputation of the supplier. But it let you find the best provider. You can find local material suppliers, and build a good relationship with them to guarantee a stable supply.
Find POD providers
If you are going to try print on demand, then the problem is much simpler, you just need to choose print on demand provider and connect to them. Many reputable print-on-demand providers on the market you can connect such as Printful, Printify, Teelaunch, and JetPrint,...
Publish your custom T-Shirt designs
You can’t start a t-shirt business from home with a popular design. Make a unique design and attract your customer.
Design it yourself
Quality will be what makes customers continue to buy and stick with you but the new design is what makes customers decide to buy the first time. If customers decide to buy as soon as they see the t-shirt, then your t-shirt design is already a success. But how do design t-shirts to attract customers? Understanding customer needs and exploring top tee shirt design ideas is essential.
One thing we want to keep in mind is the t-shirt copyright, no one wants to get involved in an expensive and time-consuming lawsuit, so learn carefully how to avoid t shirt copyright infringement before starting to design custom t-shirts.
Permit your customer to do it
Your customer will thank you because of the authorization to personalize the product. Integrate product designer tools to strengthen your website. You can upload your templates and allow customers to customize designs right on your website, of course, they are also allowed to upload their own designs.
Easy to use, available templates, huge stock of images, add clipart, and freehand drawing are the things that customers need to customize the product. If you want your online store to have many features like that, you can refer to some online designers such as NBdesigner or Printcart.
However, It is much simpler if you use T-shirt website software, It is an online printing solution with a built-in online designer. It's convenient that you don't need to search for design solution providers online anymore. So you can build a multi-featured website with just 1 click.
Once you have the designs, making some t-shirt mockups is essential, this allows you to check the quality of the product such as the fabric, color, and design are good or not, and may be adjusted before selling it to the market.
Connect to shipping and payment partners
Find local shipment and payment partners
Shipping and payment are factors that play an important role in customer satisfaction. 55% of customers abandon carts because extra costs are too high (including shipping fees, tax fees, and extra fees). Ensuring your customer can receive the order on time at an affordable cost before you lose them.
It will be better when you offer a wider range of choices on payment methods. Providing multiple different payment methods also makes checkout easy for your customers. They can choose the one that they want such as a digital wallet, or enter their credit or debit card details as they prefer to do.
POD provider’s responsibility
You will no longer have to worry too much about this problem if you sell through Shopify or Teespring. They will provide you with a list of partners for you to choose from. However, there may not include local payment partners and your customers will not like this.
Reach your target customers
In this step, you already start selling your t-shirt from home. Promoting your shop and getting money from it now.
Get on social media
Social media is where you can interact with your customers through posts on fan pages, and groups. The explosion of social media is a great opportunity for businesses to sell, now you can not only interact with customers through social media but also can sell your t-shirts on social media via the TikTokshop feature of TikTok or the Marketplace feature of Facebook.
You can follow some tips in this video to leverage social media to promote your t-shirt business.
SEO
SEO - Search engine optimization is a tool that helps your website appear at the top of search results when your customers search on search engines. The higher position, the higher traffic. You can get more opportunities to convert visitors to customers if you appear in a higher position. However, this task is not easy to do, you can start by learning the Best SEO Keyword Tips For Your T-Shirt Brand.
Google Ads
Google Adwords is a tool that allows you to display products at the top of search results pages by paying for advertising. You can set up your ad in minutes and your website is displayed on the first page of search results. You will not have to wait for results as long as SEO. However, this method is much more expensive.
You may want to refer to How to promote print on demand business.
In this video, the Owner gives some tips about starting a Tshirt Business base on his experience. I think you will be interested in it. Enjoy the video and get good advice.
If you want more professional information about starting T shirt business, I think you should consult the list of free ebooks below.
Free E-books for Tshirt Business
Ebook: How to do T-shirt business effectively in the industry 4.0
The first ebook that we want to introduce is one of the most downloaded E-books on CMSMART – “How to do T-shirt Business Effectively In Industry 4.0 Era”. With more than 200 downloads since it was released, the e-book provides an overview of t-shirt printing market, which gives you better insights into your t-shirt market. It also helps you build a smarter t-shirts business strategy by providing tips, tricks, steps to do it right, and Top trends related to T-shirt design that will rule supreme in the future.
What are people saying:
“This is a helpful and informative book which is suitable for anyone who is just starting a t-shirt printing business. Highly recommend!” - Selena Robert
“This e-book provides the basics to help you set up a website and how to promote your T-shirt business effectively.” – Christ Wilhelm
Ebook: Print on demand for beginners from A to Z
If you are planning to run a print-on-demand business and want to have in-depth knowledge of the sector, discover Print on demand for beginners from A to Z now.
The e-book is researched and synthesized based on the best quality articles based on Google's evaluation of the Print on demand topic, from the process to create your print on demand store from scratch to how much you earn with this business and other helpful information that beginners might need.
What are people saying:
"I'm comfortable with this basic guide. This book is very well written and the instructions are very detailed and organized." - Mark O'Kelly
"The book is beautifully designed, with pretty relevant illustrations, so it looks like it would be great for both newbies in the field of Print on demand and experienced people who want more tips or inspiration." - Paul Jones
Ebook: How to design a t-shirt: the ultimate guide
No matter what your reason for creating an amazing t-shirt design is, you just need to follow the fundamental rules on How to design a t-shirt: the ultimate guide here to keep you on track as you implement your t-shirt design.
This ultimate guide will reveal everything you need to know about handy t-shirt design tips, which are written especially for creative entrepreneurs and creative enterprises. We will run through 8 steps of the design process, from the inception of an idea to getting your t-shirt done.
What are people saying:
“Found this Ebook on the internet accidentally and I was impressed by all these tips they gave me. There is a lot of things that I haven’t know before reading this ebook. It managed to surpass my expectations and I would say it totally and completely blew my mind. Recommend to anyone.” – Lynn Do
“I enjoyed the information presented in this ebook. As a beginner, it helped me a lot. I would like to recommend it to everyone” – Floral Nguyen
Ebook: T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity
The T-Shirts and Suits ebook doesn't only give you the guide to starting a t-shirt business. It focuses on the creativity of business. How to be creative, how to protect your creation, and how to do business with creativity. All of them will be answered in this book.
What are people saying:
“A very useful and stimulating book, and a much-needed companion for would-be entrepreneurs in the creative industries.” Dag Kjelsaas Hotvedt
“More than just a great read, T-Shirts and Suits is a valuable tool for anyone embarking on, or surviving, business in the creative sector.” Diane Earles.
Ebook: The Ultimate Guide To Marketing Your T-Shirt Business
Not as the other e-books we listed, this book focuses on promotion for business, you can find new ways to market your business, find new markets, and sell more. Some important tips are given at the end of this book. This book is about the experience of the author in forty-four years in the printing industry. Experience, knowledge, and the secret to going success are also shared by the author.
What are people saying:
“If you are thinking about or planning on marketing a T-shirt business this book will save you a lot of time, money and frustration. I strongly recommend this book.” Christopher Allen
“Excellent detailed info on all aspects of marketing a t shirt business, good advice for a novice in the t shirt business or other businesses as well.” Kristy McCarthy
Ebook: Starting a Custom Apparel Business T-shirt business ebook
This book is really a great choice for beginners without knowledge of this industry. The author describes the definitions in a simple way that is easy to understand. Each step will have specific examples as well as advice that the author wants to send to readers.
What are people saying:
“I think it is written for me, the manual with the sample is easy to understand and very knowledgable author. This book has very good information for someone who is begging for sure.” Karen Moore
“There is enough detail, honesty, and insight to build a foundation of what is expected of you in this business. Upon completion, it's more than substantial for beginners looking for more information on how to start their own apparel business.” Kevin Carlin
Smsmart accompanies your business development
Back to the question How to start a t-shirt business from home? I think you have found the answer by now. But we want you to remember that to get money, focusing on your customer is necessary.
From choosing the niche, setting up an online store, finding the providers, designing t-shirts, mating shipping, and payment partners to promote your shop, all of them are not easy. If you face any difficulty in starting a t-shirt business from home, make a request. We will respond immediately with useful information.
CMSMART's team of experts understands the intricacies of global e-commerce and can provide valuable guidance on expanding into new markets. We have extensive knowledge of popular international marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Alibaba,...and more. By leveraging our expertise, businesses can effectively list and promote their products on these platforms, reaching a wider audience and increasing your sales potential. In addition to international marketplaces, CMSMART also assists businesses in exploring various sales channels. This includes setting up and optimizing your own e-commerce websites, integrating with popular shopping cart platforms, and implementing multi-channel selling strategies. CMSMART's goal is to help businesses diversify your sales channels and maximize your revenue streams.
By partnering with CMSMART, businesses can benefit from our deep industry knowledge, innovative solutions, and dedicated support. Contact us now, businesses can confidently expand your e-commerce presence, gain a competitive edge in the international market, and achieve long-term success.
D.Garp
With a deep understanding of market dynamics, consumer behavior, and industry best practices, Mr. Garp brings valuable insights and strategic guidance to his clients. He possesses a comprehensive knowledge of e-commerce platforms, technologies, and trends, allowing him to provide tailored solutions that drive business growth and maximize online potential.
Mr. Garp excels at analyzing client needs, identifying opportunities, and formulating effective strategies to enhance online presence, increase conversions, and optimize the customer journey. His data-driven approach and attention to detail enable him to develop comprehensive e-commerce strategies that deliver measurable results.
As a Senior Ecommerce Consultant, Mr. Garp is adept at working closely with clients to understand their unique requirements, challenges, and goals. He collaborates with cross-functional teams to implement e-commerce solutions that align with business objectives and deliver exceptional user experiences.
Beyond his technical expertise, Mr. Garp possesses excellent communication and interpersonal skills. He is known for his ability to effectively communicate complex concepts, build rapport with stakeholders, and foster strong client relationships. He takes a client-centric approach, ensuring that solutions are tailored to meet their specific needs and objectives.
With his extensive knowledge, strategic mindset, and dedication to client success, Mr. D Garp is a valuable asset for businesses seeking to establish or optimize their e-commerce presence. His guidance and insights help clients navigate the ever-evolving e-commerce landscape and achieve sustainable growth in the digital marketplace.
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Thanks a lot for the awesome content. Hope I will Follow your mentioned things and implement those in my company. But is there any possibility to create a e-commerce like thing for app development companies. I am sharing my domain so you can check once and let me know. Domain - https://enterprise.affle.com/mobile-app-development. Thanks a again for this awesome topic, hope to learn more.